The Power Of Dopamine & Routine: Your Key To Unstoppable Motivation
00:00:00 Today is April 9th, 2025
00:03:23 “Reward learning”
00:14:27 Rubber Hits the Road
00:23:56 The Takeaway
Motivation Triggers: Psychological Tactics for Energy, Willpower, Self-Discipline, and Fast Action (Clear Thinking and Fast Action Book 9) By Patrick King
Hear it Here - https://bit.ly/motivationtriggersking
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K8DQKRJ
Discover the secret to transforming from a sloth into a powerhouse of productivity! In this episode, we dive deep into the fascinating world of dopamine - the motivation molecule. We'll explore how your body's natural rhythms and everyday routines can either energize or drain you, and most importantly, learn practical strategies on how to create an environment that fosters success and keeps you sprinting towards your goals. Say goodbye to procrastination and hello to a life of action and achievement!
Transcript
Hello, listeners!
Speaker:Today is April 9th, 2025, and you're listening to Social Skills Coaching: where you become more likable, charismatic, and productive.
Speaker:Our motto?
Speaker:Energy, willpower, self-discipline—and fast action!
Speaker:On today's episode, we'll be diving into the world of motivation triggers with a focus on Patrick King's book "Motivation Triggers."
Speaker:This book is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the psychology behind getting things done and overcoming procrastination.
Speaker:Patrick King's work delves into the science of what drives us to take action, offering practical strategies to help you go from complete apathy to full-throttle productivity.
Speaker:We'll be exploring topics like the role of dopamine in motivation, how our body clock impacts our energy levels, and creating an environment that sets you up for success.
Speaker:So if you're tired of saying "I'll do it later" and want to unlock your potential for fast action, this episode is a must-listen.
Speaker:Remember, humans are creatures of habit, but with the right triggers, we can switch gears and achieve great things.
Speaker:You can find Patrick King's book on Amazon or as an audiobook on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.
Speaker:For more information, check out his website at bitly - PKConsulting.
Speaker:Let's get motivated!
Speaker:To survive, humans are motivated to act toward what they need, and away from pain and danger.
Speaker:Simple, right?
Speaker:But how does the human body decide which is which?
Speaker:It uses a neurochemical system called a reward system—of which the primary communicator is the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Speaker:Every time you process a stimulus as a reward, you do so because dopamine produced in your ventral tegmental area communicates with your nucleus accumbens.
Speaker:And when you experience a reward, you are motivated to repeat the behavior that caused it.
Speaker:Neurons light up in expectation that the same thing will happen again, and we lay down memories that cement those associations.
Speaker:The mesolimbic dopamine pathway essentially works with feedback loops—you are able to predict rewards because your brain learns to recognize that something important is going to happen soon, activating dopamine release.
Speaker:This happens before we receive our reward—meaning that dopamine encourages and motivates us using the anticipation of a reward that we’ve learnt about.
Speaker:Dopamine used to be associated with pleasure, but now the Castellón group and John Salamone at the University of Connecticut are changing this paradigm, investigating why dopamine is also released in stressful situations.
Speaker:The conclusion many neuroscientists have come to is that dopamine is all about motivation and appraising risk and potential reward, rather than pleasure.
Speaker:Dopamine helps us remember, process emotions, learn, plan and reason.
Speaker:And it helps the brain orchestrate all of that toward goal-directed behavior; dopamine is the neurochemical expression of motivation.
Speaker:“Reward learning” teaches us to anticipate rewards when we undertake certain behaviors.
Speaker:Interestingly, there are individual variations in reward systems—some people are extra sensitive to rewards, while others respond more to punishments.
Speaker:A study done at Vanderbilt University found that extroverted high achievers often have greater dopamine signalling in the brain regions associated with motivation and reward.
Speaker:Furthermore, there are variations in how people balance perceived reward against perceived risk when deciding to act.
Speaker:Developmental life stage matters—as people grow older, the brain regions responsible for emotional self-regulation also mature.
Speaker:If someone has a dysregulation in their reward system, they may demonstrate addiction and aggression, or else inappropriate docility—i.e., a faulty arousal response to stimuli in the environment.
Speaker:In fact, dopamine insufficiency has been associated with lack of motivation in conditions like fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.
Speaker:Circadian Rhythms
Speaker:36 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:40,920 The biology of motivation is not simply a what but also a when.
Speaker:The difference between high and low motivation may simply be a matter of time.
Speaker:Circadian rhythms are the body’s “inner clock” or cycles of when to wake, sleep and eat.
Speaker:Prompted by cues like sunlight or temperature, our circadian rhythm can powerfully affect how energized we feel.
Speaker:These rhythms are coordinated in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus.
Speaker:For example, when cells in the eyes detect a drop in light, signals travel to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which encourages the production of melatonin, thus instigating sleep.
Speaker:Your body can only do one thing at a time, and the circadian rhythm is a way of allotting different essential survival needs (sleeping, eating, and even sex) to different times of day.
Speaker:Being drowsy when you planned to study might not feel like “motivation,” but it is—it’s your body’s biochemical motivation to undertake essential rest at the optimal time.
Speaker:Pushing against your body’s natural rhythms has been associated with sleep disorders, depression, obesity and, most interestingly, attention and concentration difficulties.
Speaker:It’s not rocket science: forcing yourself to do a lot of hard, complex work when your body is doing everything it can to sleep is a recipe for disaster.
Speaker:You’ll know that your sleep cycles are out of whack if you frequently experience insomnia or daytime sleepiness, not to mention brain fog and lack of energy.
Speaker:As you might expect by now, there are individual differences in circadian rhythm, too.
Speaker:Your “chronotype” is your unique sleep personality, i.e.
Speaker:whether you’re more of a morning person or night owl, or something in between.
Speaker:There are four chronotypes: the bear, the lion, the wolf, and the dolphin.
Speaker:Bears are people whose circadian rhythms mimic the movement of the sun.
Speaker:They’re up the earliest, and feel a dip in energy levels by afternoon.
Speaker:Lions are early risers too, though not as early as bears.
Speaker:Wolves prefer late starts to the day and belong to the nocturnal end of the spectrum.
Speaker:Finally, dolphins do not have any fixed sleeping pattern.
Speaker:To find out which one you are, all you need to do is carefully document your energy levels and sleep habits for a week or two to identify the times of day you feel most and least energized.
Speaker:Then, as much as is possible, assign novel or high-energy tasks to your most motivated periods while resting or doing mundane tasks at other times.
Speaker:Alternatively, you could try discovering your chronotype through trial and error.
Speaker:Make minor changes to the structure of your days and observe which ones leave you feeling most productive and energetic.
Speaker:Keep experimenting till you hit the sweet spot.
Speaker:Whatever your optimal schedule, it’s important to keep it consistent, and wake and sleep at roughly the same time each day.
Speaker:Your biology takes its cues from the environment—so avoid an environment brimming with harsh, unnatural light from devices late at night.
Speaker:After all, our ancestors’ bodies evolved to live in worlds naturally lit by the rise and fall of the sun.
Speaker:When you wake up, try to expose yourself to natural light and plenty of fresh air—a morning walk is ideal.
Speaker:The main question running along throughout this book is, “How do I motivate myself” or perhaps, “How do I motivate others?”
Speaker:67 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:27,640 Hopefully, in some of the discussion above, you’re starting to see that the answer to this question is: “Create an environment that naturally supports the cognitive, emotional and physical aspects of healthy motivation.”
Speaker:69 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:37,440 Your motivational state cannot be separated out from your environment—whether that’s your social, emotional or cultural context, or all of them.
Speaker:Your brain is completely intertwined with the world it lives in, and so, if we want to enhance its function, we can’t help but to consider the surrounding environment that affects that function.
Speaker:Much of the early personal development-style writing done on motivation focused only on the cognitive aspects—willpower and tough love and smart goals.
Speaker:But this is a very limited view of a rather complex process.
Speaker:Many parts of our motivational processes may indeed be hidden from our conscious awareness, so that we’re not even completely sure of why we behave as we do.
Speaker:Blithely forging ahead with a commitment to be more disciplined is likely to fail until we consider the emotional, possible unconscious antecedents of our actual behavior.
Speaker:Some ways of thinking about motivation encourage us to imagine that we are isolated entities, acting completely freely against a neutral, unconnected backdrop.
Speaker:But in reality, it’s more the case that we are constantly engaged in a dynamic conversation with our environment, mutually affecting one another.
Speaker:Your environment certainly affects you (for example, you may live in a country with low winter light that influences your melatonin levels, depression and motivation), but you can also impact your environment (you can move or buy a therapy light).
Speaker:As a person, you look to the environment to fill your needs, and act accordingly.
Speaker:But your environment in turn has its own demands, limits, opportunities, and so on.
Speaker:These shape your needs and correspondingly, your behavior.
Speaker:Every time you engage with your world, formulate a goal, take action, appraise your results and adjust before feeding back and trying again, you are in communication with your environment.
Speaker:If you consistently take actions that foster an environment that best supports your motivation and goal-attainment, you will set up a positive feedback loop, reinforcing beneficial behaviors over time.
Speaker:The principle is simple but not easy: to change ourselves, we change the environment we inhabit.
Speaker:In a way, this turns a lot of attitudes about motivation upside down.
Speaker:It’s not about white-knuckling your way to better productivity, or valorizing hard work and talent.
Speaker:As important as these are, it may be that environment matters more than raw talent or effort.
Speaker:Seemingly small environmental features (like number of daylight hours) can actually have enormous and far-reaching effects.
Speaker:For example, Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world, and never-ending daylight hours during summer as well as clashes between traditional Inuit and Western culture are some of the commonly cited reasons.
Speaker:Talent, hard work and enthusiasm certainly play a role in motivation.
Speaker:But personal attributes and behaviors may only be a portion of the story (nature), while the nurture portion may ultimately have more influence.
Speaker:So, if this is the case, what does the optimal environment for staying motivated look like?
Speaker:And to what extent can we influence this environment ourselves?
Speaker:One simple way technique is to automate as many decisions as possible.
Speaker:Make the environment make good decisions for you, consistently.
Speaker:For example, install productivity apps to limit social media use, have a habit of never keeping unhealthy snacks in the home, get your vitamins delivered on a monthly subscription and connect with an accountability team that will show up at your doorstep when it’s time to train, no excuses.
Speaker:Piggyback new habits on old ones so you’re expending less mental energy and effort to stick with them.
Speaker:Park a good distance from your office so you’re naturally fitting in an extra thirty-minute walk every day without even trying, for example.
Speaker:Make sure that you don’t have to go out of your way to incorporate new habits.
Speaker:Pick a gym that’s on the way home from work, or if you want to learn a new instrument, keep it in a place that’s easily visible so you’re constantly reminded of it.
Speaker:Honestly appraise your environment—if you’re failing to summon up motivation, is it actually a sign of a poor, unsupportive environment?
Speaker:Put your energies into improving what’s lacking.
Speaker:These improvements can be made on all levels, from the mundane to the profound, and in all areas of life, from relationships to work to personal development.
Speaker:Examples:
Speaker:105 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:22,760 • Crafting a comfortable, appealing workspace—think healthy snacks, nice décor, a comfy chair, an uncluttered workplace, noise-cancelling earphones…
Speaker:107 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:38,360 • Finding creative ways to mitigate stress from your cultural environment, for example installing apps to prevent yourself from “doom scrolling” and subscribing to high-quality news sites and blogs rather than wasting time on social media.
Speaker:• Developing a strong social environment, e.g.
Speaker:a weekly session with a counselor, regular time out with close friends, date nights with a partner, and a call once in a while to your mom—all to help you feel grounded, supported and witnessed as you embark on life’s challenges.
Speaker:• Moving to a different place or switching jobs to something that suits your innate talents and preferences better.
Speaker:• Changing your diet, exercise routine or sleep schedule.
Speaker:• Seeking intellectual and creative stimulus in the form of challenging new reading material, inspiring art and documentaries, or a religious or spiritual retreat where you feel encouraged to pursue higher goals.
Speaker:• Committing to a yearly checkup so you can catch and treat any vitamin deficiencies.
Speaker:Rubber Hits the Road
Speaker:116 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:33,600 Let’s put it all together.
Speaker:Remember, theory means nothing until it’s put into action.
Speaker:Here’s how:
Speaker:120 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:40,400 Dopamine
Speaker:122 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:44,040 It’s not about willpower—it’s about dopamine!
Speaker:You’ll know you’re running low when you feel apathetic and low on energy and enthusiasm.
Speaker:Fatigue, forgetfulness, apathy, distractibility, insomnia, lack of concentration and even sugar cravings are signs you could use a boost.
Speaker:How can we use what we know about the “motivation chemical” to support our own motivation?
Speaker:Firstly, you need to create rewarding experiences to supply your reward system feedback loops.
Speaker:Rather than this dampening your enthusiasm, you’re actually more likely to work hard.
Speaker:• Set small goals and take a moment to celebrate when you achieve them, fostering feelings of accomplishment.
Speaker:• Visualize the realization of your final goal, revelling in the positive emotions.
Speaker:• Brag.
Speaker:Well, maybe not brag—but share your achievements and get support and praise.
Speaker:• Use productivity and organizational tools to help your process stay lean and focused.
Speaker:• Don’t multitask!
Speaker:• Take frequent breaks—a short nap, or a quick workout to get your blood flowing will boost dopamine levels, even if they’re not associated with the main task.
Speaker:• Set process goals where possible, so your effort is always rewarded, even if you don’t quite achieve your goal.
Speaker:• If your motivation is flagging, simply commit to doing five minutes at first.
Speaker:The satisfaction of having completed just those five minutes can be enough to propel you to do more.
Speaker:But you can also boost dopamine levels in other ways, and start reinforcing feedback loops that trigger, sustain and shape your motivation for any goal.
Speaker:One easy thing to do is eat more protein.
Speaker:The amino acid tyrosine is necessary for the production of dopamine in your brain, but can also be synthesized from another amino acid, phenylalanine.
Speaker:Very low levels of these amino acids can cause dopamine drops, but you can fix this by taking in high-protein foods, or tyrosine-rich foods like avocados, almonds and bananas.
Speaker:Saturated fat intake has been tentatively associated with lower dopamine levels—i.e.
Speaker:foods like animal fat, butter and palm oil—independent of other parameters like body weight or hormone levels.
Speaker:This may be because of the inflammation these foods cause, which in turn damages the brain’s reward system.
Speaker:The gut (i.e.
Speaker:the “second brain”) produces neurotransmitters too, including dopamine.
Speaker:There is some limited evidence suggesting that certain strains of gut microbacteria can positively impact mood and motivation., so a probiotic supplement or fermented foods in the diet may help.
Speaker:In fact, the consumption of velvet beans may raise dopamine levels since they contain a chemical precursor to dopamine.
Speaker:Other beneficial lifestyle interventions are what you might expect: exercise regularly to boost dopamine, increase blood flow and fill your body with oxygen.
Speaker:Returning to the question of sleep, good quality rest is important, since dopamine is released in high levels first thing in the morning to encourage alertness—except if you’ve had poor sleep the night before.
Speaker:Aim for seven to nine hours with good sleep hygiene.
Speaker:Whatever you do, try to avoid unhealthy ways to temporarily spike dopamine—such as with caffeine, nicotine or sugary processed foods.
Speaker:This could only spur addiction that saps motivation in the long run.
Speaker:Some supplements such as ashwagandha and panax ginseng can help with focus and energy and are natural and healthy.
Speaker:Finally, make sure your life is filled with enough time for rest, contemplation and enjoyment.
Speaker:Meditate, get a stress-busting massage, make liberal use of calming or inspiring music, and expose yourself to natural sunlight, fresh air, and as much nature as you can.
Speaker:It may seem like these vague lifestyle improvements couldn’t possibly make a significant enough difference to your overall goals or motivation levels, but it all adds up.
Speaker:Every conscious choice toward constructing a supportive environment will help your own innate motivation to come shining to the fore.
Speaker:Circadian rhythms
Speaker:161 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,840 It’s not just about sleep.
Speaker:Your internal twenty-four-hour clock tells you when to do everything, including when to be motivated and attentive.
Speaker:Your internal ebbs and flows are delicate and respond to the environment—which is precisely why you need to be careful that the modern world isn’t throwing your natural flow out of whack.
Speaker:Under-sleeping, staring at screens for hours, eating processed junk, stressing, being sedentary, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine—it all adds up.
Speaker:To bring yourself back into a natural circadian rhythm, you need to create an environment that supports the inner schedule your body evolved to follow.
Speaker:That means plenty of natural light exposure (i.e., not staring at a smartphone screen at three a.m. in the dark), plenty of fresh air (breathe deeply outside in nature) and plenty of good-quality sleep at the right times.
Speaker:Keep your room free of things that beep and glow in the night, and make sure that you’re winding down gently before bed with yoga, reading or meditation.
Speaker:Avoid excess caffeine, especially in the afternoons, and most importantly, stick to a daily sleep routine and wake and sleep at the same time each day.
Speaker:Your circadian rhythm is regular and consistent—match its pace by not just sleeping but eating at the same times each day, with heavier meals earlier on.
Speaker:Exercise regularly and at roughly the same time each day, according to your peak energy levels.
Speaker:Have a daily stress management routine to help you calm down at the end of the day.
Speaker:None of this is supremely complicated, but it might take some effort at first, since the modern always-on world seems to constantly push us to be wired and productive 24/7.
Speaker:If you’re a go-getting Type A, you might unconsciously worry that too much downtime will compromise your productivity.
Speaker:Relax—the reverse is true.
Speaker:Moving with your circadian rhythms actually makes you more resilient, productive, happy and healthy.
Speaker:You have permission to chill out.
Speaker:Creating an environment for success
Speaker:179 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:37,680 One of the easiest ways to hack your motivation via your body is to exercise.
Speaker:We all already know that regular exercise is non-negotiable.
Speaker:There’s very little that it doesn’t improve!
Speaker:Exercise has consistently been proven to lift mood, boost self-esteem, cut your disease risk and all-around improve energy levels.
Speaker:The release of endorphins doesn’t just make you feel good; the extra feeling of being alert and energized after a workout is pure motivation energy for the rest of life.
Speaker:Exercise boosts neurogenesis in the brain and increases the size of the hippocampus, which is the area associated with learning and memory.
Speaker:It doesn’t matter what your other goals or aspirations are, if you are exercising regularly, you are maintaining your body in a peak state of alert, resilient wellness that will translate to better focus and discipline.
Speaker:And you don’t have to go all out—researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found it’s moderate exercise that has the best overall health effects, so you’re far better off balancing workouts with plenty of daily stress management and quality rest.
Speaker:With all these different potential lifestyle improvements, where do you even start?
Speaker:It doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Speaker:Begin with noting down just a few areas that are weighing most on your mind at the moment—no more than three.
Speaker:Next, visualize what it might actually look like for you to achieve some desired outcome in these areas.
Speaker:Flesh it out in your mind’s eye.
Speaker:Next, brainstorm some practical ways that you can close the distance between that end point and where you are now.
Speaker:Finally, focus only on the very next step that you can take to get on the path toward that goal.
Speaker:Not the next five steps—just the next practical single thing you can do, right now.
Speaker:Then, hone in on that.
Speaker:It can be overwhelming to try and incorporate a whole range of lifestyle changes all at once, but it’s easier if you zoom in on just those that have the greatest chance of impacting your life.
Speaker:You don’t need to solve it all in one day.
Speaker:You just need to take positive action right here, today.
Speaker:Tomorrow, you can do it again.
Speaker:But for today, just focus on the action that will bring you closer to your envisioned goal.
Speaker:The Takeaway:
Speaker:203 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:07,720 • Evolutionary theory has taught us that most of our behaviors have come about because they ensure that we survive with changing times.
Speaker:Yet these natural endowments from nature are complimented by individual traits that make us unique.
Speaker:We can use this dichotomy to motivate ourselves by realizing where our strengths and weaknesses lie and developing them accordingly.
Speaker:• Motivation can be seen as an ebbing and flowing state of arousal that expresses itself through thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
Speaker:To incorporate these disparate elements of motivation, Sung Il-Kim has suggested a tripartite framework that can help us utilize each of these components of motivation.
Speaker:According to this framework, there are three parts to cultivating motivation: generating it, sustaining it, and regulating it.
Speaker:By following this trajectory, we fire up the relevant parts of our brain that motivate us, which has a corresponding physiological effect that arouses us into action.
Speaker:• Three factors play a large role in helping you generate, sustain, and regulate motivation.
Speaker:These are your dopamine levels, circadian rhythm, and exercise.
Speaker:• Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a central role in the reward system of your brain.
Speaker:When you receive a reward for doing something, your brain releases dopamine and sets up a feedback loop which expects similar rewards in the future.
Speaker:By supplying yourself with rewards for completing goals and tasks, you can hack your internal reward system to motivate yourself.
Speaker:• Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock which determines the hours of the day where you’re most active and attentive, when you feel sluggish, and when is the right time for you to rest.
Speaker:Some of us like to rise early, while others prefer sleeping in.
Speaker:Shape your routine according to your preferences for maximum productivity.
Speaker:• Lastly, exercise is also an invaluable way to improve your concentration and increase serotonin.
Speaker:This has a tremendous impact on motivation levels, so make sure you exercise at least moderately several times each week.
Speaker:Hello there!
Speaker:We have reached the end of this fascinating episode of Social Skills Coaching, where we explored the depths of human motivation and discovered some valuable insights from Patrick King's book "Motivation Triggers."
Speaker:Today's episode has given us a unique perspective on understanding our evolutionary traits and individual strengths to boost motivation.
Speaker:We learned about Sung Il-Kim's tripartite framework, which emphasizes the importance of generating, sustaining, and regulating our motivational states through specific actions.
Speaker:By recognizing these steps, we can take control of our brain's reward system and enhance our productivity.
Speaker:One key takeaway is that we can optimize our daily routines by paying attention to our circadian rhythm preferences and exercising regularly to improve focus and motivation.
Speaker:Also, remember to use small rewards to create a positive feedback loop in your brain, encouraging you to keep pushing forward towards your goals.
Speaker:If you wish to dive deeper into the insights provided today, I highly recommend getting your hands on Patrick King's book "Motivation Triggers."
Speaker:It is available both as an e-book and audiobook from Amazon, or via iTunes and Audible if you prefer audiobooks.
Speaker:You can also learn more about Patrick by visiting his website: bitly PKConsulting.
Speaker:Thanks for tuning in to Social Skills Coaching, where we strive to make you more likable, charismatic, and productive every day.
Speaker:I hope this episode has inspired you to take control of your motivation triggers!
Speaker:Until next time, stay motivated, and keep reaching for new heights!
