One of the challenges which a job presents is that, for eight hours or so, our Big Dopamine cravings go unsatisfied. Yet, the eight hour pause from Big Dopamine satiation is a good thing. It potentiates Little Dopamine. This is the wealth to be found in letting things go, as Thoreau suggested.
During the pause, our cravings may spike, but they come back down to a more manageable level, sometimes very quickly. When cravings peak during the 8 hour pause, we can learn to let them go without leaving a sense of bitterness or regret. Imagine a a cat stalking a mouse. It pauses. Its craving spikes in a crouch, but if it has to give up the chase, it does so without bitterness. Likewise, we Big Dopamine addicts don’t have to resent giving up the chase — not getting the fix we want so badly doesn’t have to hurt.
Conscious ritualing helps us balance our Interest and Participation Levels. When Interest and Participation levels are balanced, we are at our most productive — more so than when they are matched at a high or a low level. Think of any creature: their natural state is one of equilibrium, and it they do what they are evolved to do best. They find seeds, graze, catch prey, and they survive. When Interest and Participation levels are matched in the middle, “the money follows.” At equilibrium we are doing what we love, what we are evolved to do, and gifts come to us.
We humans are a lot like animals, but animals react while we pause. We have adapted the pause to help us consider the pros and cons of a situation. In the pause, when Interest and Participation levels come into balance, there occurs a surplus of energy with which we can sense important changes in the landscape. At work, it is just such an astute employee who senses which way the wind is blowing, and who has already adapted when the change comes.
Big Dopamine cravings rob us of our Little Dopamine joys, just as love is stolen by desire. The pause is all we need, a moment of conscious ritualing. Sometimes the prey comes of its own accord to the cat who has paused. We don’t chase gifts. Doing what we love, rather than what we desire, is what we are meant to be doing, at work, at play, and at every moment of our lives.