Sunday’s With ScootyDub (April 24, 2022)

Welcome to an early last Sunday of the month. I hope you enjoyed your Easter Long Weekend, wherever you were.

I’ve spent much of April cursing the clouds as they continue to pour snow from the sky. I can’t wait for more of that sweet, sweet sunshine. I’ve had a subpar month, creatively. As much as I want to blame the snow and the clouds, it’s the same thing it always is: a lack of priorities and time management. In preparing this newsletter, I squeezed out more focused attention than I had all month. It’s a good reminder of the power of accountability. No one is going to bug me if I don’t deliver this newsletter on time, but knowing you read it now is enough to motivate me to get it done. Another lesson in hacking my own sensibilities. I’m grateful for the practice. 

I wanted to have something to share this month, so I wrote & published a short post on Friday reminding myself to focus on the process. 

March Content ⚒️

✒️  Writing – No Shortcuts (1 minute read) The only path to mastery is through intentional practice.  

Three value-packed things to share 🌎

I. BLOG outlining one simple strategy to build resiliency every day

You Actually Should Do Something Every Day That Scares You (4 minute read) 

Cold showers and cold plunges have become quite a phenomenon in recent years.

The physiological benefits are widely reported in scientific literature. I, myself, am curious about the practice. I dabble in it from time to time, but I’ve never worked up the courage to do it consistently. I haven’t been able to take the plunge …
 
This article reminded me why I wanted to do it in the first place. Not for the physical benefits, but for the mental ones. I want to practice doing hard things and choosing to withstand the discomfort of cold water is an easy place to start. 

Three valuable ideas:

1. How do you expect to do the big things that scare you—that scare others—if you haven’t practiced them?
2. Why do you think you can endure the cold reception of a bold idea if you can’t even endure cold water? 
3. Courage, self-control—all of the virtues are habits. 

II. PODCAST exploring the cost/benefit ratio of dopamine

Armchair Expert #427 with Anna Lembke (Spotify)  

Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and professor at Stanford University, and author of the book Dopamine Nation, does a fantastic job of explaining how dopamine works and the ways our body regulates it. She conveys her expertise through the lens of her own struggle with addiction. It’s definitely not your typical story of addiction, but it is a great example of the incessant creep of chasing dopamine we’re all vulnerable to. 

The moral of the story is everyone living in the modern world is addicted to dopamine in some way. We cannot deny how we are wired from thousands of years of evolution. The good news is there are simple ways to reframe our concept of pain and pleasure. In short, seek discomfort and subject yourself to mild forms of suffering (ie. cold showers). 

Three valuable ideas:

1. We live in a world filled with so many easy pleasures that we are bombarding our reward pathways with too much dopamine. To compensate, our brains down-regulate the production of dopamine and dopamine transmission which leads to a dopamine deficit state where life is no longer enjoyable. Not because life is hard but because it is too easy. 
2. Dopamine controls the pleasure response in the brain. Pleasure, motivation, reward, and movement are tied together because, for most of human existence, we’ve had to move our bodies to go get the thing that we want.
3. Your body is constantly working to achieve homeostasis. Any deviation from homeostasis is the biological definition of stress. If you go too far toward pleasure or pain, the body will counter-regulate. We are wired for pain. We live in a world that has us completely insulated from not even just painful experiences but physical experiences, period. When we’re chasing dopamine, we do not see it ourselves, and we can’t see true cause and effect. We feel like it is helping our anxiety, but in fact, it’s contributing to the anxiety.  

III. VIDEO considering the war in Ukraine from a historical context

Robert Green On The Ukraine War (YouTube) 

I don’t watch the news. When it comes to the war in Ukraine, I am especially averse to staying up to date. If something notable happens, I will find out. I don’t need to follow along with the daily updates of despair. 

But when I see someone as thoughtful and knowledgeable as Robert Greene offer his perspective, I tune in. It’s safe to say Greene is an expert on conflicts between individuals and nations. What I found in this video was a nuanced perspective on a complex, long-standing war of ideologies. Greene outlines Putin’s motivations and how he governs with a veil of fear. He explains the power of a motivated army and how Putin has failed to foster that. 

I’m grateful to live in a place that doesn’t have a threat of war. I fear the long-lasting effects of the war in Ukraine, regardless of the outcome.

Three valuable ideas:

1. Putin relies on complete control of everything. He uses this to control the narrative. He needs to maintain an air of terror and intimidation to be successful. He’s losing this control. 
2. Tanks are essentially useless in modern warfare because anti-tank weapons have become very advanced. They appear menacing but they provide very little strategic advantage
3. The Ukrainian army operates in complete contrast to the Russian army. There’s no worry about rank or formalities or who’s in control. This allows individuals soldiers and units to be creative in the moment and react to the chaos of war in real-time. They’re also supremely motivated because they are defending their home and their families. 

Photos of the Month 📷

I’ll leave you with a quote 🤔

If you enjoyed the newsletter, do me a favour and share it with one person.

I haven’t figured out how to do one of those auto-share buttons, so you’ll need to copy and paste, like we used to before phones got so smart. 

I hope you have a magical May! 

Scotty

P.S. A Trillion Dollars 

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