Abundant Mind #019

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Read Time: 3.5 minutes

Hey bud,

Have you ever experienced moments in your life where you were impulsive or lacked self-control?

Maybe it was eating an entire pizza when you know you shouldn’t have.

Or maybe it was binge-watching Netflix for the whole day instead of getting work done.

Admittedly, those are examples from my own life.

But, doesn’t it get frustrating when we fall into those unhealthy instant gratification cycles?

And here’s the issue with that:

Your dream life will never become a reality if you continue to allow instant gratification to rule your decisions.

So, let’s remedy that, shall we?

In this week’s letter, we’ll talk about the value of delaying gratification and how doing so is fundamental to a successful and fulfilling life.

There will be no how-to-guide or step-by-step at the end of this letter.

The goal of this week is to help raise your level of awareness so that you can take responsible action from this new lens.

Now, if you already know these principles, this will just be to remind you of what truly matters to reach the meaningful goals you’ve set for yourself.

We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught new things, after all.

Cheap Dopamine and Expensive Dopamine

Let’s first explore how the neurotransmitter, dopamine, relates to feelings of gratification in general.

When we experience something pleasurable, like eating a delicious meal or winning a game, our brain releases dopamine — which is associated with feelings of reward and pleasure.

So, think of dopamine as the reward chemical in our brain.

The rush of this reward chemical is what makes us feel good and reinforces the desire to have similar experiences in the future.

Dopamine, unfortunately, is also highly associated with instant gratification.

Fortunately, it is also associated with delayed gratification.

Let’s classify the dopamine that is released during instant gratification as “cheap dopamine.”

The dopamine that is released during delayed gratification, we can classify as “expensive dopamine.”

Cheap dopamine is dopamine that doesn’t require much effort to achieve. (Eating junk foods high in sugar, trapped in the doom scroll, and watching porn are prime examples)

Expensive dopamine is dopamine that requires patience and effort to achieve. (Like achieving a meaningful goal, hitting a personal best time on a 10km run, and maintaining a healthy and stable relationship with your partner)

By exposing yourself to too much cheap dopamine, you experience tiredness, irritability, low productivity, procrastination, and the list goes on.

Sound familiar?

This is why you need to learn self-control.

You need to keep yourself in check, or you’ll end up dependent and addicted to unhealthy habits.

Dopamine And Goals

People who fall victim to endless cheap dopamine often experience impulsivity and lack of self-control, which can lead to a lot of difficulties:

• Addiction

• Lack of fulfillment

• Frustration with reality

• Unrealized goals

• Low levels of satisfaction

These are just to name a few.

Hunt for expensive dopamine instead. Just like our ancestors that hunted for their survival.

You may not need to hunt to survive anymore in the modern world, but you need to hunt in order to thrive and actualize your dreams.

Yes, it will take time.

Yes, it will take effort.

Yes, it will suck at first.

But the rewarding feeling you get once that expensive dopamine is released through meaningful action will be worth the trouble you initially put yourself through.

If you want to consistently move closer and closer to the life that you desire, you have to learn how to embrace the hunt for expensive dopamine.

It is the only way to reach the meaningful goals you’ve set for yourself.

If you don't need to put in effort and intention to reach your goals, then you know deep down that those goals you set aren't meaningful to you in the first place.

In Conclusion

I’ll end this letter by citing a study done by Stanford University in the 1960s. It’s called the Marshmallow Test.

In this study, children (preschool age — around 4 to 5 years old), were given a choice between one marshmallow now or two marshmallows 15 minutes later.

The results were that 1 out of 3 children were able to delay gratification and wait for the second marshmallow later, while the rest gave in and ate the first marshmallow before the 15 minutes were up.

What’s interesting here is that the study didn’t end there.

As the children grew up, the researchers conducted follow-up studies and tracked each of the children’s progress in different areas.

The children who were willing to delay gratification when they were younger ended up having higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, exhibited more self-control, and higher levels of success overall.

Now, this isn’t to say that if you can’t delay gratification at 4 or 5 years old, you’re doomed to a life of misery.

At the end of the day, delaying gratification is a skill that through repetition can be learned.

And if you learn how to delay gratification, you are on a path to a successful and fulfilling life.

Always remember, that you deserve that.

All the love,
All the power,

— Zach

P.S. Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways that I can be of help to you:

1. Follow me on Instagram here if you want a source of bite-sized ideas and content that can help you reach your next level in life.

2. Book a free kick-off conversation for one-on-one coaching here if you are an entrepreneur or sales professional currently looking to create solutions to a problem or challenge in your life but you seem to be stuck.

3. Download my goal setting guide here if you are wanting to create clarity on your desired outcomes (Free until 100 downloads — and then I convert it to a paid resource).

P.P.S. If you are from the Philippines and are looking for a personal mastery workshop to help you experience growth and transformation, check out Discovery by I Am Plus Coaching and Training Systems. It’s where my journey of self evolution personally got fast-tracked.