Where do you want to get your dopamine from?

Dopamine is a chemical released in our brain that makes us feel good. We like feeling good, so we seek out and repeat actions that produce dopamine. Think about eating sweets, having sex, or buying your new favorite shoes on sale, they all trigger a dopamine release. 

Capitalism knows this. Social media knows this. They use this to get our attention, and it works. 

This is why we keep our phone at hand, even when we might want to be focusing on something else: so we can keep getting those hits of dopamine. But when we give our attention away to our phone, we take it away from our lives. 

Good news: we also get dopamine from accomplishments. 

I’ve made a conscious choice to seek more of my dopamine from the actions I take in my life. For example, I replaced checking my phone first thing in the morning with making my bed. It actually worked. I still enjoy phone time first thing in the morning once a week, but the other 6 days I’m usually stoked to make my bed and get on with my morning routine, sans phone.

What might you want to intentionally seek dopamine for? How would your life be different if you got the hit from an accomplishment that can only come from focus?