How to Increase Motivation & Drive

**Andrew D. Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring you zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools. Along those lines, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs. It makes up for any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome interacts with your immune system, with your brain to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body. With Athletic Greens, I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need, and the probiotics to support my microbiome. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. There are a ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3. And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body, and so on. Again, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are an element and those are sodium, magnesium, and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells and all the tissues and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium, and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly, and all our bodily systems can be optimized. If the electrolytes are not present and if hydration is low, we simply can't think as well as we would otherwise. Our mood is off, hormone systems go off, our ability to get into physical action, to engage in endurance and strength and all sorts of other things is diminished. So with element, you can make sure that you're staying on top of your hydration and that you're getting the proper ratios of electrolytes. If you'd like to try element, you can go to drink element, that's lmnt.com/huberman, and you'll get a free element sample pack with your purchase. They're all delicious. So again, if you want to try element, you can go to element, lmnt.com/huberman.
Today's episode is also brought to us by Thesis. Thesis makes what are called nootropics, which means smart drugs. Now, to be honest, I am not a fan of the term nootropics. I don't believe in smart drugs in the sense that I don't believe that there's any one substance or collection of substances that can make us smarter. I do believe, based on science, however, that there are particular neural circuits and brain functions that allow us to be more focused, more alert, access creativity, be more motivated, et cetera. That's just the way that the brain works. Different neural circuits for different brain states. Thesis understands this. And as far as I know, they're the first nootropics company to create targeted nootropics for specific outcomes. I've been using Thesis for more than six months now, and I can confidently say that the nootropics have been a total game changer. My go-to formula is the Clarity formula, or sometimes I'll use their Energy formula before training. To get your own personalized nootropic starter kit, go online to takethesis.com/huberman.
Take a three-minute quiz, and Thesis will send you four different formulas to try in your first month. That's takethesis.com/huberman, and use the code Huberman at checkout for 10% off your first order. This month, we're talking all about the neuroscience of emotions. And today we're going to talk about an extremely important topic that's central to our daily life, and that's motivation. We're going to talk about pleasure and reward. What underlies our sense of pleasure or reward? We're going to talk about addictions. You can't have a discussion about pleasure and reward without having a discussion about addictions and the addictive properties of certain substances, as well as how to break free of addiction. As well, we're going to talk about the neurochemistry of drive and mindset. So all these themes are woven together in the context of emotions. Each one of them, of course, could also be its own entire month of the podcast. And in fact, we are going to have an entire month devoted to addiction. And I have a very special guest that's going to be joining us to talk about the science and clinical practices that we know are important for understanding and treating addiction. But for now, let's just talk about the neuroscience of motivation and reward of pleasure and pain, because those are central to what we think of as emotions, whether or not we feel good, whether or not we feel we're on track in life, whether or not we feel we're falling behind. So motivation is fundamental to our daily life. It's what allows us to get out of bed in the morning. It's what allows us to pursue long-term goals or short-term goals. Motivation and the chemistry of motivation is tightly wound in with the neurochemistry of movement. In fact, the same single molecule, dopamine, is responsible for our sense of motivation and for movement. Even though nerves controlling muscles, so again, these are nerves in the spinal cord or brain that move our limbs, the effector chemical there, the one that actually causes the muscles to twitch, to contract, is acetylcholine. In the brain, acetylcholine is responsible for focus. However, whether or not we move, whether or not we want to move, whether or not we have the desire to overcome barriers, if you know, they could be social barriers or financial barriers or time constraints, that depends on this molecule we call dopamine. It's a fascinating molecule, and it lies at the center of so many great things in life, and it lies at the center of so many terrible aspects of life, namely addiction and certain forms of mental disease. So if ever there was a double-edged blade in the world of neuroscience, it's dopamine. So let's talk about what dopamine is, and as always, we are going to talk about actionable tools. Today, we're definitely going to talk about some things related to supplementation, although you might be surprised to learn that it's not all just about increasing dopamine, and in particular, in some cases, that's the wrong thing to do. Sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes it's not. More so, we're going to talk about tools related to what's called dopamine scheduling, how the way that you're leading your life and the way that you're conceptualizing your goals can actually predict whether or not you're going to continue to pursue those goals, and therefore whether or not you will succeed in achieving those goals, as well as whether or not you will quit. There's a fundamental relationship between dopamine released in your brain and your desire to exert effort, and you can actually control the schedule of dopamine release, but it requires the appropriate knowledge. This is one of those cases where understanding the way the dopamine system works will allow you to leverage it to your benefit. And if you don't understand the way that dopamine works, there's a good chance that it's going to pull you out into the current of life, meaning the rest of the world is going to control your dopamine schedules. So I'm excited to tell you about today's information. You're going to learn some basic science. You're going to learn a lot of tools. And these tools, I believe, are applicable, whether or not you're five years old, eight years old, 80 years old, or anything in between. So let's talk about dopamine. Let's get a few basic facts on the table.