So you have generally low dopamine. You want to do many things but you don’t feel like you have the energy to do them, it’s extremely hard to take the first step, but once you take it, you gain the momentum, and then it gets easier. Sometimes you need a lot of stimuli to get going, such as coffee, noise, meeting new people; you are always looking for new impressions. It seems like you really shine in a stressful situation, but once the stress is over, you are back to your normal sluggish state. You are very down-to-earth, realistic and good at predicting the future, but not great at looking on the bright side. Does this sound like you?
Though you may feel less fortunate as compared to people with high basic dopamine who seem to always be ‘high’, low basic dopamine actually comes with a lot of benefits. Besides being realistic and good at predicting outcomes, you are also great at withstanding criticism, and you can think straight in stressful situations. So how can you enjoy these benefits while also being a little bit more enthusiastic?
First, be aware of the fact that you need to achieve a certain level of dopamine to start doing something, but then more dopamine will be released as you do more tasks. Even if it seems like you will be in this slump forever, that is not true, you are basically just a few tasks away from being motivated – all you need to do is start acting, whatever it takes.
How do you get your dopamine to the point where you start acting? You get dopamine from many things: food, caffeine, sex, exercise, music, social media, exposure to cold water, sunlight, etc. They are not the same: some (like coffee or sugar) are easier than others (like exercise), and we have natural limits on some of them but not others (you’ll stop eating and exercising at some point because you will get full or tired, but with social media, you may get stuck in a loop instead of doing your task). So try to keep your end goal in mind and pick a source of dopamine that has a natural limit. You can also combine different sources of dopamine: don’t just exercise, but put on some energetic music, or do it outside. Pro tip: make it a habit. This way, your brain will produce dopamine not after you do it, but before, making it easier to actually start.
Second, you can lower the amount of dopamine that you need to get going by breaking your task down into smaller steps. It may seem counter intuitive, but think of it as building a fire: you don’t start by trying to light up a giant log, you start with a small amount of tinder and build up gradually. Give yourself a ridiculously easy task to start with, and when you accomplish it, cross it off your todo list. And it’s important to have a todo list, preferably a physical one where you can cross items off: keeping your tasks in your head makes them look much harder to accomplish than they actually are and also steals your brain power. In general, try to design your workflow and your environment in a way that doing things that you often do is mentally easy: have clear tasks, put a glass of water next to you, pack your gym bag the night before (and have a task on your todo list to pack the gym bag). If you cannot start doing something, think about what it actually involves: maybe you are putting off your workout because your gym clothes are in the laundry. Then your real task is starting the load of laundry, not packing the bag! If you don’t have enough dopamine to start moving, chances are you are trying to bite off more than you can chew.
Third, you can get motivation by dropping your dopamine to an uncomfortable level. This is actually your superpower as a low-basic-dopamine kind of person: because your basic dopamine is already so low, you can drop it even lower, hit the rock bottom and get the motivation you need, unlike people with high basic dopamine – they either don’t notice the drop, or it sends them into the slump. You can do that by focusing on your mistakes. Don’t just vaguely ruminate, concentrate on how bad your current situation is and how terrible the future will be if you keep going like this. Ask yourself, preferably in written: what happens if I never do this in my life? what doesn’t happen if I never do this in my life? Make the the prospects seem really bad, get angry, and get working.
If this tip does not work and you find yourself indifferent to even the most gruesome of scenarios, chances are you don’t have low basic dopamine, you’re just really burnt out or depressed. In this case, try to limit your stressors and responsbilities, get plenty of rest, and seek professional help – by trying to motivate yourself further, you’ll just make it worse.
Finally, think about designing your environment and your habits in a way that boost your dopamine naturally. There are big things that you can do to achieve your goal, there are habits, and there are vaccines – small actions that you can do once and they help you achieve your goal, such as installing blinds or buying earplugs for better sleep (I have a post about this if you are interested). Try looking for small habits and vaccines that give you high dopamine: a short walk around the block to give you sunlight in the morning, washing your windows, painting the walls or moving furniture to let in more natural light, getting a gym membership, setting up a blue light blocker on your phone and PC, filling your planner with exciting events or moving to a noisier neighborhood, etc.
So, as a person with low basic dopamine, you are very realistic, stress-resistant, and a great learner, but you often lack motivation. The most helpful thing that you can do is understand that there is nothing wrong with you, you just have low basic dopamine and it makes it harder to start. All you need to do is pay a little extra attention and help yourself overcome this by consciously choosing activities that raise your dopamine levels, breaking your tasks down into smaller steps, writing down your todo lists, analyzing the outcome of not acting to drop your dopamine levels even further, and finally designing your environment and your habits in a way that lets you rake in more dopamine without even thinking about it. This way, you will raise your dopamine levels, which will make you feel more enthusiastic about life and easily take on tasks.