The dopamine spiral almost got me yesterday..

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I honestly can't remember the last time I had a bad day. But yesterday was the day.

It didn't arrive with a bang. It crept in. I wanted to take it easy, do nothing for once, and within an hour the nothing turned into boredom. Out of that boredom I started snacking on stuff I knew would make me feel worse, and it did, almost instantly. Then I picked up my phone and started scrolling. Ten minutes in I was completely dopamine-depleted. Empty. Like someone had quietly unplugged me.

So I did what I tell other people not to do. I reached for more of the same. I opened a video game.

The last time I did that was December 2024. More than a year and a half ago. I didn't realize that until I was already sitting there like a zombie, not even enjoying it. Funny how the brain reaches for the exact habit it used to lean on when it's hurting.

While I was sitting there feeling nothing, I looked at the community. It's been growing like crazy. Yesterday we hit number 9 in Discovery across the entire Skool platform!! I looked at the number and felt nothing. And for a split second i even thought, why am i even doing this? What's the point?

Rationally I knew that was nonsense. I knew it in the moment. But knowing something does absolutely nothing for the way you feel when you're in it. You can be self-aware and still stuck. Awareness alone doesn't pull you out.

So I stood up. I walked to the window and just stared outside for a while. I was thinking of two options. One was easy: crawl into bed, pull the curtains, and let the day get worse. Sink deeper into it. The other one I couldn't even see the end of. It just meant doing one thing, any thing.

2024 me would've picked option 1, but.. I just looked for the smallest possible action and DID IT.

I walked over to my bed and grabbed my Eight Sleep, the mattress that regulates my temperature at night so I actually get deep sleep. Amazing thing by the way, even if it's stupidly expensive. Next to it was the filter. It had been sitting on my nightstand for three months. I kept walking past it, telling myself it was a whole job, that I'd get to it later. I finally swapped it. It took ten seconds. Ten seconds. And it gave me this tiny, real hit of dopamine.

That ten seconds shifted something...

I went up to the attic where my clothes are and started tidying. Another thing I'd been putting off. And step by step, with each small task, I felt myself coming back online.

By the time I finished, I had enough in the tank to do something I genuinely didn't think was on the table an hour earlier. I went for a run. A solid forty-five minutes of getting my heart rate up and sweating the heaviness out.

During the run I put on a book I love: The Four Agreements. I read it two years ago and wanted to revisit it because it's that good. I got through the first half on this run, and the first two agreements hit different today. Be Impeccable with Your Word, and Don't Take Anything Personally. That second one landed right where I needed it. Because that empty "who am I doing this for" feeling earlier? That was me taking my own bad mood personally. Treating one low day like it was a verdict on everything I'm building. It isn't. It was a day, or even half a day.

Somewhere around kilometer four, with the book in my ears and the heaviness gone, I already knew I was going to write this. A day that started as one of the worst I've had in over a year had turned into a great day.

That's the whole reason I'm writing this.

Not to tell you I never struggle. I do. Yesterday proved it. I'm writing this to remind you that having a bad day isn't the failure. The goal is never to stop spiraling forever. That's not realistic and it's not the point. The point is how long you stay down there, and how deep you let it go before you reach for the smallest possible action.

And honestly? Without the protocols I teach inside the challenge, I don't think I would've pulled myself out of it nearly as quickly.

The challenge is still available for another 10 days, and most of the things that helped me yesterday came directly from the principles we cover there.

We're also putting together something new: a group dopamine detox that we'll be doing together as a community. More details on that will be announced soon.

If you've ever felt yourself slipping into one of those spirals and wished you had a practical way to break it, keep an eye out. I think you're going to love what's coming.

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