Dopamine Deprivation

Over the last two years, I’ve given up drinking, social media, YouTube on my phone, video games, daily dessert, and more.

Generally, while my life has changed a lot, I’d also consider it generally improved.

I’ve lost a fair amount of weight, put on a decent bit of muscle, decreased my resting heart rate, learned better how to dance, cultivated my professional skills, began a masters program in data analytics, started pushing beyond my fears in standup comedy and improv, became more emotionally grounded, and more.

A lot of what I’m doing is making it easy to do the right thing for myself. When I have a daily gym routine and a weekly plan for being outdoors and socializing, it’s easy for things not to get in the way, because they’re already accounted for.

The dopamine deprivation is based on the idea that it can be easier to subtract things rather than add things to one’s life. So, removing hangovers for instance enables getting up early which in turn creates more space to improve professional skills.