It's cheap for a reason

“Cheap dopamine is one of the most expensive things in the world. It bankrupts your drive and motivation.”

Feeling numb?

There’s a reason.

If you are filling yourself with quick fixes you are losing your ability to feel.

Everyone craves a quick fix. Everyone likes a quick hit of dopamine. Everyone likes it to be easy. That is why cheap dopamine is such a contagious plague that has infected society.

It is normal to scroll on your phone for hours a day. It is normal to down a bottle of alcohol on a Friday night. It is normal to hook up with random people every weekend. These activities have become normal, and that’s terrifying.

You may feel good in the moment but afterwards you are left feeling one thing:

Unfulfilled.

Things of value are worth investing the time to attain.

A good relationship takes time. It takes a lot of hard work but if you go through the hard work, it is worth it. A good physique takes time. It is much easier to sit on the couch and fill your face with chips. But it is much more fulfilling to look in the mirror and be proud of what you created. A good mindset takes years to develop. It is easier to say you are not enough and get a quick dopamine hit by watching everyone else succeed on social media. But after you put your phone away, you feel nothing. You feel empty.

Anything that is worthwhile will take time.

Choosing the cheap item when buying anything usually ends up hurting you long term. 

Cheap shoes=back pain.

Cheap car=engine troubles.

Cheap haircut=reverse mohawk?

You get what you pay for.

Your input determines your output.

Put the time, the effort, the work into something and you will be rewarded. Take the cheap way out and make it easy for yourself, you will get a bad product. It’s that simple.

Good things take time. It shouldn’t be easy, ever. 

In my life, I have never found fulfillment in something that came easy. I have had multiple relationships that I kind of just stumbled across. They didn’t take a ton of effort. And they weren’t worth the time, but I learned a ton from both. The biggest lesson I have learned though is:

If it’s worth it, you’ll have to work for it.

Everyone wants it to be easy. But when it comes easy it’s not fulfilling because you don't have to put any effort into getting it. The most rewarding feeling comes as a result of hard work. 

If you work for 10 hours and reward yourself with a delicious meal, it feels amazing. It is rewarding. But if you sit around for 10 hours and have that same meal, it doesn’t taste the same. 

Most people hate running. But the people that love running love it for one feeling:

The feeling of achievement.

They love the feeling of being done. And that’s why they run in the first place. Because they fell in love with the feeling it gives them when they are done. They enjoy the pain because they know what comes after it is over.

Seek the long term fulfillment over the short term fix.

If something is cheap, it’s cheap for a reason.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.