According to Halodoc, dopamine is a chemical in the brain that increases when a person experiences pleasant sensations. But it turns out that this substance also makes us lazy. How come?
Why are we so lazy to do hard things, especially those that have long-term benefits, even though we know precisely that these things will be useful for us in the future?
We prefer to spend time enjoying the "present". We are really lazy if we have to do things that we'll get the benefit later, even though the benefits are far more significant and meaningful than temporary pleasures in "present".
According to Andrew Kirby in his video below, it's because the brain is designed to encourage us to choose the things that produce the most dopamine for the brain, at the time, not later.
That's why we prefer to watch movies than study, eat tasty fast food than eat healthily, etc. Because those are the things that produce the most dopamine for us, at least at that time.
Well, actually, we can manipulate our brains, set it up to think that things like watching movies actually harm us later, and that the hard-but-beneficial things will benefit us later, so that we can produce much more dopamine.
For example, we will feel happy if we succeed in doing everything on our daily to-do list, right? If so, we will be much happier if our big goals and vision are achieved.
But before that, first, we must have a clear goal and vision, which we really want, and we are willing to work hard for it, because we want it, not our parents, friends, or the neighborhood.
It's really hard to find a goal like this. But once we find our purpose, it will be clearer what our life purpose is.
There is a trend called Dopamine Detox, which makes us lower our dopamine standards which are usually already very high.
Here is the concept: we've used all kinds of social media every day, and we don't feel satisfied even though we've been scrolling for hours. That's because our dopamine standards are already high, and it makes us hard to be satisfied.
Moreover, it's human nature that we can't be satisfied. We have to lower the standard, so we don't get too addicted to those things.
The trick is, we escape from social media or maybe even our phone, at least a few hours or a day. After that, our dopamine standards will definitely decrease, even if a little. For example, if we don't eat all day, just looking at ordinary food seems really delicious, right?
Do this every few days, and we will feel a little (or much more) relieved because it's no longer necessary to have to scroll through Instagram every minute.