Brianna Wiest - The Mountain Is You_ Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery (2020)

THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
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“Coast” as in, let go. Relax into life. Let things be for a while.
That is not what happens.
Neurologically, when we get something we really want, we
just start to want more. New research in the nature of the
chemical dopamine—which was previously believed to
be the driving force behind desire, lust, and acquisition—
proves that it is more complex than previously thought.
In The Molecule of More, Daniel Z. Lieberman explains
that experts who studied the hormone found that when
an individual was introduced to something they highly
desired, the dopamine surge would diminish after acquisition.
Dopamine, it turns out, is not the chemical that gives
you pleasure; it’s the chemical that gives you the pleasure
of wanting more. 7
So the big, huge goal that you’re working toward? You’ll
get there, and then there will be another mountain to scale.
This is one of the many reasons that we deeply sabotage
what we truly want. We know instinctively that “arriving”
won’t really give us the ability to abstain from life; it will
only make us hungrier for more. Sometimes, we don’t feel
up to that challenge.
So, while we’re on the way, a toxic cocktail of neurological
biases start piling up on one another, and we start to resent,
judge, and even vilify the object of our greatest desire.