This part is crucial

I’m lying in my bed going through the exercises.

“Chest Press. Twelve reps for three sets. Dumbell fly. Ten reps for four sets.”

I visualize my chest muscles contracting. I’m counting the seconds as I move. I anticipate the surge of dopamine I’ll have. I remember how great that feels.

I do this every night before I fall asleep; I visualize my morning workout. As soon as I wake up, I sit upright and get going. I’m at the gym at 06:15 and get my workout in.

This is the kickstart of my day. Going to the gym is the spark that ignites all my habits and systems. The workout doesn’t have to be great. I just need to show up.

But I left out a crucial step: How did I get out of bed at 06:00?

I believe there are two types of people: those that easily get up in the morning and those that don’t.

If you’re like me, you belong to the largest group: the ones that don’t.

But for some reason, I’ve managed to get up at 06:00 without snoozing since January 1, 2022.

Here’s why: I remind myself that I’ll feel better once I get started.

So how do I do that?

Eat/skip the frog in your head

“Eat the frog in the morning”.

A metaphor to remind you to do what you hate first thing in the morning. For me, unconveniently, that’s getting out of bed.

I’ve always hated getting out of bed. But when my mother died in 2018, I really didn’t see the point anymore. I would set my alarm, and another, and another. Then, I would snooze for hours. Who cares.

I read a story once about Michael Phelps. In the article, he and his coach swear by the practice of visualizing success. He watches tapes of himself swimming, visualizes the motions before a race, and sees himself winning.

This is not new or unique. It’s backed by solid science and has been a staple in sports psychology for years. So I thought I’d try it too.

I would visualize myself getting up in the morning. I would go through the motion of sitting up, planting my feet on the floor, drinking the glass of water on my nightstand, throwing off the covers, and getting going.

I was not Michael Phelps.

So I tried getting a floormat so my feet wouldn’t get cold when I sat up. I tried infusing my water with hot chili peppers (bad idea: hurts like hell). I even tried something I read online where you “practice getting up when your alarm goes off”.

Sure, I’ll explain.

You set the alarm sometime during the day. You lie in bed, not sleeping. You wait until it goes, and then you get up. It’s stupid, I know. I was desperate.

And then I figured it out: Dopamine!

Visualizing “success” only works if the anticipated activity delivers the hormonal response (AKA dopamine) associated with success.

In other words, I was visualizing myself doing something I disliked. That wasn’t a win; it was masochism.

I could skip the frog in the morning by visualizing something that I liked and would deliver me dopamine in the process.

Dopamine is the hormone of motivation

If you haven’t heard or read this statement before, I highly recommend diving into the work of Dr. Andrew Huberman.

“Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine.” (quoted from his website)

He also does this amazing podcast and appears on other people’s podcasts or Youtube channels.

What I needed to know about dopamine to leverage it:

“It’s clear dopamine is not about reward but rather about motivation and drive, and a willingness to persist in a given mode of action and thoughts.

Thus, ask yourself:

1) Where do you get your dopamine from?

2) Is that serving to move you forward? Keeping you stuck? Regressing?”

*Andrew D. Huberman (Twitter post)

How I leverage dopamine

Huberman sums it up beautifully in an interview with Tom Bilyeu of Impact Theory (Youtube channel linked above). I’m paraphrasing:

The maximum leverage of dopamine happens when you fall in love with the process. When you enjoy the process of something, you get the dopamine out of that. When that process is hard, it’s even better. You train yourself to achieve things without becoming dependent on the result.

I visualize myself getting a workout in, knowing it will make me feel good. The exercises will deliver the dopamine that helps me power through the workout and the rest of my day. Afterward, I’ll feel satisfied, thanks to the serotonin that rushes through my system.

This serotonin rush is equally important, as it will reset my dopamine system and optimize for sustainability.

For maximum leverage, distinguish dopamine from serotonin:

“Dopamine is the molecule that makes us look at things outside the boundaries of our skin, to be in pursuit of things. Serotonin is about feeling like we have enough in our immediate environment.”

And it’s so powerful because unless that serotonin box is checked off periodically, we cannot lean back into the dopamine outward pursuit process for very long.”

*Andrew D. Huberman (Twitter post)

How I get up in the morning

To summarize: I don’t just visualize myself getting up. That’s not a win. I visualize myself getting a successful workout. That process starts by getting out of bed.

Those initial steps of getting up are now on autopilot. I don’t think. I go through the motions knowing dopamine will kick in to create positive momentum.

I know exactly what to expect because I rehearsed it last night. Knowing I’ll feel great during (dopamine) and afterward (serotonin) is a winning cocktail.

Problem: Getting out of bed
Problem-Solving Habit: Working out
Starts with: Getting out of bed (Hack)
Reward: Dopamine + Serotonin
Method: Visualization
Mantra: “You’ll better once you get started.”

You can replace working out with anything you like and know will deliver you the same potent cocktail of dopamine during and serotonin after the process. It should be a clean “win”.

Visualizing my morning routine to when the dopamine kicks in before falling asleep helps me anticipate success while automating the unpleasant part that comes before that: getting up.

And before you get started, I suggest adding a gratitude exercise to round things off:

“Gratitude sounds like complacency, and people fear that they’re not going to be persistent. But serotonin resets dopamine, which puts you back in the fight and allows you to fight longer and further. If you look at high-performers in these very high-risk/high-consequence special operations communities, they have gratitude practices and they incorporate them.”

More on how I implement gratitude into my Habit Stack soon.

Cheers!