Stop chasing cheap dopamine.
That Netflix series you are watching?
The sweets you keep eating?
The 20 minutes you spend scrolling social media?
The hyper-stimulating video games you play?
All those things ruin your ability to stay motivated.
Here’s why:
Dopamine works like a detection system.
When it’s very high, you won’t feel like doing anything else — except the thing that gives you dopamine.
When you are eating chocolate, you won’t be motivated to eat broccoli.
Simple.
It’s supposed to guide you to activities that help you survive.
It worked….2000 years ago.
But now?
You’re screwed.
Multi-billion dollar companies spend millions of dollars to keep you glued to their product.
The price for cheap dopamine?
Your dream life.
Remember that the next time you choose pleasure over progress.
2. Do things you truly care about.
Harsh truth:
You don’t burn out because you are working too much.
Burnout is not physical.
It’s emotional.
It’s your body telling you that you are doing rubbish you don’t care about.
The most motivated people I know?
They don’t even think about motivation.
They just do what truly matters to them.
They don’t wake up wondering how to get motivated.
They’re already moving — because the work lights them up.
How can you compete with someone who doesn’t treat work like work but like play?
You can’t.
You will lose every single time.
That person will outwork you and won’t even feel the difference.
Find the work that feels like play to you and work to others.
That’s where your advantage is.
Here’s I quote I absolutely adore.
Tim Cook during his commencement address at Tulane University in May 2019:
“There is a saying that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. At Apple, I learned that is a total crock. You will work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands.”
3. Work with people you like and admire.
Life is short.
Very short.
The average human lifespan is 4000 weeks.
4000 weeks and you are gone.
That’s from birth to your death.
You’ve already used up some of them.
Don’t waste your time on working with people you don’t like, respect and admire.
The biggest companies in the world, become the biggest companies because they create a culture of winning.
Winners motivate other winners to do better.
Choosing your environment so that you have people who motivate you and bring out the best in you is a guaranteed way of succeeding in your pursuit.
If you can’t do it physically, start digitally(groups, social media creators, communities). Build your own circle.
4. Reward yourself for taking action, not results.
If you have big goals, they will take time to achieve.
Want to build the body of your dreams?
Earn 10,000$ per month?
Buy that penthouse in the city centre?
Move to a different country?
Start a business?
All those things can be yours, but they take time.
But it’ll take 3,5, maybe even 7 years.
Are you really going to wait years to feel good?
Do you think you have what it takes to work 7 years like a mule?
I highly doubt it.
If you only reward yourself when you hit the result, you’ll quit.
You must reward action.
Otherwise, you’ll never last.
From now on:
Reward yourself for actions brining you closer to your goals.
This way you don’t live a terrible life for 6 years only to have one day of satisfaction.
You have 6 years of living your best life pursuing your goals.
The journey becomes the focus not the goal.
And by focusing on the journey you achieve your goals.
5. Visualise your dream life.
If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there.
A ships without a destination is going to get thrown into different, random places by the ocean.
The universe never reward vagueness. („I want to have a better job”)
It only responds to specificity. („I want to have the position of a sales executive at [company name]”)
Visualise with me right now.
Read one line at a time. Close your eyes. See it. Then go to the next.
Imagine that anything is possible.
The world will give you whatever you choose.
What does the body of your dreams look like?
How does your skin look like?
What sort of clothes do you wear?
Where do you live?
Who do you date?
What work do you do?
How much money do you earn?
How does your apartment/house look like?
What can you do for the people that you love?
How do you feel?
How do you talk?
Build your vision.
Hold it.
Protect it.
You will receive everything you ask for.
But without asking you will just drift where the wind of life takes you.
If you kept reading and didn’t do that step, that’s why you keep losing and feeling like a failure.
That’s why the people you compete with will beat you.
They’ll win.
Not because they’re smarter.
But because they see the destination.
———————————————————————
Momentum is the strongest force in the world.
If you start — it gets easier to continue.
Use these steps.
Build momentum.
Create your dream life.
You’re not lazy.
You’re uninspired.
Let’s change that.
Stay sharp,
Adrian
