Recognize what drains you
Easy dopamine triggering activities feel easy and we’re very highly motivated to do them but hold very little value and leave us feeling drained. Use journaling or mindful reflection to think deeply about what activities leave you drained vs give you energy.
For example, scrolling on social media leaves me drained, tidying up the kitchen leaves me full of energy. Late night drinking leaves me hung over, a good night rest leaves me restored.
When we engage in activities that trigger dopamine in the brain, our brain then has less dopamine. We feel demotivated and irritable. In this state of being, doing the hard tasks is incredibly difficult.
To reclaim our dopamine so that we can use it for hard tasks requires stopping ~90% of easy dopamine triggering activities.
When we do this the brain will take ~3 days to rebalance. These days will be a struggle, but they are required to reclaim and intelligently redistribute dopamine.
“Doing hard things makes life easy. Doing easy things makes life hard.”
Re-think the hard things
Next, start the hard activity. Don’t worry about finishing, just begin and when you’re done reflect on how you feel. Starting a task that lowers dopamine but makes real progress will end with a steady supply of dopamine. Think of how you feel before and after a workout.
If you’re finding it difficult to get through the hard part, you can recontextualize the struggle. Framing the pain and discomfort in the right way can power you through the hard parts to gain real life rewards.
“This is hard and challenging. But it’s just what I need to find it rewarding.”
“This is what hard feels like and this is where most people quit.”
“The faster I do the hard things I avoid, the faster I get the good things I want.”
Tee yourself up for success
How good your morning goes is mostly dependent on how you spend your evening. Eat/drink healthy and get to bed ontime with an hour of no screen time, and have a great early morning, fresh and ready to take on the day.
Your biology will inform when it is best to do the hard things. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Reflect to find the right balance and schedule your activities according to nature.
“It’s not just about getting the most important stuff out of the way. It’s about leveraging your natural biology toward the best type of work for the biological state you are in.”
— Andrew Huberman
Typically we have three phases in the day (times are my personal ones, yours may vary):
- Morning: 6am-2pm high dopamine, cortisol, norepinephrine. Deep/hard analytical work.
- Evening: 2pm-9pm seratonin. Relaxed state. Brainstorming/creative work.
- Night: 9pm-6am low temp, dim lights, sleep.
Be the “hard things” person
All behavior changes are identity changes. Identify early what identity will help you do the hard thing.
For example
- “I did a run this morning” -> “I am a runner”
- “I went to the gym” -> “I am an athlete”
- “I do deep work” -> “I am a top performer”
- “I study” -> “I am a student of X”
Ask yourself, “What would the ideal athlete do right now?”, and be that ideal.
It takes some time (~1 week), but if you have the evidence that you are now the type of person who does hard things, you can own that identity. Talk with friends and family about who you now are and how it feels.
Never miss twice
Do the hard things daily-ish. Don’t track streaks and don’t be afraid to break them. Streaks divert focus on the real reason you’re doing the hard thing in the first place and distract from the true motivation and gains you are making. Instead, aim to not miss doing the thing twice in a row. If you didn’t do it yesterday, push a little harder to do it today.
If you do struggle to get in the routine, break it down to the first 5%.
Ask yourself, “assuming I am going to do this thing, where would I start?”
For example, your goal is to go to the gym but that’s feeling daunting in this moment. What is the first 5% of going to the gym? Maybe it’s getting your gym clothes on. Just do that and then reassess how you feel. If it’s deep work you’re trying to do, maybe you just decide to open your notes and stare at them and see how you feel.
Easy slip-ins are key to consistency.
Create a holy ritual
Trigger -> Action -> Reward
This is the pathway to establishing or breaking a habit. To make the hard thing a routine, a good trigger is key. A trigger is a specific ritual you do at a consistent time and place that lets your body know what is about to happen. Get creative, this can be a wide variety of things.
“Routine done for long enough and done sincerely enough becomes more than routine. It becomes ritual - it becomes sanctified and holy.”
— Ryan Holiday
Effort is reward
When we hit a milestone or achievement it’s easy to forget the effort we put in. Remember that the reward will always mirror the effort when you look inside yourself. In fact, you cannot have true reward without effort. In this way, the effort is the reward. This realization makes you addicted to putting more effort into things.