Dopamine’s Motivational Tools
Common lore says dopamine is the molecule of pleasure, but it is not. Dopamine is the molecule of wanting more. Dopamine is responsible for the anticipation and excitement of what life will be like to achieve something. To remain vigilant toward our goals, we need dopamine to continue to work for us. Recognizing the tenuous relationship between the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine and the tenacity it takes to keep progressing could help you better achieve goals.
Although I hate weight loss as a goal, it is the most popular one in the world — so let’s say that’s your goal as an example. Dopamine is responsible for the vision of your future-self doing the things you want to do when you achieve your ideal size. It is also responsible for maximizing resources for success. Dopamine is a powerful “drug”. Whenever you achieve something that gets you closer to where you want to go, you get a “hit” of dopamine, which makes you want to do more of that thing.
On the flip side, let’s say you’re doing all the things you’re supposed to do -- exercise, eat right, make sacrifices of all kinds to live healthier -- then dopamine’s enthusiasm beckons a weigh-in, where you’re expecting a couple-pound loss, but alas, you are the same weight as last week!
Such disappointment could cost your motivation to continue. This is called reward (negative) prediction error. When you get less than you expect, your dopamine not only dumps, it dumps below baseline. When your dopamine dumps below baseline, your brain percieves this as pain. And pain, for most people, is avoided at all cost. Most of us prioritize not being in pain, even if it means making unhealthy choices for our future self.
Solutions to alleviate the pain, in our scenario, might be anything from completely calling it quits to calling for pizza delivery. Neither of which will support you in your goal of weight loss.
So how do we use dopamine to our advantage in order to stay motivated? There are two excellent methods to accomplish this. One is to plan for obstacles. If you know there is a chance you’ll weigh the same this week as last, you’re less likely to get a negative reward prediction error. Not to say you should expect not to reach your goal, but being prepared for that to happen diminishes your chance of dopamine dropping below baseline, causing you to make choices that are detrimental to success.
Another excellent way to fool the pain of disappontment is to set several subjective and objective baby-step goals so that even if you do not see weight loss you might see added strength, or you might feel better getting up off the ground, or you might be sleeping better, or you might notice more confidence in your work relationships. The feelings of success from these achievements is the dopamine hit that makes you want to keep doing what you’re doing, even if you’re not seeing weight loss.
Recognizing that pain is a normal physiological interpretation to the disappointment of not receiving the reward for all your hard work will help you find ways resist poor choices to alleviate the pain. Dopamine, the molecule of wanting more, helps you set and reach goals and with proper planning, you can use it to your advantage for staying the course.
Andrea Bowden, MS is a freelance writer and an “exercise therapist,” helping people make exercise a reasonable choice for better mental, physical and cognitive health in their real life.
