Dopamine, Training, and Why Progress Feels Better Than Success
I have been reading Behave by Robert Sapolsky and recently came across a fascinating section on dopamine. Like many people, I grew up hearing dopamine described as the brain's "pleasure chemical." The more I read, however, the more I realised that this is an oversimplification.
According to Sapolsky, dopamine is often less about the reward itself and more about the anticipation of the reward. It is heavily involved in motivation, pursuit, expectation, and the possibility of something good happening. That distinction matters: it helps explain a phenomenon many athletes have experienced.
The competition arrives. They qualify for it. The personal best is finally broken.
The goal that consumed months or years of effort is reached. And after a brief moment of satisfaction, the feeling fades surprisingly quickly. And many athletes are confused by this, assuming the achievement should make them permanently happy.
Instead, they find themselves looking for the next challenge almost immediately: the reason may be that much of the excitement was not the reward itself, but the pursuit, the planning, the training, the possibility, the chase.
And I think this is where many athletes get into trouble, because they become addicted to outcomes, to the next event, the next PB, etc. They constantly need another target because they have unknowingly trained themselves to rely on dopamine from anticipation.
The main thing is: the athletes who survive long enough to become exceptional usually discover a different relationship with the process. They learn to enjoy the pursuit itself. They find satisfaction in improving their squat technique, refining a movement pattern, building their aerobic base, or executing a training session well. In other words, they stop relying exclusively on the excitement of achievement and start appreciating the quieter rewards of development.
This is particularly important in functional fitness, as the most meaningful adaptations happen slowly. There are long periods where nothing dramatic appears to be happening; the more you advance, the longer it takes to beat PB’s. Our focus on everyday progress and enjoying the routine itself often makes the process feel more rewarding, even before the big results show up.
Athletes who stop asking, "When will I get the reward?" and start asking, "How can I become better today?" often achieve more. They become attached to the process rather than the outcome.
It can help to finish each training session with a few simple questions:
What small improvement did I make today? Which part of my technique or approach felt most focused? What challenged me, and how did I respond? What lesson from today can I carry into my next session? Where did I notice progress, even if it was subtle?
Reflecting in this way can reinforce a deeper appreciation for growth and development, no matter what the scoreboard says.
Reading Sapolsky's thoughts on dopamine reminded me that motivation is often strongest when we are moving towards something meaningful. But if we depend entirely on the next reward to keep us engaged, we will always be chasing something that disappears the moment we catch it.
Don’t get me wrong. I still think that the goal matters. But the pursuit has to matter way more, as that is where you spend almost all of your time.
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Eddie,