The Catholic Pursuit of Excellence

How to Stop Chasing Dopamine & Master Your Motivation

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#019- Today, we’re diving into dopamine—the chemical that drives motivation and the pursuit of goals. 

A lot of people think dopamine is just about pleasure, but it’s really the force behind why we act, why we chase after things, and how we stay motivated.

Whether you’re trying to build better habits, overcome burnout, or understand why some things seem more exciting than others, dopamine is at the core.”

By understanding how dopamine works, we can learn how to use it to our advantage—helping us stay motivated, avoid addictive behaviors, and thrive long-term.

In this episode, we’ll break down how dopamine works, why it’s so important for motivation, how it can help or hurt us in habit formation, and how to boost it naturally.

If you want to get the HIRT Workouts that I mentioned in this episode, you can find them right here:

https://www.athrivingcatholic.com/workouts


Are you ready to build high-impact habits of body, mind, and soul that actually stick? Check out the Catholic Path to Excellence today to find out how you can be more consistent in your habits and excel in every aspect of your life.

Feeling "stuck" in your life? Coaching could be the solution you need to break through whatever is holding you back. Book a FREE Call with me today to find out how I can help you.

Speaker 1:

You're listening to the Catholic Pursuit of Excellence, the show that helps you accomplish more, stress less and become the saint God created you to be. I'm your host, jessica Castillo, and this is episode number 19. Today we are diving into dopamine. This is the neurochemical that drives motivation and the pursuit of goals. Now a lot of people, when they think about dopamine, think that it's just about pleasure, but it's actually the force behind why we act, why we chase after things and how we stay motivated. So whether you are trying to build better habits or overcome burnout, or understand why some things seem so much more exciting than others, dopamine is at the core. By understanding how dopamine works, we can learn how to use it to our advantage. It can help us to stay motivated, it can help us to avoid addictive behaviors and make sure that we are thriving long-term. In this episode, we're going to break down how dopamine works, why it's so important for motivation, how we can help you or hurt you in your habit formation, and also we're going to go into a number of ways that you can actually boost dopamine naturally so that you have more of this motivation molecule floating about. So quick note before we get started, on just why I'm doing this episode and why I named it this. It actually stems from a posted note that I had stuck onto my computer monitor a few weeks ago a few weeks ago where I wrote in all capital letters stop chasing dopamine. And this note to self for me was because I had noticed that I was kind of developing and falling into patterns of really self-destructive behaviors that I recognized at the root, all I was after was dopamine. And so for me and the reason I had to put it on my computer monitor was because I was getting really sucked into watching videos on YouTube about random things that I'm interested in and I've shared on my other podcast, thriving Catholic Podcast, and on my email list and in other places that I've recently been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. So now that I know that a lot of the ways that I've behaved in the past are starting to make a lot more sense to me, like why I can go into rabbit holes, why I can get into hyper focus, why I'm so interested in learning new things and novelty and you know, if I'm bored, how hard it is for me to actually function One thing is that certain conditions, including ADHD, but also depression and Parkinson's disease, these kinds of conditions.

Speaker 1:

These brains have lower than normal dopamine levels already. These brains have lower than normal dopamine levels already. So my brain is constantly seeking more stimulation, just to function, just to get through a normal day, and so that can actually lead me to be on a constant searching for dopamine kind of pattern. And it's not necessarily a bad thing. Dopamine is, of course, morally neutral. In fact, it's really a great thing that God has created dopamine, because without it we wouldn't do anything. In fact, in studies on rats, I think they modified their brains so that their dopamine receptors didn't work, and these rats, they just lay down and died of starvation, even though they were sitting right next to food and water. And it's because without dopamine, you don't have the motivation to do anything, even the basic life-sustaining functions, and so, of course, we all have some level of dopamine, or we would just lie down and die too.

Speaker 1:

The problem is, when dopamine is really really low, we're not motivated to pursue things that require more effort. And, yeah, most valuable things require more effort. Most things that are worth pursuing are a little bit difficult, and so it really does behoove us to understand what is going on with this molecule, what is going on with dopamine and then how can we use what we know about dopamine to improve our lives and to cut out and limit and stop doing some of these self-destructive behaviors that we all are prone to that we really do as humans, we're all prone to be addicted to dopamine and some people, like I said, if you have ADHD or you suffer from depression or you know God forbid you have Parkinson's disease, then guess what? You're more likely and there's other conditions too, I'm sure that have lower circulating levels of dopamine. So if that's you, then this is extra important, but it's really it's important for all humans. So let's talk about the role of dopamine in motivation.

Speaker 1:

So One thing that's misunderstood about dopamine is we think about it as the reward molecule, but actually dopamine is most active during the pursuit of a goal. So it's not the moment of reward that dopamine is most active. It's actually what makes the process of working towards something exciting. So if you think about the anticipation you feel before an exciting event, dopamine is fueling that feeling, but once the event is over, your dopamine levels drop and that's actually sometimes. We feel a bit low, and you might have experienced this too if you're working on a project like for work or for anything, you feel good when you're doing it. It feels great, you're working towards a goal, and a lot of people expect to feel really good after that goal is accomplished. And then they get disappointed because actually right after accomplishing the goal they feel kind of let down, so a little disappointing, and that's really normal. Actually, that's just how dopamine levels drop after completion of something and so sometimes just knowing that and just expecting that that's going to happen helps normalize that experience so that you don't wonder like what the heck is wrong with me. I should be happy, I just won this thing or achieved this thing or completed this project. That's just normal. That's kind of how it works.

Speaker 1:

Now, dopamine actually spikes more when we put in more effort towards something. So if we are like passively receiving a reward, it doesn't spike our dopamine level quite as much as effortful action does. So if you try setting challenges for yourself and you achieve those challenges like you're learning a new skill or you know maybe you're you have a goal of running in a race or you want to create something new or create a project in your business and you're doing this that kind of challenge brings more. You know it keeps that dopamine level higher. And yeah, of course you will have a post-accomplishment slump, but if you can focus more on enjoying the process of working towards a goal rather than just the end result, that actually helps you maintain steady dopamine and keeps you motivated long term.

Speaker 1:

So one kind of workaround to avoid that post-accomplishment schlump is to just be constantly setting up for yourself little mini goals that you can accomplish, and it doesn't have to be a big thing. It can be something really small, like, I mean, I would say, a quick dopamine hit. You can do like I'm going to sweep my kitchen floor. It's small, it's tiny, but it's tangible and when it's done I'm like, oh, I just did something. You know you feel good while you're doing it, while you're pursuing the goal too. So there's lots of little ways and little mini goals. It doesn't have to be like create my whole website. It can be write the about page of my website. It can be something small. So set yourself little, small goals so that you're constantly working towards something, and we'll talk a little bit more about practical strategies in a minute.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we talked a little bit about how dopamine levels aren't constant, right, so they fluctuate, with spikes when you're having moments of excitement or effort, and then they dip afterwards. So the bigger the spike, the deeper the dip. And this is why constantly chasing big dopamine hits, like the kind you get when you're scrolling your phone or you're eating junk food or even just like checking your email. Those kinds of big spikes can leave you feeling more drained and less motivated over time. And this is kind of problematic because your brain is actually wired to keep a balance between pleasure and discomfort when we overuse dopamine by seeking constant rewards in the forms of quick fixes. So our phones, junk food, sugar, alcohol our brains are going to try to restore balance by making us feel more sensitive to pain or boredom. So you're actually hurting yourself more in the long term because now it's even harder for you and you've probably experienced that if you've spent a long period of time where you were on your phone a lot maybe you were doing a lot of scrolling or, in my case, watching YouTube videos and then you try to cut it off and now the boredom is like extra bad. You're like, oh, I'm so bored, this is so uncomfortable. Yeah, that's probably this whole dopamine balance thing going on in your brain and it's okay to be uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

So one way to avoid that post reward crash is to spread out rewards. You know, to pace your rewards in. That can help you have a more healthy relationship with it. Like, so I'm not saying never go on your phone, never watch videos on YouTube, never eat junk food, but you know, spreading them out and making sure you're not doing it all the time can help keep that baseline level of dopamine more healthy and it can prevent some burnout.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about dopamine and habit formation. Dopamine, of course, is crucial in building your habits because it rewards your progress and not just the completion of a goal. So all habits are basically just progress, right? So we eat healthy, we exercise, we pray regularly, we, you know, we get good sleep, we do work in our business, we spend time with our kids All of the things that are habits. These are progress and processes, not just completion. Like you're never going to check the box on being a good parent and like done, done and done. That's a process. You keep doing it.

Speaker 1:

But when you can break bigger goals into smaller steps and smaller challenges and you can celebrate small wins, you can actually trigger dopamine all along the way. So, like the example I used earlier. If you're working on redoing your website, how can you break that into smaller milestones so that you can still be celebrating wins along the way? Because it's the feeling of progress where motivation, where dopamine and motivation are at their highest. So you want to have that feeling of progress as much as possible, instead of waiting to feel good about yourself until after you've accomplished the thing, about yourself until after you've accomplished the thing. So you know you don't have to have finished running the race to feel good and to feel that boost of dopamine and motivation. You can celebrate all of your little accomplishments, like I put on my running clothes and I went outside today and you know just little things. Sometimes it has to be the little things to get you moving.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, we talked a little bit about this, but dopamine is involved in addictive behaviors like gaming or social media binge, watching TV, eating tons of ice cream and sugar and scrolling our phones All of these activities. They give us constant dopamine spikes, but the more we rely on them, we're definitely depleting our baseline levels. So the first thing to do here is to actually break that cycle. You've probably heard people talk about doing a dopamine fast, which I mean, like we said earlier, your brain needs dopamine. So there's no way to completely fast from dopamine because you would just die. That's impossible. But when people talk about a dopamine fast, what they're talking about is reducing your exposure to instant dopamine hits and that just kind of gives your brain a chance to reset. You're going to feel more motivated and less reliant on quick fixes by removing that trigger.

Speaker 1:

There's a pretty good book about this. I can't remember the name of the author, but the book is called Dopamine Nation. I think it's Anna something. Anyway, in this book this doctor, she's a psychiatrist and she's basically just talking about how the molecule dopamine plays into addiction. She's a specialist in addiction and addiction recovery and she has an acronym in that book that uses the letters dopamine. To go through the acronym.

Speaker 1:

But the first step you know the D in dopamine is like a detox time where you really do have to, time where you really do have to. It's hard really to kind of step away from the thing that is your addiction at that time. But when you go through that detox period you can also observe how you're feeling and what you were using that thing for and I think that's the P in her acronym too is what was the purpose. There was something that you were getting out of that thing, like, for instance, for me in my YouTube video Obsception. I was getting rewards of novelty and excitement and learning something new. All of that was like my brain lighting up with stimulation. It was like, yay, this is so great, let's do this instead of recording your podcast or doing anything else of value today. So detoxing from that for me could include, you know, deleting the YouTube app on my phone or, you know, setting up things that block different websites and apps. There's all sorts of technology and apps you can download and use to outsmart yourself when you want to engage in things like this. But yeah, I'm not going to go through her whole acronym. That is an interesting book if you're interested in just digging into more.

Speaker 1:

How is dopamine related to addiction and how you know just taking that time to detox from it, to literally cut yourself off, how that can really help you reset. And then you might be thinking, okay, I'm going to cut myself off, I'm going to detox from this thing. But now you want to think about how can you boost your dopamine levels naturally so that your baseline dopamine is already a little bit higher? Because if you have so, when you have low dopamine, the symptoms are a lot like depression, right, and of course depression has low dopamine. So you will be sad, you will be lethargic, you won't have the motivation to pursue things. Sad, you will be lethargic, you won't have the motivation to pursue things. That's not really a great place to be, because you're not taking progress and doing the things that you want to do, that are going to move your life forward, help you reach your goals. So ideally, your baseline dopamine levels can be a little bit higher so that even on a day-to-day basis you're feeling more motivated.

Speaker 1:

Naturally, you want to pursue more difficult or effortful activities because that dopamine level is a little bit higher. So there's a few ways that you can boost this dopamine baseline. One way is cold exposure, so taking a cold shower or an ice bath. If you're crazy In a good way, like people have these cold exposure tubs you can get, or you can just turn the water on your shower really cold, but this can boost dopamine by over 200% in some studies, they say. And what's even better about this is that this boost can last for hours and it doesn't cause that big post-reward dip.

Speaker 1:

So if you are feeling really low energy or low motivation, try a cold shower. It is a natural dopamine reset, so it doesn't have to be. You don't even have to be in the cold water for very long 30 seconds to a minute, I mean, it doesn't have to be long but this can help you reset your dopamine levels. So cold exposure, that's one thing. The next thing is exercise. So particularly endurance or resistance training, this will gradually increase your dopamine levels over time. So it's not just about feeling good afterwards, which you will. You will feel good after working out and exercise, but regular exercise is going to keep your baseline levels higher afterwards. And I actually did a whole episode on exercise and I have some free exercises or free workouts that you can download. So I don't remember what episode number that was right now, but go back and look for the episode I did on exercise and you can get that free download for some high intensity resistance training exercises that will help boost your dopamine level, and I will link to that in the show notes. Okay, another thing you can do sunlight and circadian rhythms. Morning sunlight is actually one of the best natural ways to regulate your dopamine because it helps your body maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is going to help keep your energy and motivation levels steady throughout the day. So super simple here Go outside for 10 to 15 minutes each morning, preferably go for a quick walk.

Speaker 1:

That's how I most like to do this little hack. You will be amazed at what an impact this will make in your life. In fact, I'm thinking of one client I had in particular, who one of the first changes we worked on together was just getting outside and going for a morning walk and I cannot tell you the impact this made in her life. It literally turned around her whole life, her energy levels, her sleep. She had restless leg syndrome, really bad before that. It went away completely within a few days. I mean just incredible. You would not believe the impact that this will have until you just try it. So getting outside for 10 to 15 minutes to go for a quick walk in the morning, it's great. Even if the weather's crappy and cloudy, there's still more sunlight or more natural lumens from a cloudy, overcast day than there are indoors or from artificial light. So go outside, get some sunlight in your eyeballs Super good.

Speaker 1:

Okay, another way to raise your dopamine levels naturally is delayed gratification, so you can train your brain, just like you would train a dog to wait for rewards, and this is another way to keep dopamine working in your favor. So, the more that you can train yourself to delay rewards and delay gratification, even if it's something small, this teaches your brain to value long-term goals over quick hits, and you can get better at this. And you know, in Catholic tradition, of course, we fast and then we feast, and there are so many little things that you can do, whether it's I'm going to clean my kitchen first and then I'm going to have a square of dark chocolate, or whether it's, you know, more traditional fasting, where you're like I'm going to not eat until this time of day and then I'm going to have a good meal. So, whatever it is, you can learn to delay gratification, and that does help your brain reset this dopamine level. That does help your brain reset this dopamine level.

Speaker 1:

Okay, another tip here for naturally increasing baseline dopamine is gratitude. So practicing gratitude, especially if it's directed towards others or if you're grateful for your own efforts, this can increase dopamine. So it can also help. If you wanted to take this just a little bit further, like a step further here would be to express that gratitude to another person. So whether you write a thank you text or a letter or email or tell someone in person how grateful you are for them, that's going to not only help that other person feel so much better, but it's going to really help you too as you reflect on that gratitude. And then, of course, again, in Catholic tradition, you know, we in the examine prayer, or in most Catholic prayers, we start with thanks and praise. So turning that focus to gratitude to you know, this is God, because the more we can thank and praise God in all circumstances, like we hear in the mass, this is right and just this is going to help you feel more dopamine, more positive energy. The final tip I want to give here about how to increase your dopamine naturally is not so much how to increase baseline dopamine. So all of those tips were okay. These are going to increase your baseline dopamine over time.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes you are in a schlump of a day and you are so tempted to reach for your phone or to hunt through your pantry for Doritos or whatever it is that you are looking for as a quick fix for this dopamine hit. You need something immediate. You need something that you can do right now that's going to boost your dopamine. That's not the self-destructive, negative behavior that you're trying to avoid. So in this instance, I recommend creating for yourself what's called a DOPA menu. Dopa menu like a menu at a restaurant. You want to have a number of quick activities or things that you can pretty reliably turn to when you're in a low dopamine state to boost you back up to a level where now you can actually function. And this is super important for people who have ADHD too, because if you're in a low dopamine state, you know that it's super hard to motivate yourself to do anything at all. So you kind of want to have in your toolkit some quick things you can do that are immediately going to boost your dopamine, a few of those things. I mean this varies from person to person, so you're going to have to experiment with what works for you and create this list for yourself.

Speaker 1:

For me, I love having a cup of coffee. I love coffee. I just love it. I love the smell, I love the taste. It does boost dopamine in the brain scientifically. A lot of people with ADHD love coffee. This is why. So maybe for me it's maybe having a cup of coffee If it's not too late in the day. I like to do that. Other things that might help people are listening to a favorite song, doing a quick dance party, going outside, literally just stepping outside, doing a couple of jumping jacks or jump rope Sometimes people really like doing jump rope. Just experiment with these things. That are something you can do super quick. That's not terrible for you. Now I will say, of course, my example of I love coffee. I cut myself off. I try not to have more than three cups of coffee on any given day. So you know, you have to obviously know that some of these things are going to have limits, because you don't want to replace one addiction with another addiction. But ideally we become addicted to things that are better for us actually. So let's do a quick summary here, okay.

Speaker 1:

Dopamine is not just about feeling good. Dopamine is about driving motivation and the pursuit of your goals or, in the case of this podcast, the pursuit of excellence. So by understanding the dopamine cycle, by understanding spikes and dips of dopamine, by balancing rewards and using strategies that boost dopamine naturally, you can stay motivated and avoid burnout. So what you want to do is focus on effort-based rewards. You want to manage your dopamine levels by pacing out those rewards. You want to manage your dopamine levels by pacing out those rewards. You want to focus on using natural boosters like exercise, sunlight, cold exposure, delayed gratification, gratitude these are things that you want to use to boost your dopamine levels naturally. Another thing to remember here is that taking small steps and celebrating progress, making sure you have little mini milestones and things that you can accomplish along the way, that keeps dopamine working for you and keeps you excited about progress and you know.

Speaker 1:

Finally, just a little closing reflection If you think about how dopamine influences your day-to-day life, you might start to think about how there are certain habits or activities that you're doing right now that are actually depleting your dopamine or that are you just chasing dopamine. So what small changes can you actually make to boost your dopamine more naturally, to improve your motivation, to literally stop chasing self-destructive and self-sabotaging forms of dopamine, and how can you use all that you know about dopamine to improve your life? How could things be better for you? How can you form healthier habits? How can you pursue your life? How could things be better for you? How can you form healthier habits? How can you pursue your goals? How can you cut out addictive behaviors.

Speaker 1:

So that's it for me this week. I really hope that you found this episode helpful, that you can take action on it, and if you happen to know anyone else who could benefit from this content, please share it with them. It might be just what they need to hear today to take their own faith and life to the next level. So until next time, remember that it is Jesus who inspires you to do something great with your life, so don't let yourself be ground down by mediocrity. Bye for now.