publish something imperfect.

offer dopamine alternatives. since the dopamine system favors short-term reward, swap sabotage with a small, satisfying win. light a candle before you write. reward yourself with a 5-min jam sesh after sending that email. your brain doesn’t need a big reward, it just needs something that feels good

And then there’s habit, habit, habit. The basal ganglia stores repeated behaviors as automatic routines. If your default response to discomfort has been avoidance, quitting, or perfectionism, those patterns can become ingrained, even when they’re unhelpful.

When you move toward something uncertain (a big goal, a new relationship, a change in routine), your amygdala (the part of the brain that scans for danger) can interpret that as a threat. Not because it is, but because it’s unknown. And that’s often enough to trigger a stress response.

In that state, your prefrontal cortex (the region that handles... See more