Dopamine is what you need not motivation.
As one of my favorite authors Mel Robins said you live in a complete falsehood that at some point your gonna have the courage, that at some point you’re going to have the confidence but that is total bullshit and there are so many people in the world who have this incredible ideas and what you think is missing is motivation and that’s not true because the way that our brain works and the fact about human beings is that we are not designed to things that are not comfortable or scary or difficult, our brains are designed to protects us from those things because our brains are trying to keep us alive and in order to change in order to build a business to be the best parent or the spouse and all those things that you want to do with your life and work you gonna have to do things that are not comfortable, uncertain.
Motivation is garbage, you are only gonna feel motivated with the things are easy to be done. Your brain magnifies the risks to pull you away from doing something uncertain. I truly believe that we are one decision away from a totally different life, different marriage, different income, your life comes down to your decisions and if you change your decisions you will change everything.
Changing your life is simple but not easy. You have to FORCE yourself to do things that you don’t like such as getting early from bed, leaving the house, learning and getting shit done.
Totally agree with Mel, but if not motivation than what makes us do what we do? Dopamine!
Dopamine makes us want to overcome challenges in order to get a reward.
You know the feeling of satisfaction you experience when you solve a puzzle? The high you get when you struggle with a problem and finally resolve it? The pleasure you experience when people like and comment your photos that you posed for hours and another hour spent on editing? That “I-did-it” feeling? That is dopamine being released in your brain.
You get the point, work smart on things that bring you pleasure (dopamine). Take a minute or two on what gives you dopamine and what you are willing to struggle for at the end. Mine personally is building a startup that will help freelancers make a living from their services that they offer (which I`m working on currently). I will receive a great doze of dopamine when I see people succeed with the help of mine and my team.
I highly encourage you not to follow the universal dogmas and do your own research.
About the Author
Numi Musalieva, is an author at The Asian Entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Atom People Consulting. She previously worked for venture capital and big data companies and currently mentors startups at the largest accelerator program TechGarden KZ in Central Asia located in Kazakhstan. See more.
