Edition #9

Hi All!

Here is your weekly serving of practical guidance and inspiration to ensure you live your life with purpose. Feel free to forward this along to friends and family. Enjoy!

I wanted to give a quick shout to the 19 amazing individuals who have joined us since last week. Thanks for being here and welcome to the Never Idle team!

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Master Your Mindset

Dopamine Done Right: The Art of Delayed Gratification

You sit there - snacking on chips while you scroll social media.

Mmm, that dopamine tastes good! You feel like you are rewarding yourself and yet when you finally stop yourself, you have no sense of accomplishment at all.

Why is that?

First, let’s break down what dopamine is and its important role in your body, and then I’ll show how to use dopamine the right way.

What is dopamine?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that sends messages through your nervous system.

It is responsible for many behaviors and functions in your body, the chief of which is the role it plays in how you feel pleasure.

It is released when your brain is expecting a reward. It can be from the actual activity itself or simply from the mere anticipation of the activity you are expecting the reward from.

It is far more complex but to keep it simple, think of it as the ‘feel good’ transmitter.

Dopamine, The Bad

The modern world has made it SOOO EASYY to obtain mental rewards that cheap, undeserved dopamine is floating around like an ocean of cotton candy — sweet and abundant, but lacking in substance and nutritional value.

Cheap dopamine can come in many forms such as:

• Excessive junk food

• Constantly browsing social media

• Binge watching TV

• Endless gaming

• Impulse shopping

• Seeking external validation through ‘likes’ or followers on socials

• Drug use or excessive alcohol intake

The list can go on.

All of these activities raise dopamine levels but at the end of the day, they are almost always undeserved rewards.

You begin to seek these forms of instant gratification because they are so easily attainable. It can quickly turn into an addiction that stunts your productivity and keeps you in a vicious cycle of poor choices.

Dopamine Done Right

With all this talk of cheap dopamine you may be thinking “Well damn, dopamine isn’t good for me.”

But that’s not the case at all. It’s the way you earn dopamine that becomes important.

Just as there is a long list of negative, cheap dopamine sources there is also a long list of positive, worthwhile dopamine sources:

• Engaging in physical activity

• Spending quality time with family/friends/pets

• Creative outlets such as writing, painting, or music production

• Learning new skills

• Mindfulness practices such as meditation or yoga

• Having deep, meaningful conversations or connections

• Setting and achieving personal goals or milestones

• Planning, anticipating, and enjoying vacations

Once again, the list can go on.

But I want you to notice a very important distinction between the two lists.

One prioritizes instant gratification while the other prioritizes delayed gratification.

The good side of dopamine comes from delaying gratification. The truly meaningful achievements in life are ones that give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

Sure, finding out what is going to happen to ‘fictional freddy’ in the next episode of your Netflix show might feel good in the moment, but you probably won’t remember or care in a month.

On the flip side, if used that time each evening to spend time playing with your kids, having meaningful conversations with your partner, or learning a new skill the sense of purpose and fulfillment you receive will be long-lasting.

That is what you are after!

So the next time you catch yourself doing something ‘to feel good in the moment,’ stop and ask yourself what the purpose is.

This simple question can and will guide you to better, more meaningful choices and help make dopamine a proper reward system rather than an addiction feeding enemy.

Hone Your Habits

You’re Evolving, So Should Your Habits

As humans, we are constantly evolving. And, I’m not talking about our opposable thumbs that evolved over 2.5M years ago — although they are pretty cool — I’m talking about our individual evolutions.

Your gradual development as a person, moving from one phase of life to the next.

Think back to a year ago. I bet even in that relatively short period of time, you have undergone many changes in your life. Maybe you’ve:

• Learned new skills

• Made a career change

• Made new social connections (or broke off others)

• Found a new hobby

This is the type of evolving I’m talking about. Life changes fast and you are constantly adapting to new situations. Therefore, it only makes sense that your habits should evolve with you.

Certain habits are exceptional to consistently maintain for long periods of time or for your entire life:

• Quality sleep

• Regular exercise

• Healthy eating

• Lifelong learning

But even these types of habits can, should, and likely will change over time.

To understand this better, let’s look at 2 different types of habit-evolving examples:

Full Transition:

You start to learn how to play guitar as a fun creative outlet.

Initially, you have fun learning the basic chords and reading music.

However, after a couple of months pass you are simply practicing because you feel like you have to and because you have built the habit but you are no longer enjoying the process.

You have evolved and don’t find the same joy you once found when you 1st picked up the guitar.

It’s okay to quit and find a new creative outlet (painting for example) and build a fresh habit.

Phased-Evolution:

This type of evolution I find to be best with high-quality, positive habits that need to be phased into your life.

Let’s use exercise as our example as it’s important for everyone. Here we go.

You haven’t been very active for 6 months and know you need to start exercising.

Phase 1: You start walking 8k steps 3 times a week.

Phase 2: You maintain your 8k steps 3x a week and also do a full bodyweight at-home exercise routine 2x a week.

Phase 3: You walk 10k steps 2x a week, run 2 miles 1x a week and maintain your bodyweight routine.

Phase 4: Run 2 miles 2x a week, walk 10k steps every other day. Start resistance training at the gym 2x a week.

The entire time you are maintaining one overarching habit: Physical Activity.

But as you progress from sedentary to beginner to intermediate and so on, you adjust your daily habits to account for your physical evolution.

You change, so you change your habits along the way.

Final Thoughts

Remember as people we go through so many different phases in life. We are not static life forms, we are unique, curious, and evolving individuals. Our habits should reflect just that.

When you feel a habit may no longer be serving you, ask yourself why you are doing it? What purpose does it serve? If it no longer brings joy or provides you value, consider dumping it for something new.

If you have a habit that you know provides value but is no longer matching your current level, consider what changes you could make to bring that habit to the next stage so you can continue to progress.

Habits are tools that can either lift you up or drag you down.

Let your habits evolve and go reach the summit (and beyond)!

Words of Wisdom

You can complement this weekly newsletter with short reminders, ideas, and thoughts about personal development by following me on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! And always remember…

Slow and steady. Never Idle.

Until next week,

Austin Sargent