Sober Synthesis

“It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.”

Jillian Michaels

Topic: Motivation Fuel

• Even with elite athletes, quitting is mental (neurochemical). 
• Motivation involves coordination between several key neurochemicals to manage duration, path, and outcome.
  • Norepinephrine gets you going and stimulates our energy resources
  • Acetylcholine promotes attention
  • Dopamine system keeps you on the path
• You generally pass through a discomfort (agitation, stress, confusion) process to get to the focus stage and a path towards an outcome. The discomfort can lead to procrastination.
• Recognizing progress (self reward, self affirmation) releases dopamine in a modulated way that results in more energy and motivation to continue the effort (behavioral changes).
  • Learn to spike dopamine from effort itself: focusing only on the reward at the end of effort can undermine the process, making the process feel more painful and time feel longer.
  • All people quit a behavior if we build up too much norepinephrine (brain stem shuts down the effort). 
  • The most powerful way to balance levels of norepinephrine are self reward dopamine releases. 
  • Self rewarding steps towards a goal provides an “infinite amount of energy”.
• Thoughts are spontaneous. Trying to suppress negative thoughts is futile.
  • Our power is the ability to introduce new thoughts to stimulate new actions.

Practice Tip:

• Choose doing something regularly that is not easy or pleasant (micro-sucs). Practice experimenting with ways to tolerate the discomfort by self rewarding progress.

Proposed questions for thought or sharing:

1. How do you or will you start to self recognize/reward/celebrate progress in your abstinence, in your relationships, in your work?

Disclaimer

This summary is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed.