How to Increase Motivation & Drive

This episode explains the science of motivation and drive. I describe how dopamine — a chemical we all make in our brain, underlies our desire for and pursuit of our goals, as well as our capacity to move and experience pleasure. I describe how we can leverage specific behaviors, reward schedules and dopamine-prolactin balance to help ensure we can maintain motivation and capacity for pleasure over the long term. I also discuss dopamine in the context of ADHD, craving and addiction, and some absolutely amazing results about specificity of drug effects based purely on belief.
Read the full show notes for this episode at hubermanlab.com.
Thank you to our sponsors
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Timestamps
00:00:00 Introduction  
00:00:30 Sponsors: AG1, LMNT & Waking Up  
00:04:22 Announcement: Spanish Subtitles  
00:05:06 Emotions, Addiction & Mindset  
00:06:22 Motivation & Movement: The Dopamine Connection  
00:07:29 A Double-Edged Dopamine Blade  
00:08:56 Dopamine Fundamentals: Precursor to Adrenalin  
00:10:15 The Reward Pathway: An Accelerator & A Brake  
00:12:10 Motivation = Pleasure Plus Pain  
00:14:14 The Dopamine Staircase: Food, Sex, Nicotine, Cocaine, Amphetamine  
00:16:15 Subjective Control of Dopamine Release  
00:17:40 Social Media and Video Games  
00:18:15 Addiction & Dopamine: Progressively Diminishing Returns  
00:18:48 Novelty, Sensation-Seeking & Anticipation  
00:20:15 Craving: Part Pain, Part Pleasure & Pain Always Prevails  
00:23:11 Desire Scales With Pain: The Yearning Function  
00:24:43 The Croissant Craving Circuit  
00:25:45 “Here and Now” Molecules: Serotonin, Bliss & Raphe Nucleus  
00:26:26 In Your Skin Or Out In the World  
00:27:25 Cannabinoids Lethargy & Forgetfulness  
00:28:15 The Almond Meditation  
00:29:30 Drugs That Shift Exteroception Versus Interoception  
00:30:36 Emotional Balance, Active & Passive Manipulation  
00:32:36 Procrastination: Leveraging Stress, Breathing, Caffeine, L-Tyrosine, Prescription Drugs  
00:37:04 When Enough Is Never Enough; How Dopamine Undermines Itself  
00:38:58 Dopamine-Prolactin Dynamics: Sex, Reproduction & Refractory Periods  
00:40:30 The Coolidge Effect: Novelty-Induced Suppression of Prolactin  
00:42:22 Vitamin B6, Zinc As Mild Prolactin Inhibitors  
00:43:25 Schizophrenia, Dopamine Hyperactivity and Side Effects of Anti-Dopaminergic Drugs  
00:45:08 Prolactin, Post-Satisfaction “Lows” & Extending the Arc of Dopamine  
00:48:00 The Chemistry of “I Won, But Now What?”  
00:49:00 Healthy Emotional Development: Child and Parent  
00:50:03 Never Say “Maybe” (Reward Prediction Error)  
00:52:02 Surprise!  
00:52:59 Are You Suppressing Your Drive and Motivation By Working Too Late?  
00:54:50 Disambiguating Pleasure and Drive: Dopamine Makes Us Anti-Lazy  
00:58:00 Beta-Phenylethylamine (PEA), & Acetyl L-Carnitine  
01:00:00 Attention Deficit Disorders, Cal Newport Books, Impulsivity & Obesity  
01:03:55 Leveraging Dopamine Schedules  
01:05:22 Subjective Control of Dopamine and Drug Effects: The “Adderall” Experiment  
01:09:03 Caffeine May Protect Dopamine Neurons, Methamphetamine Kills Them  
01:10:57 Nicotine: Dopamine, Possible Neuroprotection, Prolactin Increase  
01:11:53 Gambling, Intermittent Reinforcement, & Persistent Goal Seeking (Bad and Good)  
01:14:14 Intermittent Halting of Celebration; Enjoy Your Wins, But Not All of Them  
01:18:38 A Story Example of Intermittent Reward to Maintain Long-Term Drive and Motivation  
01:21:25 Corrections & Notes About Spanish Captions & Other Languages Soon  
01:24:00 Synthesis & Framework, Zero-Cost Support & A Note About Sponsors
Disclaimer & Disclosures
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