Deferring Reward: Overcoming Easy Dopamine

Last week I left you with the topic of this email.

You must increase the threshold for the amount of work you are willing to do unrewarded.

Real goals worth anything take years to complete, meaning it will be years before you can be rewarded for your work.

But the day has come when man has found peace and lost purpose.

We live in an over-satiated society that seeks to self-destruct through an overdose of dopamine.

Dopamine itself is a vital neurotransmitter. It serves to motivate your brain to do something gainful.

The problem comes when we make it readily available. The brain ceases to drive towards major goals and resorts to the "easy dopamine'.

But real goals require great sacrifice and time before they induce dopamine.

Success goes unrewarded in infancy.

So we must fix our neurological reward systems to seek long-term reward rather than menial immediate pleasure.

It is about adapting our brains to do quiet work.

Quiet work is what others are not willing to do.

They cannot do "boring" work.

Defined as the same task with no reward for a dehumanizing amount of time.

You must work today,

tomorrow,

and the day after,

and the day after,

and the day after,

for three years.

And then you'll realize and understand that all those quiet hours of "free" work are what made you a success seemingly overnight.

All that unrewarded work will build up for a tremendous explosion, deferring the fruits of your labor to a future date in which you will cash out with interest.

It is a debt that society pays you.

These quiet hours are fueled not by dopamine but by an undying belief in your mission.

Your legacy is carved in faith.

Faith is the only thing that will get you across.

Guard that faith with your life because it is the thing that will get you past the low points, the nights of desperation, the days where the only reasonable thing to do is quit.

Do not let others kill that faith.

Kick people like that out of your life.

That faith is a precious resource that you cannot let others destroy.

Only through faith bigger than ourselves can we create something bigger than ourselves.

You must be willing to work solely on the belief that it will pay out someday.

This is why people who do it solely for the money succeed far less than those who genuinely love it.

You can work unrewarded through sheer discipline, or you can do it because you love it.

One takes energy, and the other creates energy.

If you want the easy path and cheat code to success, it is literally to do what you love for a dehumanizing amount of time, with insane scale and in faith.

The intention must be enjoyment and not money because it will show.

Learn to have the patience necessary to make it work.

Believe that it will.

And do not let others take that belief.

Do it because you believe it is bigger than you.

And others will soon believe with you.

And you'll be successful beyond your wildest dreams.

It is about improving and iterating until it works, not simply accepting the current condition.

Acceptance and complacency is the killer of grander things.

You either make peace with the situation and live an everyday life

Or you refuse the situation and make it work.

That's next week's.

This newsletter is filled with the principles, mindset, and philosophy that have helped me achieve success.

I hope that through sharing these I will be able to impart unto you the tools I have used to grow.

Please feel free to reach out I am always eager to connect with like-minded people (the select few).

This newsletter is phase one of establishing an online platform on which I hope to provide value.

Content will be free so stay tuned.

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