Set Your Dopamine

Set Your Dopamine

Over the past couple of years, I have been studying the effects of dopamine. People believe managing dopamine will be your golden ticket to unstoppable motivation. I have not found that to be true. However, I have implemented 3 simple tricks into my daily life to help manage my dopamine and increase my motivation. Let’s dive in. disclaimer I am not a scientist and do not know anything about science.

3 Dopamine Tricks To Implement Today

Set Your Dopamine

I believe one of the worst activities you can do in the morning is wake up and scroll through TikTok, Instagram, or some other high dopamine activity. That is because throughout the day you start to build up a tolerance towards dopamine. When you wake up and engage with cheap dopamine you lose motivation, focus, and discipline to accomplish the real work that needs to be done. Try avoiding cheap dopamine at all costs but especially in the morning, you will thank yourself in the afternoon.

Avoid Cheap Dopamine

But what is cheap dopamine? It is simply any form of dopamine that does not require work. Dopamine is a reward mechanism in our brain but we are living in a world where we get “rewarded” for doing nothing. Cheap dopamine will kill your desire to work, create, and dream. Instead, challenge yourself to work for your dopamine. Exercise is the best example of this. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete a workout, that is expensive dopamine and expensive dopamine will lead you down a better path than cheap dopamine.

Leverage your dopamine

Lastly, leverage your dopamine. Dopamine is released in dozens of different ways. It can be released through solving a problem, achieving a goal, or physical fitness, but one of my favorite ways it is released is by experiencing novelty. I challenge you this week to search for novelty. This can be searching for new ideas, rearranging your room, or taking a meeting not at your desk. Search for novelty and see what you can find.

These are three tricks that I think about often and have seriously improved my motivation. However, at the end of the day, we can do everything humanly possible to stay motivated but motivation will fade. It always does. That is when your discipline has to kick in. The work has to get done whether you feel like it or not. You owe it to yourself, to your dreams, and to your tribe to achieve what you have set out to achieve. Go out and make a difference. The world needs it.

Go out. Make a Difference.