This masterclass on dopamine from Andrew Huberman is incredibly valuable:
https://lnkd.in/denDQA5N
If I had to narrow it down, my two most important takeaways were:
1.) Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for motivation and focus.
You could almost say it’s a kind of “motivational fuel” that allows us to pursue our goals.
The more dopamine we have flowing internally, the more energy and focus we’ll have available to go after the things that matter most to us in life.
2.) Large dopamine spikes come with a short-term cost.
When we engage in highly stimulating or pleasurable activities, dopamine levels spike — but they are often followed by a temporary dip below baseline.
So you now have less available for the activity you do next.
This means that stacking highly pleasurable activities before important work can make it harder to engage deeply afterward.
In other words, if you take in something externally which gives you a lot of pleasure—before you work towards an important goal—it can make it harder to engage deeply with (and derive pleasure from) the process of your work.
Before learning this, I used to eat a large, very enjoyable breakfast before starting work in the morning.
Although it might have been technically healthy, it was also highly pleasurable, which meant I was depleting my dopamine supplies (and therefore motivation) before beginning my work.
I’ve since switched to a simpler breakfast of two eggs.
Not only is this easier to digest and keeps me going until lunchtime, it also means I’ve got more consistent levels of focus and motivation throughout the morning.
So, it’s worth asking…
Are there points in your day where you might be unnecessarily stacking stimulation before important work?
And is there anything you could do as an alternative, so that you have more dopamine available for what follows and a steadier motivational baseline?
