fnep

If you accomplish everything on today’s clear-goals list, this means you’re one step closer to your high, hard goals, which means you’re on mission, which means your intrinsic drivers are doing their job. Cross an item off that list, get a little dopamine; cross another item off, get a little more dopamine. One little win at a time, that’s how this

Those who suffer from concentration difficulties such as ADHD or ADD often have a dopamine deficiency. In these cases, more stimulation is required to get enough dopamine to work on a task with focus. In addition, there are more potential distractions when the brain is faced with more impressions than can be processed. Attention is constantly

“The practices that carry the greatest potential for transformative change are usually counter- instinctual.” I take him to mean that if you’re trying to get better at life in some way– more patient, or better at listening, or less prone to procrastination or anxiety or self- sabotage– the necessary actions are pretty much guaranteed not to feel

The fundamental change we need is a shift from a feeling- centered approach to decisions to a purpose- centered approach. The question isn’t “What do I feel like doing?” but, rather, “what needs to be done?” All the time management systems in the world won’t really help us very much until we’ve developed the capacity to make decisions based on

Equally crucial, clear goals are an important flow trigger.12 The state requires focus, and clear goals tell us where and when to put our attention. When goals are clear, the mind doesn’t have to wonder about what to do or what to do next—it already knows. Thus, concentration tightens, motivation heightens, and extraneous information gets filtered

The blessing and the curse vie for top billing, for attention. When the DMN brings lovely images, it is our golden tool. But when it jumps track into the TPN and hijacks consciousness, then the DMN becomes the Demon, the seat of misery, the disease of the imagination. Trapped in the past or future in the DMN, you’re likely to abandon projects you

While complicated in its anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and synaptic flow, the DMN is easy to understand for the layman, if spelled out in plain English. So, as we recap, we’ll keep it simple:

Don’t feed the Demon.

Shut off its oxygen by denying it your attention.

Do something else that engages your mind.

Stay in action!

First, you give a task or a goal the power to determine your worth and happiness. You think, “Getting this job, passing this test, dating this person will change my life and make me happy.” When a perfect performance or the achievement of a specific goal becomes the sole measure of your self-worth, too much is at stake to just start working without

The way we work seems fixed and unchangeable—until it changes, and then we realize it didn’t have to be like that in the first place.