source The speaker discusses the importance of having goals that are related to high-level aims in eliciting positive emotions and increasing dopamine in the brain. They compare the experience of laying bricks for a wall to that of building a cathedral, where the latter is associated with a more significant and rewarding goal. Without a clear and worthwhile goal, there is no positive emotion or dopamine reward, leading to a lack of motivation and poor learning outcomes. The speaker also talks about the benefits of breaking down larger goals into smaller, achievable tasks, which can help amplify dopamine levels and increase energy and confidence. The discussion ends with the importance of finding a question or problem that grips you before beginning a task, as this can improve motivation, learning, and enjoyment of the task. He also discusses the benefits of implementing small, achievable goals or “micro-routines” to improve one’s mental state. These routines can be as simple as washing a cup and putting it away, and can provide a dopamine kick which transforms into adrenaline, energizing the individual and potentially having an antidepressant effect. The importance of cognitive appraisal is also emphasized, as well as the need to be aware of one’s immediate surroundings and the problems that need to be addressed. By focusing on achievable micro-routines and taking small steps forward, individuals can tilt themselves forward and escape a “paralyzed or retreat mode” to move forward in life.
Video Summary in bullet points:
– People search for fundamental meaning to associate with and find a higher goal. – The reward of each behavioral process is proportional to the goal. – Aimless or fragmented goals cannot elicit positive emotion or dopaminergic reward. – Putting yourself in a state of apprehension about a valued goal improves neuroplasticity. – Finding a question worth answering is essential to writing an essay. – Engaging in an activity without belief is futile and frustrating. – Being gripped by a question can make writing an essay gripping and promote learning. – Anticipation, action, and reward contribute to the dopaminergic system. – Completing even trivial goals can close the dopaminergic circuit and amplify energy and confidence. – Adrenaline, the basis of neural energy, is manufactured from the molecule dopamine. – Epinephrine or adrenaline is essential for cognitive or physical goals. – Setting goals helps to direct epinephrine towards a particular high goal. – Micro-narratives are a series of small steps that are not integrated over a long span of time but are not nothing. – If you are lost, find something locally that you can fix to give you a direction. – Putting your house in perfect order is a very good thing to know, and you should find something that you could do that would make things better. – Doing something locally, even something as small as washing a cup and putting it back on the shelf, is a valuable micro-goal that will give you a dopamine kick, transform itself into adrenaline, and energize you, which can help with depression. – The cognitive appraisal is critical because it establishes which of these loops gets repeated, and completing even a trivial task can give you more dopamine, which gives you more adrenaline, and that can tilt you forward. – Cleaning up your room is not trivial, and it can easily be the stepping stone to putting things in order on a broader scale. – Small things are not small because doing them can tilt you forward in your metaphor. – If you keep doing things that tilt you forward, you’re going to get out of the paralyzed or retreat mode and be able to accomplish more. – When you’re lost, you need to go over your past in great detail and figure out where you are to avoid dying. – People are often loath to know where they are because they’d rather delude themselves by remaining vague. – Having a set of specific problems is better than remaining vague because you can make progress in addressing them. – If you keep moving ahead and tilting yourself forward, you’ll get out of this paralyzed or retreat mode, and then God only knows what you’ll be able to do.
