Using Rewards To Hack Your Dopamine
Treat yourself (literally). | Habits & Routine Week (6 of 7)
Hi there, friend.
What’s your favorite reward? I have lots of little ones. During tax season, after I finish each tax return, I give myself permission to have one milk chocolate Hershey’s Kiss (it’s my tiny gold medal). When I go a whole month without engaging in any of my unhealthy habits (there’s a lot of these, too), I buy myself an inexpensive item from my Amazon wishlist.
Rewards don’t have to cost you anything, though. They can be as simple as going for a walk or watching an episode of your favorite TV show.
Here’s the thing: our brains love rewards. Bipolar brains are often low in dopamine, so every dopamine hit can have a massive impact.
This is why tiny goals are so powerful. Every time you achieve success, you get a bit of dopamine from it. This dopamine reward isn’t about bribing yourself to do the right thing. Rather, it’s real neuroscience (the science of smiles 😁) that explains how success can breed more success.
A dopamine buffet is especially powerful when you can pair a hard task with an easy reward. For example, you can pair 15 minutes of deep cleaning with listening to a podcast or your favorite playlist.
I often pair folding laundry (the monster part of washing clothes) with watching an episode of a funny TV show. The laundry gets folded, and I get to laugh a little along the way.
The Reward Pairing Menu 🍽️
Your goal today is to find a few rewards to pair with some of your harder tasks. Tomorrow, we’ll review how you did with your tiny goals this week and look for ways to make adjustments.
What’s your favorite reward, and what hard task do you pair it with? Share your answers in the comments.
Journal Prompt
What are 3 healthy rewards that motivate you? (e.g., 10 mins of gaming, a piece of chocolate, listening to Taylor Swift).
Until next time, keep fighting.
Scott Ninneman
This week’s theme post:
Scott Ninneman is the author of Speaking Bipolar’s 30 Days of Positivity and the writer behind SpeakingBipolar.com. Living in the mountains of southeast Tennessee, he spends his days crunching numbers as a tax preparer and his nights caring for his mother and writing stories about bipolar life. (And he loves pandas.)
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