1/25/24 Ever Heard of the Dopamine Practice Plan?

“I’m so busy, I just can’t find the time for anything!”

I know I’m not the first person to notice this, but doesn’t it seem like the more time-saving devices we use, the less time we seem to have and the more frantic we all seem to be?

What’s up with that?

Why is it that no one has any time to do the things they want to do anymore?

I mean the life-enriching stuff we want to do like

            • spending more time with people, whether friends or family

• developing a hobby into possibly a side-career

            • continuing our education in some way, whether online or at a local campus

            • committing to our health with some sort of exercise/diet plan

            • committing to do service or charity work

 Are we all just working so hard that there’s no time or energy left for any of the fun stuff we really want to do?

Or are we being continually distracted by social media to spend all our free time people- or animal-watching an endless stream of content updated every minute that is proven most likely to get a dopamine rush or a click out of us?

It’s hard to resist the dopamine, especially when we are already basically exhausted.

But we are more than just our current dopamine levels.

At some point, we all need to reckon with the bigger picture of our lives—the things we hope to accomplish, the level of success we desire to achieve.

When we are old, will we be more grateful for all the wonderful social media content we scrolled past on Instagram, or will we feel grateful that we got to know our children or our aging parents better, or developed our artwork into an Etsy side-hustle, or traveled across the world?

It sounds like I’m making the usual, boring case for long-term goals over short-term gratification.

And for most people, I would be.

But as musicians, we can get our dopamine rush and work towards our long-term goals at the same time.

That’s because music, in its purest form, when no one’s watching or listening, is pure dopamine and instant gratification.

Take away all judgement (hard to do, even when no one else is there) and you will find nothing but fun and physical/emotional joy on some level.

And the more you get hooked on that musical dopamine, the closer you get to your long term goals as a musician--those 10,000 hours of mastery.

So, my solution to finding time?

Get your dopamine on and your groove on at the same time!

Groove on!

--Tracy