Recently, scientists have proposed that our brain divides the world into two separate regions: near and far. Everything that’s close to us – the things we can touch, see, and feel at any given moment – falls into the “near” category. Anything that’s out of our immediate reach – figuratively or literally – falls into the “far” category.

Dopamine gets you excited about the things that fall into the “far” category, and motivates you to pursue them. It encourages a hunter to track that elusive animal, an office worker to apply for that coveted promotion, a shopper to buy that powerful car.

From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. After all, the food we have is already here, right in front of us. It’s the food that we don’t yet have that could decide whether we live or die. And that’s why dopamine evolved to make us chase our dreams.