Controlling dopamine for motivation, focus and satisfaction
This podcast was hosted by Dr. Andrew Huberman. Its a complete masterclass on dopamine.
Dopamine is the molecule that can actually make you go harder on a goal. imagine having unrelenting motivation and focus? how would your life would be if you go into life full throttle? That’s what dopamine does to you.
what is dopamine is actually?
Dopamine is neuromodulator not a neurotransmitter. neurotransmitters work between two neurons but neuromodulators can act between two neurons or a big bunch of neurons. Releasing dopamine in bulk is called readily ideal volumetric release.
Dopamine controls your drive, motivation, craving and time perception. It is a molecule of more. It can really drive you nuts, in both good way and a bad way.
How is does dopamine work then?
Dopamine is always present in your system. Its a popular myth that you can get a dopamine hits which is not true. Dopamine is always circulating in your body at some baseline level that varies person to person.
Dopamine is released from way back of your brain(ventral tegmentum) to front of brain(prefrontal cortex and ventral straitum).
When you do something you enjoy, dopamine ramps up above a baseline level to a peak. Duration of peak can varies from activity.
Chocolate increases your dopamine levels by 1.15 times. Sex twice the baseline(of course). And different drugs increase dopamine levels even more. but all these peaks are very short lived.
So why do we feel unmotivated if dopamine is always in our system?
Higher the peak bigger the crash to the baseline. Its very difficult to maintain a peak for long time. This why you probably might feel low few days after a really big achievement. You felt a high of dopamine peak now its coming crashing down.
Dopamine release system designed for you to go out and do things which are necessary for your survival. If you were in a constant euphoria you would suck at surviving.
When you layer too many things on a task to make it feel in the moment you lose satisfaction that comes from that task. Like listening to music while studying, having ton of pre workouts before gym. You might feel good in a moment because of dopamine peak but you’ll crash soon and exercising won’t bring you pleasure.
When you layer too many things to feel that feel good you need more of the stimulation than last time to feel the same peak. This is why we constantly feel unmotivated. We are used to layering of things too many things and we need more of it to feel good.
What can we do to keep our dopamine system healthy?
there are ton of things you can do to keep that dopamine system jacked up
1) Caffeine
Coffee doesn’t necessarily dopamine but it enhances the receptors. which can make hard things bit more pleasurable.
2) Intermittent dopamine fast
Try to limit layering of the things to feel good. That’s screwing up the whole system.
Instead try randomly layering things. Like if you’ve to workout don’t drink pre workout for 3 days take it on 4th day.
Don’t schedule it. You need bit of randomness to feel good.
3) cold showers
cold showers are one of those things that can give a sustained dopamine peak for a long time.
Cold exposure can increase your dopamine by 2.5 times(that’s more than sex!). Even if you’re adapted to cold.
4) Trying to enjoy the grunt work
If you follow any form of pomodoro technique which involves a reward at the end of the task. You’re making you’re task diffucult for no reason.
Rewards are almost useless for increasing the efficiency and enjoyment of the task.
You’ll need more of the reward next time to feel good next time. Plus, as you added an extended time frame the task will be more irritating for you.
Instead try enjoying the grunt. Which is easier said than done.
A simple technique would be saying to yourself over and over “This task sucks. I am in pain right now but I’ll feel good soon. Even though I hate it right now.”
This sounds like lying to yourself. Yes, it technically it is. It is true that you’ll start enjoying the task with greater satisfaction
This does sound bullshit, but it works really well. If you had take one thing from this post. Take this!
So here, is your mini guide to become invincible and go in life full throttle.