Most people are so blinded by the distractions of modern society, that if you just learned how to make yourself immune to instant gratification then you’ll quite literally become one of the most dangerous people walking.

I say this as someone who went from being super unhealthy and undisciplined to being shredded, quitting alcohol, breaking my social media habit, and leaving my 9-5 to live in Portugal.

Perhaps you aspire to all or at least some of these, but you can’t seem to crack the code.

I have a suspicion as to why this is the case.

I’m seeing society fall deeper into this trap of being perpetually distracted by the most nonsensical things that don’t move people’s lives forward.

In fact, they often make people’s lives worse because it makes them less-capable, less disciplined, and far less likely to follow through on the promises they make to themselves.

Everyone has at least one problem in their life that, if they solved it, would make their life infinitely better.

But since they’re not focused, they’re living in mediocrity when they have the potential to be elite.

Years ago I was on a consulting team working on a client engagement. And throughout the project, we would have peer reviews.

And one time my review was so bad that I began to think something was actually wrong with me. I felt like my brain just couldn’t function properly.

I couldn’t stay on task. I couldn’t find motivation to follow through on my work. I kept forgetting things.

So as soon as that project ended, I went to see a psychiatrist who basically told me I have a pretty serious case of ADHD that was causing all kinds of problems in my life.

I didn’t want to take ADHD medication, so I went down the rabbit hole of figuring out how the brain works, and how I can set up my lifestyle in a way that helps me to avoid many of the problems associated with ADHD.

But the more I dove into it, I realize that my problem ultimately boiled down to dopamine management.

But what was even more striking was that almost every preventable problem that most people have in their lives is also a dopamine management problem.

If this doesn’t make sense, then keep reading, so I can break it down to you.

Maybe you notice it, maybe you don’t. But the world we live in today is flooded with sources of cheap dopamine.

Because the economy relies on people to buy things that they don’t need, spending time on platforms that monetize their attention, and indulging in activities that cost a lot of money but don’t necessarily advance people’s lives.

This is done by manipulating people’s dopamine reward system.

I’m not going to break down the science of dopamine, there is plenty of information out there about it already, but just know that your dopamine reward system is what motivates you to do things regardless of if that thing is good for you or not.

So society is always trying to hack into your dopamine reward system, and rewire it to their benefit by getting you hooked on their service, their product, their idea.

This is why food companies use food engineers to craft the perfect flavor profiles, because it gets people addicted.

This is why social media platforms use tactics like “variable reinforcement” which creates a slot-machine effect of some posts going viral while others fall flat. It literally is the textbook example of how to get people hooked.

This is also why when you sit down at a nice restaurant, the wine glasses are conveniently sitting there, looking sleek and elegant, practically begging to be used.

Essentially, everywhere you go and in every direction you turn your mind is being bombarded with things that trigger a dopamine response in the hopes that you take action, get hooked, and keep coming back for more.

The world is overloaded with cheap dopamine, and most people are overdosing on it.

Let’s use an extreme example for sake of argument.

People who are dealing with very strong addictions will oftentimes sacrifice almost everything to satisfy their need for that thing that brings them instant gratification.

To a lesser extent, this is what’s happening to society with all of the scrolling, the drinking, the infinite entertainment, the excess comfort, etc.

The more we align with these things, the more of our lives we’re willing to sacrifice for them, which means less focus on the things that bring true and lasting satisfaction.

Constant inflow of cheap dopamine short-circuits the reward system, and literally kills motivation to pursue more rewarding things in life that are difficult to accomplish because they require delayed gratification, discomfort and uncertainty.

This is why so many people can’t stick to a diet and training plan for more than a few weeks. It’s not about discipline. It’s not about willpower. It’s about their reward system being corrupted causing it to malfunction.

This is also why people struggle to do most things in life that are worth doing.

Whether it’s finally getting control over your health, or leaving an unfulfilling job to start a business, or putting in the effort to build deep and meaningful connections,

This is what I meant when I said that almost every preventable problem that most people have in their lives is a dopamine management problem.

But when you lose control over your dopamine, you lose the one thing that will motivate you to take decisive action towards actively driving your life forward.

The modern world is full of cheap dopamine, and excessive cheap dopamine pacifies the mind.

I kind of hate the term “dopamine detox” because honestly it’s played out.

But I don’t think about it in the way most people do.

I’m not thinking about just unplugging for a while, then going right back to your old ways.

When I think of dopamine detox, I think of actively rewiring the brain, literally tapping into the subconscious mind to make delayed gratification your default mode of operation.

Think about your computer’s operating system, and going in to change the base code which fundamentally changes how your computer functions.

Just think about what happens to your life, when you actually re-wire your brain to be averse to your most self-sabotaging habits.

What if you build an aversion to scrolling on social media, consuming alcohol, or indulging in constant comfort?

What if you develop a taste for doing what everyone else doesn’t want to do, for delaying gratification.

This is why everyone should be doing some form of dopamine detox frequently to keep their reward system regulated and functioning properly.

Take some time out of your life to intentionally step away from the noise, from the nonsense, that has been normalized in society today.

This will make you dangerous because it separates you from the status quo and it gives you a competitive edge not only over the average person, but also over your lower self.

This is a topic that warrants it’s own article, but I’ll leave you with a high level process for properly detoxing from cheap dopamine rather than all of the fluff out there that doesn’t actually effect change.

1) Understand your purpose and identify the sources of cheap dopamine most misaligned with your purpose, your goals, your vision for life.

2) Calculate the lifestyle impact cost of each source, and rank prioritize them. From here you’ll focus on the top three.

3) Build anti-desires that begin rewiring your mind to be naturally averse to your most self-sabotaging habits.

4) Leverage the process of elimination removing all triggers, and adding friction points that make it harder to indulge in cheap dopamine.

5) Replace dopaminergic activities with other deeply purposeful activities that align with your life vision and goals.

6) Totally immerse yourself into information environments, physical spaces, and social circles that amplify your efforts.

7) Create a system for long-term sustainability that keeps you locked into a delayed gratification mindset.

I’ll elaborate on this a bit more in a future article, but if you do follow a process like this, then you’ll be way more dangerous because you now have the recipe for overcoming just about any challenge that’s been holding you back.

There’s nothing that society can throw at you that will knock you off your path.

And most importantly, you become immune to the same cheap dopamine that is pacifying the masses.

You have the formula for controlling your dopamine, and what I always say is “if you control your dopamine, you control your life.”

Add yourself to the waitlist for the next “Airplane Mode” cohort.

Pick up the 7-day detox and focus reset protocol