I remember the training. I would spend two to three hours running four-to-five times per week. We had the date circled on the calendar, our first half marathon.
I wasn’t a fan of running for years. It didn’t change when I got a position working alongside special forces members. We would train with intense cardio workouts and beach runs.
I learned to love the runs because of the beach. I loved working near the beach.
Training for the half marathon was a bit more intense. Instead of a two or four-mile run, I ran ten and eleven miles.
I was also training in a very hilly neighborhood. I lived at the bottom of a hill. So my runs always started with a nine-hundred-foot elevation climb. This climb was over three-quarters of a mile.
Then the day came. I completed the race in under two hours. My per-mile time was faster than my practice runs.
After completing the half-marathon, as hard as I worked, I was crestfallen. Sure there were celebrations after the event. I was certainly proud of myself. But what next?
People at elite levels suffer the same letdown after their adventures.
People who summit Mount Everest feel a rush of adrenaline. Afterward, many people fall into post-climb depression.
Many astronauts face the same feelings post-mission. After all, how do you top going to space or landing on the moon?
Imagine building your life toward a goal. It could be simple like mine. It could be extraordinary, like summiting a mountain or the planet. You prepare and plan. You train.
Everything in your life is this singular goal. You go to bed with the goal in your mind; you wake up with the goal in your sights. Eventually, the day arrives.
You have achieved the goal. Years and years of effort come down to an event that lasts days, hours, or even minutes.
Have you ever had this experience? The joy and excitement preceded the sadness and uncertainty. What will you do to fill your hours now?
What did you feel? How did you overcome it?
Having goals and purpose is vital to our survival. The key to longevity and success is maintaining a high-performance level.
Keeping a high performance means minimizing the valley we encounter. This valley comes after we hit the highest peak of dopamine.
Here are three ways you can prevent yourself from falling into that valley.
Reset the Scale
As a neuroscientist, he has extensive experience studying the human brain.
He speaks about this valley phenomenon in an interview available on Youtube.
He talks about our brain releasing dopamine in terms of scales. The more we get our dopamine released, the more tipped the scale.
This peak, while impressive, begins to skew our scale.
For example, you may have thought twenty pounds was heavy as a child. You would struggle to lift it. As you gained strength, it became easier to lift. Now your definition of heavy has skewed.
Our brain’s idea of sufficient dopamine has skewed. Now a high achiever is used to the higher level.
Lack of higher dopamine results in less pleasure. It leads to those feelings of depression.
Doctor Huberman suggests taking a break entirely for a day or two. Relax and allow the brain to reset before approaching your next goal.
Change What Your Value
The main reason many of the dips occur is value and purpose. In the above examples, our value was on achieving the goal.
What we needed to do was to value the process of achieving where the goal was a byproduct.
What made Kobe Bryant so successful in his career was his legendary drive. From his teenage years to his adult years, he pushed himself hard.
Winning championships was the goal but not the prize. Kobe placed value on improving every game. As a teenager, he worked on his weaknesses. Other kids dominated with their go-to moves.
He lost more games in these camps but became a better player.
In the National Football League, Emmitt Smith, a Hall of Fame Running Back, and Jerry Rice, a Hall of Fame wide receiver, only took two weeks off a year. Even in years, they won Superbowls.
They loved the process. As a result, they avoided those lulls and maintained their conditioning.
Stay Humble
All things in life either grow or atrophy. We either continue to develop or wither away.
Resist the urge to get cocky and overconfident. You’ve achieved a great goal. It is essential because if you get cocky with the goal, what happens if the next goal is more difficult? What happens if you begin to lose the success you earned?
Many achieve great success only to lose it because their attitude pushes away those who helped or supported them.
By obsessing over the goal rather than the process, you create two problems. One is a significant dip after the initial spike. The second is what happens if you don’t reach the next goal.
You can maintain your drive for more extended if you focus on the little wins.
What’s Next?
The goals are fantastic. They should always be our aim. However, if you solely focus on the goal, you leave yourself open to disappointment after you achieve it.
We should always take time to enjoy a big win. Whether it is a half-marathon or a moon landing, take time to appreciate your accomplishment. Make sure you allow time before pursuing the next high. It is also vital to take some time off to reset the scales.
Change what you value to stay focused. The astronauts found a way to continue their lives. They changed what was necessary. The mission was critical, but now that it was complete, it was time for a new purpose.
Establishing a new purpose can help refocus your energy. Nothing may top summiting a mountain or the moon. There are still many ways to contribute.
Stay humble. Don’t let success go to your head. This is how people find themselves losing after a win. You get a big win; enjoy and move on. Don’t be someone who coasts on one significant success years ago.
After completing that half marathon, I didn’t know what to do next. I had no desire to run a marathon, but I didn’t have any half-marathons planned.
So I focused on the process of running for my health. We had a child, and I wanted to live a long time to watch him grow.
Running is still not my favorite pastime. Since shifting the value, it has become something I enjoy.