Maximize Your Motivation: Dopamine, Discipline, and Accepting Our Nature
We all have things we want to accomplish in life, but having goals or knowing we should be doing something is often not nearly enough to get us to actually sustain our efforts in getting where we want to go.
Today on Being Well, Rick Hanson and I explore how to optimize our motivation. We discuss the brain's dopamine system, and distinguish motivation from discipline and liking from wanting. We then explore how we can align the brain's underlying biological circuitry with our desires, so we can stay relaxed and engaged while achieving our goals.
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Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
2:05: Expanding our view of motivation and distinguishing from discipline
5:30: Why dont we just want the things we know are good for us?
11:00: Creating unity between our biology and cognitive processing
15:50: Neurological overview of motivation
21:30: Distinguishing liking from wanting
25:35: Natural variations in dopamine metabolism
28:55: How people with lower levels of dopamine can stay motivated
33:35: Updating the reward value of your experiences
37:20: Being, doing, and having
43:05: What has helped Rick stay diligent and let go of resistance
46:40: Practical how-tos for interacting with the dopaminurgic system
50:35: Letting fish be fish
52:30: Recap
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