Dopamine Detox Quotes

Trick #3—excitement is not the same thing as fulfillment

Here’s my point. The world is working against you. There will always be someone trying to grab your attention. As such, you have two choices. You can protect your focus by building habits and systems, or you can remain unprepared and let anyone distract you from the important things you should be doing with your time.

Dopamine and constant stimulation can impair your ability to think long term

Reflect on your life When we’re constantly busy and overstimulated, we sometimes fail to take a step back. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Use your dopamine detox as a way to zoom out. To do so: Reflect on your goals. What goals are you pursuing? Are they the right ones for you? Are you making progress toward them each day? And if you keep doing what you’re doing, will you reach them? Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing? Self-reflect. Are you where you want to be in life? What inner work could you do to improve yourself?

Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.

Identify your biggest temptations and/or distractions and write them down on the sheet of paper. Then, make sure you put the sheet in a prominent position.

Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is the ability to think long term. People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present. They tend to eat healthier food, be more productive at work and save and invest more money than others.

Social media notifications are a great example of how your brain is being hijacked. Whenever you see a notification, you anticipate the reward you’ll receive when clicking on it, which triggers the release of dopamine in your brain. However, this doesn’t make you happy or fulfill you—at least not for long.

You are addicted to the dopamine reaction you feel when you get a hit of him. This is typical of a user who became hooked on a substance during a critical time of development, and now that addiction is woven into your nervous system. You’re well into your detox, and I am recommending no contact, which should be easy.” Dr. Judy laughed at that last comment, which stung.

The billionaire investor and former senior executive at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, argues that we must rewire our brain to focus on the long term, which starts by removing social media apps from our phones. In his words, such apps, “wire your brain for super-fast feedback.” By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail).

I believe that social media, and the internet as a whole, have negatively impacted our ability to both think long-term and to focus deeply on the task in front of us. It is no surprise, therefore, that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, prohibited his children from using phones or tablets—even though his business was to sell millions of them to his customers! The billionaire investor and former senior executive at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, argues that we must rewire our brain to focus on the long term, which starts by removing social media apps from our phones. In his words, such apps, “wire your brain for super-fast feedback.” By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail). As we demand more and more stimulation, our focus is increasingly geared toward the short term and our vision of reality becomes distorted. This leads us to adopt inaccurate mental models such as: Success should come quickly and easily, or I don’t need to work hard to lose weight or make money. Ultimately, this erroneous concept distorts our vision of reality and our perception of time. We can feel jealous of people who seem to have achieved overnight success. We can even resent popular YouTubers. Even worse, we feel inadequate. It can lead us to think we are just not good enough, smart enough, or disciplined enough. Therefore, we feel the need to compensate by hustling harder. We have to hurry before we miss the opportunity. We have to find the secret that will help us become successful. And, in this frenetic race, we forget one of the most important values of all: patience. No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will. The point is, to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.

By giving words to your thoughts (or worries), you can address them more easily.

Contrary to what many people believe, dopamine is not a pleasure chemical. Simply because an event triggers the release of dopamine doesn’t mean it is something we like or get pleasure from. In fact, when you pay close attention, you’ll notice that as soon as you obtain the expected reward, you’ll often feel empty and unfulfilled.

Remember, what you do first thing in the morning matters far more than you think. Just one tiny decision can have a dramatic effect on your day’s productivity.

No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will.

Make unwanted behaviors harder to engage in by adding friction. Make desired behaves easier to engage in by reducing friction. Implement a simple morning routine to calm your mind and start your day with a low level of stimulation.

By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail).

The point is, to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.

Now, its founder, Jeff Bezos, could probably have made profits earlier, but, instead, he decided to reinvest in his business to create strong foundations that, he hoped, would enable Amazon to survive for decades. I encourage you to do the same in your personal and professional life. Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.

For instance, to facilitate writing in the morning, I avoid checking my phone or my emails and leave my word processor open. Then, I often put on relaxing music and use a timer (I like to do 45-minute work sessions). By doing so, I’ve removed friction and obtained the buy-in from my mind. It wouldn’t make sense if I suddenly stopped the music, paused the timer, and moved on to another activity. My mind would see it as a waste of energy. Of course, I may still procrastinate, but removing friction and creating a simple routine reduces the chances of me doing so.

Dopamine and constant stimulation can impair your ability to think long term Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is the ability to think long term. People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present. They tend to eat healthier food, be more productive at work and save and invest more money than others.

today’s society is designed to hijack your dopamine neurotransmitters.

You can think of dopamine as the “molecule of more”. This is because the more our environment or actions trigger the release of dopamine, the more we’ll want our next “shot” of dopamine. In fact, this self-reinforcing mechanism is also how many addictions work.

addictions are not just limited to drug or alcohol consumption. In truth, many activities can become somewhat addictive, for example: Gambling Sex Shopping Thoughts/rumination Video games Exercise (to extreme) Work

The brain’s reward system and the circuits that control eating behavior are the same ones that respond to drugs of abuse,” but, unlike sugar, “drugs of abuse seem to hijack those systems and turn off their normal controls.

Take notes During your dopamine detox, I encourage you to take notes. If you feel restless, write it down. If you experience an urge to check your phone or to watch videos, write this down too. That way, you’ll be able to identify your biggest sources of stimulation and learn more about the way your brain works.

In many aspects, today’s society is designed to hijack your dopamine neurotransmitters. And, unfortunately, this is not designed in your best interest, it is designed to empty your wallet as effectively and thoroughly as possible.

Now that you’ve received your dose of stimulation, you can work, right? But what happens when you sit at your desk to work on an important project? Does it come easy, or do you feel like doing everything else but working? Perhaps you tell yourself you can work on that particular task later. Perhaps you suddenly fancy another cup of coffee or perhaps you just remembered the email you need to answer.

Using your action guide, rate yourself for each of the following tricks on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 meaning you don’t fall for that trap, 10 meaning it described your situation perfectly). Trick #1—My mind convinces me going back to work is easy. Trick #2—My mind tells me I can do it later. Trick #3—My mind makes me believe that excitement is similar to fulfillment. Trick #4—My mind tells me opportunities are limited.

Action step Using your action guide, write down which type of dopamine detox you want to implement right now.

To sum up, from an evolutionary perspective, dopamine’s role is to encourage you to act to earn the anticipated reward needed for your survival or reproduction. This is dopamine’s primary role.

Reflect on your goals. What goals are you pursuing? Are they the right ones for you? Are you making progress toward them each day? And if you keep doing what you’re doing, will you reach them? Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing?

You must develop the art of patience and consistency. To do so, eliminate the distractions that make you feel restless. Remove the external stimulations that prevent you from focusing on the long-term picture.

People

Focus, Consistency, and Impact. 1. Focus is your ability to maintain your concentration and avoid distraction or procrastination while working on your tasks. 2. Consistency means developing the habit of working on your key tasks every day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. 3. Impact means identifying your key tasks (the ones that have the greatest impact on your long-term success) and working on them as often as possible. Productivity can then be defined as having consistent focus on your most impactful tasks. Now, let’s see what you can do specifically to stay focused on your most important task each day.

Experiments have shown that the combination of sugar and fat is especially

Finally, our never-ending search for stimulation is often an attempt to hide our fears. Being busy enables us to avoid having to face unpleasant feelings and scary truths about ourselves.

Nowadays more than ever, the ability to attract people’s attention is one of the biggest sources of income for many companies. In short, your focus is worth a lot of money, which is why YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram do everything they can to keep you glued to your screen.

Nowadays more than ever, the ability to attract people’s attention is one of the biggest sources of income for many companies. In short, your focus is worth a lot of money, which is why YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram do everything they can to keep you glued to your screen. However, your focus is also worth a lot of money to you.

You can choose to control your focus, or you can let someone else take it away from you.

Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is the ability to think long term. People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present.

Social media companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram know that the more time you spend on their platforms, the more money they make through advertising.

Sugar releases dopamine in the reward centre of the brain, similar to abusive drugs. 

the “flow” is a mental state in which you’re so fully immersed in an activity that you become hyper-focused, while experiencing a sense of underlying enjoyment).

Remember, dopamine is not a pleasure chemical; it is a neurotransmitter that is activated when you anticipate a potential pleasure. And that pleasure is usually temporary.

accomplish,

Under such a state of stimulation, any task that requires concentration becomes much harder to perform. As a result, you will procrastinate. You delay writing that book you’ve always planned. You put off starting that new venture, or you’ll postpone that key project you’re in charge of.

To sum up, from an evolutionary perspective, dopamine’s role is to encourage you to act to earn the anticipated reward needed for your survival or reproduction. This is dopamine’s primary role. Unfortunately, in today’s world, the process has been hijacked, which leads to many unintended consequences,

Dopamine gives us the desire to take action to earn the exciting reward that’s waiting for us. It is the force that makes us act.

By continuously triggering the release of dopamine through different means—such as drug or alcohol consumption—addicts actually strengthen their tolerance to such stimulation. As a result, they need stronger and stronger stimulus to experience the same sensation of pleasure.

Dopamine

The key to productivity can be summarized in three words: Focus, Consistency, and Impact.

As soon as you enter a state of overstimulation, your mind will play tricks on you to convince you there is no need to leave that “trance”. Instead, your mind encourages you to embrace it and seek even more stimulation. After all, we have to enjoy life, right?

Remember, excitement isn’t fulfillment.

How much did I actually benefit from watching YouTube videos, scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, or checking my emails repeatedly? In hindsight, was the time spent in a meaningful way? Did it enhance the quality of your life?

to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.

Whenever you check your email, you’re expecting a reward, which could be a message from a friend or some exciting news. Whenever you check stats, such as investment portfolio, or website traffic stats, you expect a reward from seeing encouraging numbers. And the unpredictability makes it more exciting. Whenever you visit YouTube, you expect to watch interesting or exciting videos. Whenever you visit social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you’re anticipating rewards such as likes or comments on your posts, messages from friends or interesting content.

Even worse, we feel inadequate. It can lead us to think we are just not good enough, smart enough, or disciplined enough. Therefore, we feel the need to compensate by hustling harder. We have to hurry before we miss the opportunity.

By continuously triggering the release of dopamine through different means—such as drug or alcohol consumption—addicts actually strengthen their tolerance to such stimulation.

This is where the food industry comes in. In this industry, marketers spend millions to encourage us to buy their products. They discovered that, by adding sugar (among other things), they can not only make the food more palatable, but they make us crave more. For this reason, if you look at the list of ingredients contained in any processed food, you’ll find sugar in most of them.

In today’s world, maintaining focus has become incredibly difficult. That’s because everybody is vying for our attention. And I’m not just talking about our family members, friends, or colleagues. I’m also talking about marketers, YouTubers, or bloggers. Nowadays more than ever, the ability to attract people’s attention is one of the biggest sources of income for many companies. In short, your focus is worth a lot of money, which is why YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram do everything they can to keep you glued to your screen.

Generally speaking, the harder something is to access, the less likely you are to do it and vice-versa. This is why you must redesign your environment to make undesirable behaviors more difficult to engage in while making more desirable behaviors easier to conduct. Look at the habits or activities you want to eliminate and ask yourself how you could add friction—the more friction, the better.

If you spend hours watching YouTube videos, install DF Tube on your Google Chrome navigator, or find a similar app for your internet browser. This will remove all the suggestions and notifications. Then, only watch videos that serve a specific purpose.

Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing?

Self-reflect. Are you where you want to be in life? What inner work could you do to improve yourself?

create a long-term vision. It could be a five- or ten-year plan. Of course, it won’t be perfect, but simply having an idea of the direction to follow will make a huge difference.

While there are thousands of books on productivity, only a few principles matter. I believe the most important one is to identify your key task and tackle it first thing in the morning—and do this consistently.

Choose a time and place where you’ll be tackling your major tasks each day. Then, practice doing it one day at a time, and you will gradually build your consistency and focus.

Decide what time you will focus on your key tasks. Then, make sure you’re at the same place at the same time each day. Choose a specific trigger to signal the start of your morning routine. Just get started. When you work on your tasks for a few minutes, you’ll be more likely to enter the flow and keep working longer. Eliminate any distractions (phone notifications, internet, et cetera), and Finally, work without interruption. Aim to complete forty-five minutes of uninterrupted work.

The world is working against you. There will always be someone trying to grab your attention. As such, you have two choices. You can protect your focus by building habits and systems, or you can remain unprepared and let anyone distract you from the important things you should be doing with your time.

Remember that excitement and fulfillment aren’t the same things. As you learn to eliminate external stimulations and immerse yourself in your work, hobbies, or relationships, you’ll experience a deeper sense of fulfillment and will feel much better. You will also end up becoming far more productive and accomplishing many of your goals and dreams.

Your focus is a scarce asset, which is why marketers spend billions of dollars to attract your attention.

To sum up, in order to implement a successful dopamine detox you should: Identify your biggest temptations and/or distractions and write them down on the sheet of paper. Then, make sure you put the sheet in a prominent position. Make unwanted behaviors harder to engage in by adding friction. Make desired behaves easier to engage in by reducing friction. Implement a simple morning routine to calm your mind and start your day with a low level of stimulation.

It seems as though we always want more and are never satisfied. And the more we seek stimulation, the worse it becomes.

The truth is that no amount of stimulation will ever bring you the sense of fulfillment you’re seeking. Yet, many of us are constantly overstimulated, looking for the next source that could trigger a release of dopamine. It seems as though we always want more and are never satisfied. And the more we seek stimulation, the worse it becomes.

instead of using the internet to find information or communicate with loved ones, the internet has become the one using you.

They discovered that, by adding sugar (among other things), they can not only make the food more palatable, but they make us crave more. For this reason, if you look at the list of ingredients contained in any processed food, you’ll find sugar in most of them.

Scientifically speaking, the term “dopamine detox” is incorrect as it seems to imply that you’re releasing too much dopamine into your system. In truth, when you’re overstimulated, you simply need more external stimuli for the same amount of dopamine to be released.

dopamine is not a pleasure chemical; it is a neurotransmitter that is activated when you anticipate a potential pleasure.

today’s society is designed to hijack your dopamine neurotransmitters. And, unfortunately, this is not designed in your best interest, it is designed to empty your wallet as effectively and thoroughly as possible. However, and more importantly, it dramatically erodes your ability to focus, making you feel restless and often bad about yourself. Overstimulated, you find yourself unable to do the difficult things that would have the greatest positive impact on your life and on the lives of people around you.

Using your action guide, follow the steps below to develop laser-sharp focus: Decide what time you will focus on your key tasks. Then, make sure you’re at the same place at the same time each day. Choose a specific trigger to signal the start of your morning routine. Just get started. When you work on your tasks for a few minutes, you’ll be more likely to enter the flow and keep working longer. Eliminate any distractions (phone notifications, internet, et cetera), and Finally, work without interruption. Aim to complete forty-five minutes of uninterrupted work.

When you’re engaging in highly stimulating activities, your brain will keep demanding more and more stimulation.

do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing? Self-reflect. Are you where you want to be in life? What inner work could you do to improve yourself?

to face unpleasant feelings and scary truths about ourselves. Thus, if you notice certain disempowering thoughts or underlying fears, write them down too.

Reflect on your goals. What goals are you pursuing? Are they the right ones for you? Are you making progress toward them each day? And if you keep doing what you’re doing, will you reach them? Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects

Productivity can then be defined as having consistent focus on your most impactful tasks.

Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco, asserts that sugar is addictive but on the same level as nicotine, not drugs like heroin.

once you’re overstimulated, you’ll find it difficult to go back to work.

I believe that social media, and the internet as a whole, have negatively impacted our ability to both think long-term and to focus deeply on the task in front of us. It is no surprise, therefore, that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, prohibited his children from using phones or tablets—even though his business was to sell millions of them to his customers!

I encourage you to do the same in your personal and professional life. Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.

Remember, long-term thinking is the “secret” to achieving your goals. But it won’t happen today or tomorrow. You must develop the art of patience and consistency. To do so, eliminate the distractions that make you feel restless. Remove the external stimulations that prevent you from focusing on the long-term picture. Then, you will stand a much better chance of ending up where you want to be in the coming years.

People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present. They tend to eat healthier food, be more productive at work and save and invest more money than others.

Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University concluded that long-time perspective, “was the most important determinant of financial and personal success in life.” He defined “long-time” as the “ability to think several years into the future while making decisions in the present.

Identify your biggest temptations and/or distractions and write them down on the sheet of paper. Then, make sure you put the sheet in a prominent position. Make unwanted behaviors harder to engage in by adding friction. Make desired behaves easier to engage in by reducing friction. Implement a simple morning routine to calm your mind and start your day with a low level of stimulation.

Reflect on your goals.

Self-reflect.

If I could complete only one task today before taking a month off, what would that task be?

Schedule one major task to work on each morning While there are thousands of books on productivity, only a few principles matter. I believe the most important one is to identify your key task and tackle it first thing in the morning—and do this consistently.

The key to productivity can be summarized in three words: Focus, Consistency, and Impact. 1. Focus is your ability to maintain your concentration and avoid distraction or procrastination while working on your tasks. 2. Consistency means developing the habit of working on your key tasks every day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. 3. Impact means identifying your key tasks (the ones that have the greatest impact on your long-term success) and working on them as often as possible. Productivity can then be defined as having consistent focus on your most impactful tasks.

excitement is not the same thing as fulfillment