Scientific note: you actually need adrenaline (ie adenosine) to create dopamine. This is why cold showers can be an affective way of boosting your focus and motivation - because when you shock yourself with cold, you release a burst of adrenaline, and this is necessary to produce dopamine.
This kind of blew my mind. I've always written for enjoyment, and then at the end of last year I won a really competitive writing thing and then followed that up by having some success with my short stories. Since then, all of the sudden, I feel like writing has turned into an absolute slog. I didn't really understand why until watching this, but now I realise that instead of looking forward to writing, I've been craving that feeling of having my writing acknowledged. I've never been good at anything my whole life, so winning that thing was a huge deal for me, and it has totally overshadowed the satisfaction I get from writing itself. Go figure.
This makes me think of so many pro authors who burn out and say "I should have never made my hobby my job." I thought that would never happen to me because I have loved writing stories all my life. Alas, it did happen to me, and I wondered, is this inevitable? But you have answered that question: no! I realize now that I started treating the publishing of the book and income from the book as my "reward." But even when my books make money, it is an ephemeral and unfulfilling reward, isn't it? If the joy comes from that, then writing itself becomes dreary labor. So I'm backing off on the dopamine habit and focusing on adrenaline: write joyously! It doesn't mean I won't appreciate my published books and the money they can generate, but that isn't the REWARD. This is the mindset I needed to change. Thank you! One question: do you have a link to that study you mentioned?
Wow, I just experienced this problem today. I craved "the reward" (for me was to look up some vids on youtube) so bad, that I wanted to stop writing immediately. I managed to push through however and somehow managed to distance my mind from "the reward" and I pushed out more words than I was expecting. This video is exactly what I needed, because most of the times I lost the will to write despite knowing that is what I love to do. I look forward to implementing this technique, if you can call it that, in my daily life. On another note, another great video from you chris. Hope to see that live you talked about last week happen as soon as you want it to.
I was going to do it today but there were scheduling problems. Looks like next Friday at 8 AM PST is my target. I just need a name for it like "Coffee with Chris" or something. Ideas are welcome.
Great video Chris! And very much in line with my own experiences. I've consumed a lot of Becca Syme's work in the past 6-8 months that has helped a lot - no social media first thing / before writing is a big one!! But yeah, rewards haven't been a motivator and this makes a lot of sense as to why. I'm both Autistic and have ADHD, learning strategies and getting medicated has helped in many ways, but it doesn't open doors so much as removes the ply wood that was nailed down to them. I've been trying to follow the joy a lot with my writing and creations (and am very aware of that fine line between doing something for fun and for money not always able to co-exist. I'd *love* to make a TTRPG set in my world, I want to make my own Dragonlance! But, I don't want it to become a chore). Converting Dopamine to Adrenaline will be something I'll try, it seems like exercise, tackling that initial 'pain' until it clicks to be a good... I'm not sure. 🤔
I didn't have the greatest childhood but one habit that I managed to make a positive was learned from not being allowed to eat breakfast until all the animals (on the farm) were fed. The premise was if a person is hungry, they'll be motivated to finish the tasks between them and their next meal and its not wrong. If I need to do my dishes, but I can make a coffee now without doing them, my lazy ass will make the coffee and leave future-me to deal with even more dishes. So rather than a reward system per se, I find 'being hungry' a motivator. Not literally hungry all the time, but deprived of something basic until a certain task is done. If I really want a shower, and I have time, I should do a dirty job like repotting a plant or emptying and washing bins or something. This has helped me get into the habit of doing something new. I couldn't be more average a human if I tried so the most basic tips and tricks work for me, and my brain being resistant to change and it taking extra effort to establish new habits is pretty standard. I have to do a bit extra to get myself onto the right track, but it pays off once I'm consistent. If I drop the ball I have to start again and appealing to my urges to 'be lazy' or in a primal sense, preserve calories, helps me be consistent. Avoiding dopamine can be as simple as 10 mins of writing before coffee or breakfast. I don't know if that helps anyone, but it helps me - the habit becomes the joy. Humans love patterns, routines and predictability, in fact, the space it leaves us to not sweat the small stuff is where creativity can blossom.
I have ADHD so I'm one of those folks with depleted dopamine, but I've really taken on board your tips in the video, I think it's even more important for people like me to use our little stash wisely 😅 I especially like the idea of not flooding your body with dopamine before a task but rather dealing with a task in a way that produces dopamine on its own. I've been practicing meditation for a few years and I'm just looking around now for tips to hone my skills, meditating on the task gets me doing it, I'm hoping your tips will get me to start enjoying it!
Thanks for this video. I'm going to try to stop checking things before I start. I get up around 0430-0500 and screw around with a few other things to wake up before I start writing at 0600. I'll try something else. I had an interesting writing day today. 45 minutes to write about 500 words, then wrote another 600 in 15 minutes after I was ready to give up and get to work. :)
Thanks Chris, this is great. When all I can do on working on my novel is watch a video, because I am sick with COVID, then this gives me strategy for when I'm well. I'm going to get so into the process, letting each good sentence, paragraph, page I write be the reward. It really makes me want to be writing right now. Too bad I'm too weak to move off the couch today. Keep up the great videos. You are adding to the value in the world, enabling others to fulfill their paths in the art and science of writing.
These have been great videos for me Chris, I definitely have to be managing where I’m getting my dopamine from and make sure I’m feeding that from the positive places that help us move forward to our goals and dreams / writing etc. Such good points! I will practice this yes we must love the process! How do you do days when you can’t do writing sprints because you are stuck on the scenes and ending not being plotted out well enough and in LitRPG Working out my game system more For the book? This is how I have been a little stuck wanting to get to writing, but more plotting and fleshing out scenes and the game system needs to be fleshed out some more to be able to get back to writing sprints, what do you recommend in this case? Thanks so much Chris! I’m trying to figure out strategies for this I’m the planning, plotting and game stage for the first novel of a series. I do all of your other plotting and outlining videos and those are so helpful but trying to figure out how to get past this stage so I can get back to the writing.
I take plotting days. Writing is pointless unless the plotting is done. If you aren't ready and excited, then I feel like the words won't be your best =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites so true! Agreed! Thank you! Okay well I will take some plotting and developing days and really enjoy and love that process of fleshing it all out more! That is fun! Thanks Chris! As soon as I get back to writing i'm going to start your 5k words per hour course I keep going through over again, to help jumpstart my first 30 days of morning sprints! Your time management scheduling video was so good for me too as I'm completely redoing a schedule that works for me, and have started getting up at 5am like you said and in bed at 9:30pm and that has been such a huge benefit for me!!! Thanks Chris the mentorship through all your content and channel have been such a game changer for me and still a work in progress! thank you!
@@ChrisFoxWrites Had a wonderful day planning out my game system more for my LitRPG and doing some More Plot Gardening today! Thanks Chris! You have been a huge motivator and inspiration for me in my journey to becoming a published author! Thank you!
I don’t want to throw any wrenches into what works for you, but hopefully this ADDS to what you’re already doing to your mindset - The PERMANENT way to accomplish what you’re talking about is to use your conscious mind to convince/indoctrinate your subconscious into attaching EFFORT to reward/dopamine/success. When they did a study of like 300 top 0.1% of successful athletes, what they found was that they attached their feelings of accomplishment and contentment to EFFORT, not OUTCOME. Walking into every single encounter that requires effort in your day, and constantly repeating “I love effort, I love effort” it starts to transform our relationship with the task. It also prevents any severe rises and falls associated with accomplishment. Because it’s not OUTCOME that drives us (calling ourselves the 0.1%) it’s the EFFORT that drives us, because when we engage in EFFORT we’ve trained our brains to release dopamine for it. As a sidebar, I think there’s something really interesting and honest about what happens when we integrate that which we love to do in our off time with our business pursuits. It makes sense to do it, but it does put an odd burden on the thing that wasn’t there previously. I don’t know if there’s a clear answer to rectify that impact.
Something that came up under a different comment that I think might apply to the second bit about how to get that same love back for the hobby that’s been monetized: I’d sort of forgotten that I do this - when I’m not feeling especially keen on engaging in a hobby that I’ve monetized, I try to get excited for the actual CRAFT of the thing. So while I might be like “meh, I’m not really excited to find out what Cyclops is doing this week in X-men,” I can think “hey, I wonder what panel structure they used; I wonder what angles they used for which scenes?” I don’t know that there’s any turning back from monetizing a hobby (whether it’s skateboarding or football or writing or reading), Colby Bryant was asked after he retired if he ever played basketball for fun, and he said no. He literally never shot a basketball because he saw no point in doing it. That’s kinda wild to me, but it makes perfect sense. And…that’s not something I’d ever want to become, ya know? I dunno. It’s a super complex question when it comes to monetizing that which we love. It does seem like some form of compartmentalizing is required to maintain the same interest for the same REASONS. And since the REASON is what drives the enjoyment…? Like, I love to play poker because of the COMPETITION of it. Busting out (which has only happened three times to me in non-tournament settings) sucks, but it would never keep me from engaging in it. Because I love the competition. Back when I was in sales, I didn’t care about the money, I cared about the competition with my peers, who were all around me all on their phones, ya know? I’d love to have the same PERFECT relationship I used to have with my hobbies (like reading vapid, fun superhero comics) but I just don’t. Reading comics can often feel laborious and like a TASK. But then sometimes I get my mind right and it feels just fine and I’m happily reading comics. Haha It seems like it’s the GETTING there part that’s challenging. Once I’m a couple issues into that week’s books, I’m good. But when I think about reading comics, I’m like “ugh.” Whereas I used to rush home with my fresh stack, hop on the bed and just GORGE on them. I think sometimes we just need to get out of our own way. Bro, there are people who do puzzles. Like…they sit and do puzzles. We got this. Haha
Hello Chris. I don't think the process u described in the video converts dopamine to adrenaline. More adequate video title could be "The gamification myth" or "Problem with award-driven motivation system". Anyways, the conclusion of the video should be that for certain activities the award-driven approach works better and for others enjoy the process approach do. People should play around with different approaches and discover what works for them the best.
What you believe or don't believe is irrelevant. This is how the process works: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catecholamine Over time an activity you genuinely enjoy will gradually convert dopamine into epinephrine. This is why I could worldbuild for eight hours, and feel like no time had passed back when I was a GM, but can't do it as an author now. My brain has changed the process. Now the reward comes when the chapter is completed, and the task is done. The activity is no longer its own reward. Feel free to make your own video coming to your own conclusions, but if you do please use facts, not how you feel about things. Everything you need to understand the neurological processes is in that link. If you disagree I'd be happy to discuss it further.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Well catecholamine is entire group of neurotransmitters, where there are dopamine and nonadrenaline and epinephrine, but the title suggests that you can manually convert one into another which is not truth. Dopamine is used as one of enzymes to synthesize nonadrenaline and then nonadrenaline is used to create adrenaline but it takes place when critical or dangerous situation happen and when fight or flight response is activated. It has nothing to do with the way u approach ur motivation system or u enjoying things. So that's how it works. I'll think about creating my own video but I prefer to build upon other works and expand things that already exist instead of reinventing the wheel.
Are you claiming that dopamine is not converted into epinephrine? Are you claiming that epinephrine does get converted to adrenaline? Everything I said was true, tested, and echoed by countless people in this very thread. You wanting me to be wrong doesn't make me wrong. You've presented no data nor evidence to show that I am. I suppose I could have made the thumbnail say epinephrine, and that would have more accurate, but more people know what adrenaline is. Beyond that I'm not sure you have a point, and part of being a good teacher is using heuristics to make material accessible to the audience. Good luck with your video! Drop a link if you produce it and I'm happy to give it a watch and a comment =)
Scientific note: you actually need adrenaline (ie adenosine) to create dopamine. This is why cold showers can be an affective way of boosting your focus and motivation - because when you shock yourself with cold, you release a burst of adrenaline, and this is necessary to produce dopamine.
This kind of blew my mind. I've always written for enjoyment, and then at the end of last year I won a really competitive writing thing and then followed that up by having some success with my short stories. Since then, all of the sudden, I feel like writing has turned into an absolute slog. I didn't really understand why until watching this, but now I realise that instead of looking forward to writing, I've been craving that feeling of having my writing acknowledged. I've never been good at anything my whole life, so winning that thing was a huge deal for me, and it has totally overshadowed the satisfaction I get from writing itself. Go figure.
Just found ur channel,as a writer I'm so connected with these videos,found a strong back
This makes me think of so many pro authors who burn out and say "I should have never made my hobby my job." I thought that would never happen to me because I have loved writing stories all my life. Alas, it did happen to me, and I wondered, is this inevitable? But you have answered that question: no! I realize now that I started treating the publishing of the book and income from the book as my "reward." But even when my books make money, it is an ephemeral and unfulfilling reward, isn't it? If the joy comes from that, then writing itself becomes dreary labor. So I'm backing off on the dopamine habit and focusing on adrenaline: write joyously! It doesn't mean I won't appreciate my published books and the money they can generate, but that isn't the REWARD. This is the mindset I needed to change. Thank you!
One question: do you have a link to that study you mentioned?
Dean Wesley Smith's written scores of books over the past 50 years. He said he'd quit if he thought it was work.
Wow, I just experienced this problem today. I craved "the reward" (for me was to look up some vids on youtube) so bad, that I wanted to stop writing immediately. I managed to push through however and somehow managed to distance my mind from "the reward" and I pushed out more words than I was expecting.
This video is exactly what I needed, because most of the times I lost the will to write despite knowing that is what I love to do. I look forward to implementing this technique, if you can call it that, in my daily life.
On another note, another great video from you chris. Hope to see that live you talked about last week happen as soon as you want it to.
I was going to do it today but there were scheduling problems. Looks like next Friday at 8 AM PST is my target. I just need a name for it like "Coffee with Chris" or something. Ideas are welcome.
Great video Chris! And very much in line with my own experiences. I've consumed a lot of Becca Syme's work in the past 6-8 months that has helped a lot - no social media first thing / before writing is a big one!! But yeah, rewards haven't been a motivator and this makes a lot of sense as to why. I'm both Autistic and have ADHD, learning strategies and getting medicated has helped in many ways, but it doesn't open doors so much as removes the ply wood that was nailed down to them. I've been trying to follow the joy a lot with my writing and creations (and am very aware of that fine line between doing something for fun and for money not always able to co-exist. I'd *love* to make a TTRPG set in my world, I want to make my own Dragonlance! But, I don't want it to become a chore). Converting Dopamine to Adrenaline will be something I'll try, it seems like exercise, tackling that initial 'pain' until it clicks to be a good... I'm not sure. 🤔
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
My morning routine is to yell "Yeah Buddy! Lightweight baby!" Before going to the gym.
I didn't have the greatest childhood but one habit that I managed to make a positive was learned from not being allowed to eat breakfast until all the animals (on the farm) were fed. The premise was if a person is hungry, they'll be motivated to finish the tasks between them and their next meal and its not wrong. If I need to do my dishes, but I can make a coffee now without doing them, my lazy ass will make the coffee and leave future-me to deal with even more dishes. So rather than a reward system per se, I find 'being hungry' a motivator. Not literally hungry all the time, but deprived of something basic until a certain task is done. If I really want a shower, and I have time, I should do a dirty job like repotting a plant or emptying and washing bins or something.
This has helped me get into the habit of doing something new. I couldn't be more average a human if I tried so the most basic tips and tricks work for me, and my brain being resistant to change and it taking extra effort to establish new habits is pretty standard. I have to do a bit extra to get myself onto the right track, but it pays off once I'm consistent. If I drop the ball I have to start again and appealing to my urges to 'be lazy' or in a primal sense, preserve calories, helps me be consistent. Avoiding dopamine can be as simple as 10 mins of writing before coffee or breakfast. I don't know if that helps anyone, but it helps me - the habit becomes the joy. Humans love patterns, routines and predictability, in fact, the space it leaves us to not sweat the small stuff is where creativity can blossom.
this is a real creative unlock. great tip. wow.
I have ADHD so I'm one of those folks with depleted dopamine, but I've really taken on board your tips in the video, I think it's even more important for people like me to use our little stash wisely 😅
I especially like the idea of not flooding your body with dopamine before a task but rather dealing with a task in a way that produces dopamine on its own. I've been practicing meditation for a few years and I'm just looking around now for tips to hone my skills, meditating on the task gets me doing it, I'm hoping your tips will get me to start enjoying it!
Thanks for this video. I'm going to try to stop checking things before I start. I get up around 0430-0500 and screw around with a few other things to wake up before I start writing at 0600. I'll try something else.
I had an interesting writing day today. 45 minutes to write about 500 words, then wrote another 600 in 15 minutes after I was ready to give up and get to work. :)
Thanks Chris, this is great. When all I can do on working on my novel is watch a video, because I am sick with COVID, then this gives me strategy for when I'm well. I'm going to get so into the process, letting each good sentence, paragraph, page I write be the reward. It really makes me want to be writing right now. Too bad I'm too weak to move off the couch today. Keep up the great videos. You are adding to the value in the world, enabling others to fulfill their paths in the art and science of writing.
Happy to see you posting the videos again, Chris!
Oh, and it is useful.
Ugh. I've been doing this wrong! lol
These have been great videos for me Chris, I definitely have to be managing where I’m getting my dopamine from and make sure I’m feeding that from the positive places that help us move forward to our goals and dreams / writing etc. Such good points! I will practice this yes we must love the process! How do you do days when you can’t do writing sprints because you are stuck on the scenes and ending not being plotted out well enough and in LitRPG
Working out my game system more
For the book? This is how I have been a little stuck wanting to get to writing, but more plotting and fleshing out scenes and the game system needs to be fleshed out some more to be able to get back to writing sprints, what do you recommend in this case? Thanks so much Chris! I’m trying to figure out strategies for this I’m the planning, plotting and game stage for the first novel of a series. I do all of your other plotting and outlining videos and those are so helpful but trying to figure out how to get past this stage so I can get back to the writing.
I take plotting days. Writing is pointless unless the plotting is done. If you aren't ready and excited, then I feel like the words won't be your best =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites so true! Agreed! Thank you! Okay well I will take some plotting and developing days and really enjoy and love that process of fleshing it all out more! That is fun! Thanks Chris! As soon as I get back to writing i'm going to start your 5k words per hour course I keep going through over again, to help jumpstart my first 30 days of morning sprints! Your time management scheduling video was so good for me too as I'm completely redoing a schedule that works for me, and have started getting up at 5am like you said and in bed at 9:30pm and that has been such a huge benefit for me!!! Thanks Chris the mentorship through all your content and channel have been such a game changer for me and still a work in progress! thank you!
@@ChrisFoxWrites Had a wonderful day planning out my game system more for my LitRPG
and doing some
More Plot Gardening today! Thanks Chris! You have been a huge motivator and inspiration for me in my journey to becoming a published author! Thank you!
How much dictation do you do these days for your 5k words/day goal?
I don’t want to throw any wrenches into what works for you, but hopefully this ADDS to what you’re already doing to your mindset -
The PERMANENT way to accomplish what you’re talking about is to use your conscious mind to convince/indoctrinate your subconscious into attaching EFFORT to reward/dopamine/success.
When they did a study of like 300 top 0.1% of successful athletes, what they found was that they attached their feelings of accomplishment and contentment to EFFORT, not OUTCOME.
Walking into every single encounter that requires effort in your day, and constantly repeating “I love effort, I love effort” it starts to transform our relationship with the task. It also prevents any severe rises and falls associated with accomplishment. Because it’s not OUTCOME that drives us (calling ourselves the 0.1%) it’s the EFFORT that drives us, because when we engage in EFFORT we’ve trained our brains to release dopamine for it.
As a sidebar, I think there’s something really interesting and honest about what happens when we integrate that which we love to do in our off time with our business pursuits. It makes sense to do it, but it does put an odd burden on the thing that wasn’t there previously. I don’t know if there’s a clear answer to rectify that impact.
Something that came up under a different comment that I think might apply to the second bit about how to get that same love back for the hobby that’s been monetized:
I’d sort of forgotten that I do this - when I’m not feeling especially keen on engaging in a hobby that I’ve monetized, I try to get excited for the actual CRAFT of the thing. So while I might be like “meh, I’m not really excited to find out what Cyclops is doing this week in X-men,” I can think “hey, I wonder what panel structure they used; I wonder what angles they used for which scenes?”
I don’t know that there’s any turning back from monetizing a hobby (whether it’s skateboarding or football or writing or reading), Colby Bryant was asked after he retired if he ever played basketball for fun, and he said no. He literally never shot a basketball because he saw no point in doing it. That’s kinda wild to me, but it makes perfect sense. And…that’s not something I’d ever want to become, ya know?
I dunno. It’s a super complex question when it comes to monetizing that which we love. It does seem like some form of compartmentalizing is required to maintain the same interest for the same REASONS. And since the REASON is what drives the enjoyment…?
Like, I love to play poker because of the COMPETITION of it. Busting out (which has only happened three times to me in non-tournament settings) sucks, but it would never keep me from engaging in it. Because I love the competition. Back when I was in sales, I didn’t care about the money, I cared about the competition with my peers, who were all around me all on their phones, ya know?
I’d love to have the same PERFECT relationship I used to have with my hobbies (like reading vapid, fun superhero comics) but I just don’t. Reading comics can often feel laborious and like a TASK. But then sometimes I get my mind right and it feels just fine and I’m happily reading comics. Haha It seems like it’s the GETTING there part that’s challenging. Once I’m a couple issues into that week’s books, I’m good. But when I think about reading comics, I’m like “ugh.” Whereas I used to rush home with my fresh stack, hop on the bed and just GORGE on them.
I think sometimes we just need to get out of our own way. Bro, there are people who do puzzles. Like…they sit and do puzzles. We got this. Haha
require vitamin c
Hello Chris. I don't think the process u described in the video converts dopamine to adrenaline. More adequate video title could be "The gamification myth" or "Problem with award-driven motivation system". Anyways, the conclusion of the video should be that for certain activities the award-driven approach works better and for others enjoy the process approach do. People should play around with different approaches and discover what works for them the best.
What you believe or don't believe is irrelevant. This is how the process works:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catecholamine
Over time an activity you genuinely enjoy will gradually convert dopamine into epinephrine. This is why I could worldbuild for eight hours, and feel like no time had passed back when I was a GM, but can't do it as an author now.
My brain has changed the process. Now the reward comes when the chapter is completed, and the task is done. The activity is no longer its own reward.
Feel free to make your own video coming to your own conclusions, but if you do please use facts, not how you feel about things. Everything you need to understand the neurological processes is in that link. If you disagree I'd be happy to discuss it further.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Well catecholamine is entire group of neurotransmitters, where there are dopamine and nonadrenaline and epinephrine, but the title suggests that you can manually convert one into another which is not truth. Dopamine is used as one of enzymes to synthesize nonadrenaline and then nonadrenaline is used to create adrenaline but it takes place when critical or dangerous situation happen and when fight or flight response is activated. It has nothing to do with the way u approach ur motivation system or u enjoying things. So that's how it works. I'll think about creating my own video but I prefer to build upon other works and expand things that already exist instead of reinventing the wheel.
Are you claiming that dopamine is not converted into epinephrine? Are you claiming that epinephrine does get converted to adrenaline?
Everything I said was true, tested, and echoed by countless people in this very thread. You wanting me to be wrong doesn't make me wrong. You've presented no data nor evidence to show that I am.
I suppose I could have made the thumbnail say epinephrine, and that would have more accurate, but more people know what adrenaline is. Beyond that I'm not sure you have a point, and part of being a good teacher is using heuristics to make material accessible to the audience.
Good luck with your video! Drop a link if you produce it and I'm happy to give it a watch and a comment =)