NEUROSCIENTIST - You Will NEVER Lose Motivation AGAIN!

let's learn how to work our Machinery a little bit I agree we don't in this culture teach people how to operate their mind and body how do you get motivated well one way to do that is if you are good at subjectively attaching dopamine to the pursuit just knowing okay I really am hungry for this I'm just I'm going to tell myself that you know making you know making it one percent of the way is a success and I'm going to keep going and I'm going to keep ratcheting on and then the other aspect of

it is that any time that we're leaning into action you know it has the the possibility of being an amplifying process or a depleting process and the key to that is making sure that you're balancing the dopamine and epinephrine systems we have to remember that this mechanism of dopamine and pathfinding to goals is in every animal humans dogs sheep so a grazing animal might be on a really Barren landscape they go some direction and they don't smell water which animals can do and so they Veer off course and then all of a sudden they get

a little bit of scent of water at that point that's when the dopamine is released not when they get the water and drink from it so that puts them in energy to get there you know you think about walking in the desert and you're just dying of thirst and all of a sudden you spot a big lake all of a sudden you will have the energy to run the remaining mile whereas before you thought you were gonna die how is that how is that it's not like more glycogen is suddenly available it's not like ketones

did it for you so what did it that's dopamine that's dopamine release that says there's a reward waiting for me now I would say finally in 2020 we finally as a field got a clear idea of how dopamine is really working if you can start to register ah that craving and that friction and that desire that almost kind of low level of agitation sometimes high level of agitation that is that I'm trying to impose my will on the world in a benevolent way we hope that's dopamine it's working with its close cousin which is epinephrine

which is adrenaline they are very close cause in fact dopamine manufactures epinephrine a lot of people don't know this but adrenaline is actually made from the molecule dopamines okay so those two are hanging out together it's like crave work crave work Craven work Craven work craving work and then you get the wind and some people allow the big peak in dopamine to be associated with the Wind and smart people learn to adjust their celebration internally right this is all internal you could throw the biggest party in the world but as long as you're kind of

laid back and and looking at this not letting yourself get manic crazy you won't necessarily crash as hard and pretty soon your system will reset so you take the day you clean up the dishes you relax you go what now I'm feeling a little low well rather than going out and spiking your dopamine again just wait understand that the scale will reset again give yourself a few days where you're going to feel a little kind of underwhelmed things aren't going to be as interesting it's going to be hard to trigger that big release because you

just had the peak well if you adjust that you relax you understand there's always a little bit of a postpartum depression we sometimes hear about postpartum depression that's a clinical thing but there's always that kind of today's not as exciting as a previous days what what am I going to do with my life but then if you let it start ratcheting up again then what you realize is your capacity to tap into dopamine as a motivator not just seeking dopamine rewards that is infinite and I I can say with with great certainty that this is

how you were able to build a big company and sell it how you've been able to build a successful podcast and sell it how you constantly seeking because seeking is the reward and I think for most people we think of the reward as the finish line and so the key is to get to the Finish Line step into the end zone but no end zone dance it's just like yep and now I'm gonna go do it again how we view the world is shaping the release of these chemicals and I do believe this happens when

we have positive thoughts we we get a lift if we if we can get a lift from our positive thoughts and then dopamine itself puts us in relationship with the outside world such that we view the outside world as having more possibility that is going to put us into forward momentum they're good there are a lot of studies to support that the the key with positive thinking it is that it has to be honest it it can't be I've already won you know I don't have an Olympic gold medal if I could tell myself I'm

going to get one tomorrow but I just don't have the skills so that's not going to release dopamine in my system the the key thing is that you can't just be all gas pedal all the time without rewarding yourself it's it's mental energy it's the it's the desire to push on it's the desire to keep going and we need some consistent dopamine hits throughout the days or our months to give us more energy to pursue that's right but we don't want to be over pursued because then we'll burn out that's right and so everyone has

to find where that sweet spot is there's a lot of interest these days in like habits and habit formation because when you move that Horizon and close and you complete something small it's not about what you completed it's the fact that you complete it the so one thing to understand is that dopamine release in the brain is always subjective there's no experience that that says uh that has unique domain over dopamine release that will only allow dopamine release so if it's very subjective so if I say to myself I'm going to um get into the

process of doing something we have a new year coming up so there will be a lot of resolution soon the it's not a if you attach the dopamine release to the process of effort or goal setting itself you'll have more energy to be an effort and then if you can attach dopamine release to the belief that you're at least heading in the right direction you'll have more energy to keep going in the right direction people make the mistake of thinking that positive thought process should be attached to the finish line it's not about thinking of

already one it's not about being delusional it's about thinking that your training is going to take you to the finish line and so it's about moving that mental Horizon in more close and more closely and then triggering some sort of positive internal representation of what you're doing meaning thinking positive and people this is usually where I get stopped and people say wait but it sounds so subjective tell me exactly how to do it but here's the thing I thought it's it's supposed to be subjective this is for you it's true yeah everyone needs to figure

out what allows them to continue to be in forward momentum what allows them to constrain the world of possibilities and to go after goals and how often to self-reward because but the key is the self-word because if you start only pursuing external rewards that's when you are no longer in control of your dopamine system [Music] make sure that that reward really bask in it really appreciate what you've done and what's come to you and but and here's a very important but is but take that feeling of being saturated with dopamine the huge win and attach

it to the effort process that got you there [Music] thank you [Music]