Get Your Dopamine From Creating Instead Of Consuming

The reason most people never achieve anything is dopamine.

And the reason some people become successful is also dopamine.

The difference between them is simple.

People who fail get their dopamine from consuming. People who succeed get their dopamine from creating.

The reason most people get their dopamine from consuming is because it’s easy. It doesn’t take any effort. All they have to do is simply lie down on their couch and move their thumb up and down a phone screen.

But getting dopamine from creating is not easy. It takes effort.

In fact, dopamine itself is against this.

Let me explain.

First of all, you need to understand this: Dopamine is not just a pleasure chemical. It’s a motivation chemical.

Your dopamine doesn’t spike once you start scrolling on your phone, it spikes before you even grab your phone. Let’s call this spike the motivation spike because it motivates you to take action.

For example, let’s say you come home from the office and see a chocolate cake inside your fridge. Your dopamine level spikes even before you start eating the cake. This spike motivates you to eat the cake. When you eat the cake, your dopamine spikes a little bit again if the cake is good. If the cake is not good, your dopamine level goes below baseline. But this is a topic for another day. Let’s not go deep into this right now.

You get the idea. Dopamine motivates us to take action.

Dopamine always motivates us to scroll on social media, watch movies, play videos, etc.

But when it comes to creating — creating can be writing, painting, recording, coding, etc. — it doesn’t seem to motivate us.

Let’s take writing for example. I was not motivated to write this article. I had to use my willpower to sit at my desk, open the laptop, and write.

Why does this happen?

Because our brain always chooses the easy route.

So what can we do about this?

Eliminate.

What if you don’t give your brain any other option to get dopamine other than doing hard things — like creating.

What if you stop scrolling, watching movies, playing video games, and just don’t indulge in any instant-gratification activities.

What if you tell your brain, “Hey, I’ll either do nothing or I’ll do something productive.”

That’s when your brain will start to rewire.

You should put yourself into crippling boredom until your brain gives up and says, “Bruh, I would rather do something hard than enduring this boredom.”

Then it will release the dopamine (the motivation) you need to write and do other hard things.

Right now, you’ve given your brain so many options. And it is always choosing the ones that are destructive. Because unfortunately, those are the ones that give huge dopamine spikes fast with no effort.

When you cut out those destructive options, you’re left with only two things.

Either stay bored or do something productive — create.

That’s it.

Get your dopamine from doing hard things instead of scrolling on Instagram.

— Abbas Ali (@TheAbbasAli_) November 6, 2025

Hope it was helpful.

See you again.

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P.S. Let me give you a challenge. Sit a timer for 1 hour on your phone and don’t do anything until the timer goes off. Yes, nothing. Just feel the crippling boredom. It would make your think, “Man, I would rather go for a run than doing this.”