The Dopamine Pitfall That Destroys Your Motivation and Drive

PRO-CRAS-TI-NA-TION….. That’s one big ugly word , isn’t it ? But, it’s appropriate because the act of procrastination can have big, ugly consequences. 

I used to be a prolific procrastinator, and as a result I could see my dreams slipping away from me.  So, I spent a lot of time trying to find a solution. Which, come to think of it, might have been an act of procrastination itself. 

My search mostly led me to the field of psychology where I indeed found some potential causes for my procrastination problem, which I started to work on.   

But, I could never really get to the root of the problem until I discovered neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Humerman’s podcast where he talks a lot about the role of dopamine on motivation and drive. 

It led me to the  realization that biology trumps psychology 

…. and that in our battle against procrastination our first line of defense and attack is not psychology. It is brain chemistry and more specifically the brain chemical dopamine. 

We make the mistake to think that  dopamine is only about  the effect of experiencing dopamine hits whenever they do something we think is fun. The truth however is that dopamine is also, in fact even more so, about  motivation and drive. 

As Huberman says….

“ … dopamine is the primary determinant of how motivated we are, how excited we are, how outward facing we are , and how willing we are to lean into life and pursue things..” Andrew Huberman.

We Are Not at The Mercy of Our Brain Chemistry

We also make the mistake to think that we are simply at the mercy of our brain chemistry and that we can’t influence it which is also not true. Not only can we influence our own brain chemistry, we can leverage it to our advantage.

It’s important to be aware that there are both a phasic and tonic release of dopamine in our brain circuits. Phasic release is associated with the so-called dopamine hits or spikes in dopamine and tonic release is associated with a baseline level of dopamine that is present in our brain circuits at all times. 

That’s right, we all have a baseline level of dopamine present in our system at all times. And it’s this baseline level of dopamine that is responsible for how motivated and driven we feel to engage in life and pursue our goals. 

Our baseline level of dopamine is NOT constant. It gets depleted and needs to be replenished. It is mostly replenished during our sleep which makes getting regular, good sleep the cornerstone of a healthy dopamine system 

But there are also certain habits and activities that are really bad for  our baseline dopamine levels. Let’s call them dopamine pitfalls. One way we can have more control over our dopamine levels is by avoiding these pitfalls or at least managing them better. 

Some of these pitfalls are well known to us, such as the use of certain recreational drugs specifically designed to flood your brain with dopamine and also the instant gratification we get from sugary snacks and social media usage. 

The Extrinsic Rewards Trap

In this video however I want to focus on a dopamine pitfall that is less talked about but just as important. It is what’s known as the extrinsic rewards trap. 

There was a  study done by Professor Mark Lepper and colleagues at Stanford University's Bing research kindergarten some years ago.

The study wanted to figure out how extrinsic rewards, rewards from the outside, affected people's natural drive for doing something. . 

So, the researchers observed a group of young children during their free playtime sessions, and identified the kids  who naturally gravitated toward drawing and other art-related activities. They measured the amount of time these children spent on these activities during their free time. 

Then they introduced rewards, such as gold or silver stars, to the children's artwork to praise and reward  their efforts and of course the kids loved that. However, after some time the researchers stopped giving out those rewards. 

The interesting finding was that, after the rewards were removed, those children were just not that  interested in drawing anymore. Some of them even stopped drawing altogether. 

Since that initial study it has been repeated with adults as well, with very similar results.  

Extrinsic Rewards May kill Your Joy For Doing The Things You Love

The key takeaway from these studies is that when people engage in activities they naturally enjoy and then introduce external rewards, they tend to experience reduced enjoyment when those rewards are taken away and do them less. 

This finding really fits in with our understanding of the dopamine system. On a neurochemical level, the introduction of rewards  boosts the dopamine peak associated with that fun activity, making it even more fun. 

However, when the rewards are removed, the dopamine peak is not as high, leading to decreased enjoyment of the same activity.  

All of this means that we should be cautious about giving ourselves dopamine-boosting external rewards for activities we already enjoy as it could ultimately cause us to enjoy doing them a lot less or stop doing them at all. 

For example, let’s say you are someone who really enjoys taking an early morning walk and then to make it even more fun you decide to start rewarding yourself for completing your walk by having a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop. If for any reason then you stop having the cup of coffee you may find that talking that walk becomes less fun.  

Obviously this extrinsic rewards trap is a dopamine pitfall we’d want to avoid if  those activities we naturally enjoy are important to us. 

Since I became aware of the huge role that dopamine plays in our motivation and drive I have started to intentionally manage my dopamine system better. I promote my baseline levels of dopamine by trying to improve the quality of my sleep. I try to manage the phasic release, the peaks and dips better by avoiding the pitfalls. 

I was able to go from being a prolific procrastinator to being a sporadic procrastinator and I don’t feel that my dreams are slipping away from me anymore.   

Biology trumps psychology, 

I don’t want to discount the role of psychology on procrastination because it’s equally important . But If you indeed struggle with procrastination as I did , before you start looking for a psychological reason make sure your dopamine system is healthy.