Overcoming Amotivation
Feeling unmotivated can lead to procrastination, but engaging in activities that are more effortful can help break this cycle. By intentionally putting yourself into a state of discomfort—such as taking a cold shower—you can stimulate your dopamine system and rebound from feelings of amotivation. It's crucial to recognize that the perception of difficulty can shift, and tackling harder tasks can reignite motivation.In this clip
From this podcast
Huberman Lab
Leverage Dopamine to Overcome Procrastination & Optimize Effort | Huberman Lab Podcast
Related Questions
Is the following statement correct? When we have a task to complete and we are in an unmotivated state, we often find ourselves doing something that we would generally see as difficult or unwanted, like cleaning the house or paying the bills. The dopamine system is relative, and engaging in these activities is easier than what you are supposed to do. This means that the substitution task you’re engaging in (cleaning the house, paying the bills) which is unrelated to your goal is not far from not doing anything (waiting) for your dopamine system. In order to bring back motivation and do the work, doing something that requires effort or induces pain (regarding motivation, not directly physical pain or effort) will bring your dopamine level higher quicker than waiting.
Explain how deliberately making dopamine troughs steeper by engaging in effortful and uncomfortable activities can help in recovering from low dopamine states more robustly and quickly in the episode Leverage Dopamine to Overcome Procrastination & Optimize Effort | Huberman Lab Podcast and the clip Pain and Motivation
Explain more about Huberman's claim that giving yourself a reward after a painful or challenging task makes the act of doing the task worse in the episode Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction | Huberman Lab Podcast #39 and the clip Rewards and Motivation. How does he recommend implementing the idea of finding the reward or seeking the dopamine from the effort itself?