Dopamine the molecule of motivation.
Dopamine is a brain messenger chemical that helps nerve cells connect with one another. It is essential for functions of the central nervous system like movement, pleasure, attention, mood, and motivation. 
Dopamine has a baseline in your system and regulates your mood in general. Spikes offer joy, while dips bring sadness.
As we will see later, it is a chemical that has fueled the evolution and survival of our species.
If your dopamine levels are low, you will be unmotivated; if they are high, you will be motivated and driven. The bottom line is that it’s critical to maintain stability; we all have various levels; some people are more excited, determined, and motivated than others. Some people are more laid-back and less driven. One of the causes is genetics, but there are others. But we are all capable and have experienced dopamine peaks. It makes any encounter more colorful, thrilling, and delightful. It makes you want more of the same. Chocolate, smoking, sex, and narcotics can all trigger dopamine spikes. For example, chocolate will bring you 1.5 times above baseline, sex will bring you 2 times above baseline, and smoking will bring you 2.5 times above baseline. Because it is temporary, you are continually pursuing the high to get that sensation of pleasure, which is the path to addiction.
Our dopamine originally led us to seek food, water, and partners in order to survive and spread our species. It motivates us to pursue things. We don’t have to go foraging and hunting for food and water anymore, and finding a mate is much easier. We don’t need the same drive we did when we were prehistoric since we aren’t afraid of dying or being attacked. Dopamine motivated us to overcome this, to pursue. We still have the desire to seek; channeling that desire into healthy goal setting is essential for growth.
Consider the sensation of doing something new, such as playing a new computer game. It’s a high, and you’re compelled to seek it, but the more you do it, the less exciting it becomes, and your enthusiasm wanes. To maintain a consistent baseline of dopamine and achieve peaks, we must layer our motivators and build on the first experience.
If you’re delighted to start a new course, but after a while you don’t feel like you’re learning anything new, your drive and enthusiasm will fade. Consider gym visitors and dieters: they get an initial high from reducing weight, but eventually the reward and drive fade. To stay motivated, you must layer new learning on top of each other, resulting in constant and steady dopamine levels.
Also, if we repeat a behavior that produces a huge dopamine spike, the spikes fade and you fall much below your baseline. This is the path of addiction. Over time, your baseline declines, and you must now do more to return to your normal baseline.
Most of us do not seek big dopamine spikes and do not have addictive tendencies. When you’re addicted, it’s really difficult to get that surge since your baseline is dropping and the dopamine accessible in your system is decreasing. These patterns result in depression and disastrous outcomes.
So, how can we stay motivated and keep pushing toward our goals?
Engaging in things that we enjoy is important to us, and most of us do this to attain healthy dopamine spikes that drive and inspire us in a positive way. I’ve been on excursions, day and weekend long treks, or activities that provide extended, sustained highs of dopamine, and I’ve frequently felt the dip following the experience. The lows that follow the highs, yet our dopamine replenishes and we do not reduce our baseline because we do not have addictive tendencies.
What is the best approach to keeping our dopamine levels healthy, which drives our motivation and pushes us to be better? We no longer need to search for food, nor do we need to be highly determined to exist; modern humans have it relatively easy. However, humans are genetically programmed to improve, get better, and reproduce.
The version of becoming healthier in which I am interested is body and mind. It is our ability to always develop, to strive to get the best out of ourselves in what appears to be a small amount of time in the larger scheme of things. You want to live your best life, to be the best you can be, to study as much as you can, and to work in a role that you enjoy, which is fueled by discipline, motivation, drive, autonomy, and enthusiasm. Putting ourselves in a position of motivation and being driven provides us with joy because it causes dopamine to be released into our systems.
So how does the internet, casinos, and new partners keep us motivated to keep coming back? Its intermittent rewards. Occasional wins, occasional texts, occasional views, etc.
We should not expect to get a hit every time; we should be driven to seek it but not expect to win every time. There will be victories and rewards, but not always; this is how we stay motivated and focused. Going to college and being motivated and driven to obtain a degree will be complemented by interactions with new people, new learning, and small incentives that will occur frequently but not always in the push towards the ultimate reward of your degree. This will then be over; you will experience a slump and, ideally, be motivated to pursue the next thing.
This intermittent reward is what we should seek in our lifestyle and workplace. It is the way we should handle our staff or students. It is essential for maintaining motivation and desire. You may not always have a sense of accomplishment or victory when you get to work, but you should have the expectation that there will be more. That gets you out of bed in the morning. Intrinsic drivers are a sense of accomplishment or victory when you are creative, when you have ownership over your job, when you are enthusiastic and have a purpose.
Keeping people motivated and focused is a science that many have not explored or even considered. Companies have no idea what motivates their staff. What motivates, motivates, and drives them. If you tap into that, you will be more productive, more lucrative, have less absenteeism, and be able to retain your talent.
You will be passionate, purposeful, focused, and motivated as an individual. You will become more creative and have a better, more successful life.
