This is because we are controlled by "dopamine", and people are always unable to resist the temptation of dopamine because it can bring instant happiness to people, but this happiness is fleeting.

Have you ever had this experience:

I planned to watch short videos for ten minutes before going to bed, but I watched them until 2:30 in the middle of the night;

planned to buy things, but bought a lot of useless things;

decided to exercise, but it was difficult to resist the temptation of barbecue and milk tea...

We always find it difficult to extricate ourselves in the comfort zone that is within reach, while annoying our own lack of self-discipline and feeling very disappointed.

This is because we are controlled by " dopamine ". People are always unable to resist the temptation of dopamine because it can bring instant happiness to people, but this happiness is fleeting.

Dopamine is cheap and easy to obtain, but it makes people addicted to it and makes you difficult to get rid of it. It will also drive you to do things that can feel happy immediately.

Only by recognizing dopamine can we stay away from dopamine and bid farewell to the comfort zone. Only by constantly pursuing higher happiness can we achieve true self-discipline and have a free and determined life.

Recognize "dopamine" and learn to stop loss in time

Initially, scientists named dopamine "happy molecule", and the pathway in the brain that produces dopamine was called "reward circuit".

researchers found that the higher the activity of the dopamine reward circuit, the stronger the pleasure of people. In contrast, the less dopamine, the pleasure disappears. This also seems to confirm the conclusion that dopamine is a happy molecule.

However, an experiment on monkeys and light bulbs overturned this view.

Professor of neurophysiology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Wolfram Schultz used macaque to do a study. He implanted microelectrodes into the place where dopamine cells gather in the brain of macaques and placed the macaques in a device with two light bulbs and two boxes, one of which contained food pills and the other was empty.

Every period of time, a light bulb will light up. The light on the left indicates that there are food pills in the box on the left, otherwise it is on the right.

experiments found that when macaques randomly opened the box and found food pills, dopamine cells in their brains would be activated. When they gradually found the pattern of signal lights and food pills, the time point of dopamine release changed from when they found food to when the light was on.

experimental results show that dopamine is not a happy maker, but a response to unexpected, that is, a response to possibilities and expectations, which scientists named it "reward prediction error."

Simply put, the happiness brought by dopamine does not originate from things themselves, but comes from expectations, and it is the reward prediction error that triggers the emergence of dopamine.

This can explain why we can’t help but overeat, consume impulsively, and stay up late. What we feel happy and satisfied is not the result after the behavior, but the expectation before the behavior.

There is a very interesting statement in "Greedy Dopamine":

Our bodies are controlled by two types of substances, "upward" and "downward". "Upward" refers to dopamine, which allows us to look longer and pursue higher goals, but at the same time makes people never satisfied.

Dopamine is not the maker of happiness, but the thirsty person of desire. It will steal your time, consume your willpower, and destroy your upward power without knowing it. If we do not know how to stop loss in time, we will fall into the vortex of desire and form a vicious cycle.

Stay away from "dopamine", chase " endorphin "

dopamine allows us to feel pleasure easily. It lowers our expectations of happiness, but raises the expected threshold .

When everything becomes accustomed to it, the reward prediction error will disappear, and there will be no more dopamine that brings you excitement.

Just like love, anthropologist Helen Fisher divides love into two stages: early love or "passionate love" will only last 12-18 months. After that, if a couple wants to maintain attachment to each other, they need to develop a different kind of love, which is called "companionship love".

Early love was dominated by dopamine, which makes people excited, idealized, curious, and pay attention to the future;

and the second stage of love was dominated by current molecules, which makes people satisfied, calm, and experience it through the body's senses and emotions.

Romantic relationships based on dopamine are an exciting but short roller coaster journey, yet the chemical processes in our brains also pave the way to companionship love.

To get lasting love, we need another substance in our body - endorphins.

so, what is endorphin?

endorphins are a compensation mechanism, which is contrary to the expected pleasure obtained through dopamine, which brings us pleasure triggered by feelings and emotions, and is a current molecule.

Simply put, endorphins are equivalent to a natural analgesic. When we feel uncomfortable in doing something, they can relieve people's pain while making people feel comfortable and pleasant.

For example, if you insist on running, fitness, quitting smoking, reading, etc., although the process is very painful, your body will secrete endorphins in the future to compensate you, which will make you feel very satisfied and fulfilled.

grows upward, realizing true self-discipline

Jobs once said this:

In the first 30 years of life, you develop habits; in the last 30 years of life, your habits determine you.

He never lets his children use iPad, but instead sends them to private schools to learn how to raise animals, plant flowers and do housework.

Similarly, Bill Gates’s requirement for his children is: he will never be allowed to touch mobile phones or play games before the age of 14.

Dopamine and endorphins are both important components of our human body. However, we need to appropriately quit some harmful dopamine, strive to pursue the pleasure of endorphins, generate self-drive, and grow upward to achieve true self-discipline.

▶ Talk to the brain, adjust the habit mode

The brain always wants us to enjoy it in time and make us greedy for the simple and repetitive low-level happiness.

If we want to break the status quo and get out of our comfort zone, we need to give orders to our brains and talk to our brains: I want to break through myself. I am a person who dares to challenge and has strong execution ability. I can manage my time and figure well, etc.

Don’t stop in fantasy in everything, but act immediately so that your brain can understand that this is what you need to do at this moment.

Thinking is all questions; only by doing can you get an answer.

▶Refine the goals, delay satisfaction

The best self-discipline in life is to learn to delay satisfaction and embrace advanced and lasting happiness.

Whether it is work or doing other things, we need to set goals, and goals can be divided into long-term goals and short-term goals.

In my opinion, long-term goals are usually composed of short-term goals, while short-term goals are to refine the goals, achieve the ultimate goal by cultivating micro-habits, and become self-disciplined.

The process of developing any good habits is difficult, but the happiness brought by the result is lasting.

refines the target, which helps our brain release endorphins after completing each small target, making people feel happy and satisfied.

For example, your long-term goal is to become a running expert. You can subdivide short-term goals into walking 10 minutes a day, walking 10,000 steps a day, running 5,000 meters a day, etc.;

Or, if you want to write a book, the short-term goals can be subdivide them into writing a paragraph of text every day, writing 1,000 words a day, writing 5,000 words a day, etc.;

You want to maintain a good figure, short-term goals can be subdivide them into exercising once a week and formulating recipes next week and reducing high-calorie and high-sugar intake, exercising twice a week and formulating recipes next week and exercising three times a week and formulating recipes next week and exercising three times a week and formulating recipes next week and exercising next week and exercising three times a week and formulating recipes next week and exercising next week and so on.

We rarely consider looking at changes in a refined way because we always focus on the final goal. But we forgot that doing push-ups once a day is better than not exercising. Reading ten minutes a day is better than not reading. Doing less than you hope is always better than doing nothing.

▶Meditate regularly, stabilize mentality

Apricot body is the gray matter nucleus in the brain, it is the switch for generating emotions, identifying emotions and regulating emotions. The pain, fear, anger, anxiety we experience are inseparable from the apricot body. The lower the activity of the apricot body, the more stable the mood will be.

meditation can help us clear away various distractions in the brain, help stabilize the apricot body in the brain, and at the same time release endorphins to calm your heart.

Meditating for 5-10 minutes a day will allow us to actively face work and life in a better state.

written at the end

dopamine makes people enjoy it in time, making people easily immersed in the comfort zone and unable to extricate themselves, but it is like a bright firework, short and gorgeous, and dispersed; while endorphins are a kind of delayed satisfaction, which requires you to put in your hard work and sweat, but it is like still water flowing deep, and Cangsheng sings.

" Positive Psychology " says: All human behaviors are essentially for the pursuit of pleasure.

When you indulge in instant satisfaction, you will only get endless emptiness; when you know how to delay satisfaction, what you will gain will be your increasingly abundant self.

If you want to have long-term happiness in your life, you must develop an anti-instinct system. Every restraint of yours means that you are more rational and stronger than before.

There is no happiness that is more pleasant than what you dominate yourself. There is no power, and it is stronger than the power of self-discipline and persistence.