CHASE HUGHES: once people see that metric [attached to an area of dopamine], it is very, very hard to ignore.

 

Doug Bopst asks,

What are some things people can do to have a really healthy relationship with dopamine?

Your number one source of dopamine should be you, not your kids, not your wife, not your family.  It should be you and your actions.  You just get like a blank page in your Journal.  I'm going to do a circle in the middle here, and then I'm going to write down all the places in my life I get dopamine.  And I'm going to be honest.  I'm going to put Instagram comments, alcohol or drugs, or pornography, you know, all these places that people are getting dopamine from. I'm going to write that down.  You have 100 points.  You have to put a point value on where you're getting your dopamine from.  If I have a score of 10 for throwing the ball with my dogs or playing with my kids, or things that should be higher, and the score for alcohol is like 65, once people see that metric, it is very, very hard to ignore.

So step two is like, where should the dopamine be?  So here's where it is now.  I'm going to draw a little nap and on the next sheet of paper; we're going to draw a new map and start, you know, drawing an arrow from the negative to the positive.  I'm going to borrow dopamine from this location.  Maybe you don't have to quit all the way.  I'm just going to borrow some points so at least these two are equal.  I'm going to get this from a 12 on this and this one's like a 50.  I'm going to find out the midpoint of that and borrow dopamine from the high dopamine area.