Trying to find a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life can result in a more continuous and scalable form of pleasure throughout one's life, without constantly seeking out dopamine hits. Living for others or finding a reason for living can offer a sense of purpose and make us realize it's all worth it, even if it does not necessarily bring pleasure.
In this episode of the School of Greatness, host Louis Howes brings together top experts to explore how to unlock your inner greatness through the theme of setting up your dopamine system for motivation and focus.
The speaker talks about the importance of embracing mistakes and putting a process in place to break the loop of negative thoughts and build new neural pathways. It is important to understand one's higher purpose and connect with it to sustain change.
In this podcast, the speaker talks about the paradox of setting goals and ideals. While not having any ideals may deprive you of a main source of pleasure and motivation, setting up an ideal can judge you very harshly.
In this episode, the speaker shares their belief that music should be appreciated alone without seeing or knowing who the musicians are and without other people around. They also talk about noticing and avoiding psychic pain by asking the right questions.
Indulging in high-reward behaviors or substances can lead to down-regulating the brain's dopamine receptors and transmission, resulting in a dopamine deficit, similar to clinical depression, and leaving the person in an anhedonic state.