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 AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab Waking Up: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices