How to hack your brain to crave doing hard things.
⛽ Dopamine is fuel for motivation.
🔥 We have 2 furnaces for burning motivation.
☯️ The furnace of waste and the furnace of purpose.
🗑️ When we act to feel good with no long term benefit, we burn our dopamine in the furnace of waste.
🏔️ When we act toward future benefit, we burn our fuel in the furnace of purpose.
5 steps manage dopamine
- 👀 Awareness. Account for our 2 furnaces.
- ✂️ Elimination. Systematically rid your life of shallow pleasures that get in the way of your long term purpose.
- ⏳ Timing. Dopamine is highest in the morning. Spend dopamine on hard, intentional activity before the frivolous. Work on the most important thing for at least 5 minutes every morning.
- 🏆 Rewards. Still have fun. But be measured. Fun after (or during) hard work is more sustainable than the opposite. A little fun here and there avoids dilution.
- 😌 Recovery. Don’t burn out. Rest a little at the end of each day and a little more at the end of each week.