People call it the chemical of want and desire, but why is that?

Well, here is how it works.

From an evolutionary standpoint,

your brain rewards you for anything that will increase your likelihood of survival

by releasing a neurotransmitter called "dopamine" in your brain.

That's the reason why it feels so damn good to have sex or to eat a steak,

because our brain thinks that sex equals a reproduction of our species

and that a fat piece of meat equals a long-lasting satiation.

Let's look at an example.

As soon as you're standing in front of your fridge,

and you have the choice to either pick a carrot or a piece of chocolate,

your brain will tell you to pick the one which releases more dopamine

as it knows that it will make you feel more pleasure.

So naturally you will choose the chocolate.

Now you might say "well, that's not too bad to eat a piece of chocolate every now and then"

and that's true. But as soon as our brain releases a lot of dopamine,

it will try to stimulate the craving for that thing over and over again

until you develop an urge for it,

and that's when the addiction kicks in and we can't live without it.

For this reason people become overweight, alcoholics or drug addicts.

The thing is that dopamine doesn't know what's good for us and what isn't.

It doesn't know that eating too much chocolate is unhealthy for us.

All it sees is a potential of pleasure without any context,

and for this reason drug addicts are willing to let their whole life fall apart,

only to get that one hit of dopamine again and again.

The terrifying reality is that almost every company in our modern society

exploits this deeply-rooted reward system by putting it on steroids.

There are millions of experts specifically designing their products and internet platforms

to release as much dopamine as possible

in order to make us come back over and over again.

That's why social media platforms switch from chronological feeds to an algorithm-based feed

and that's why video games have levels and ranking systems, to keep us coming back.

They give us constant dopamine hits

as we jump from one post to the next one and from one level to the next one,

and what makes it even easier for us to engage in social media,

junk food, porn, alcohol, drugs or any other source of instant gratification,

is that it doesn't take us any effort.

We simply have to consume and are instantly rewarded with massive hits of dopamine.

It's crazy to believe,

but we live in a world which is designed to stimulate our emotions

in order to maximize profits.

It is scientifically proven that dopamine has a direct influence

on the decisions we make and the actions we take.

That's why ultimately dopamine controls us on a daily basis

and that's why billions of people unconsciously focus their whole life on consuming

instead of creating the lives they actually want to live.

Alright. So, I honestly believe that this problem is much bigger than we think

and that every single person is impacted by it,

and that's why I want to tackle it by doing a 7-day dopamine detox

in order to change my relationship with dopamine

and hopefully to inspire you guys to do the same.

So here are the rules.

For the next 7 days I won't be allowed to consume the following things.

No social media. I deleted all social media apps from my phone

and I won't be able to access these sites on my laptop as well.

No digital entertainment.

I'm not allowed to watch TV or Netflix and I can't play any videogames.

No junk food. Which means that I can't eat any unhealthy food like chips or sweets.

Regarding beverages, I will only drink water,

so also no Coke Zero.

No alcohol and drugs,

no porn and no music.

This is something I wanted to try for myself

because I'm constantly listening to music and I never really have a moment of silence.

So, now as the rules were set,

I was ready to embark on this journey.

Enjoying the last coke.

I'm gonna miss it.

I'm ready to go,

and I'm looking forward to the next couple of days,

and I hope that I'm going to see some real benefits coming from this.

Let's go!

Unlike many of my other mornings,

this one was without music.

Instead of grabbing my phone right away and playing a random song,

I started my day in silence.

Hey.

Come on, this is like the cutest dog ever, right?

Alright, yeah, I'm just going for a walk here and...

To be honest, it feels great. I'm already loving it.

I haven't really kept up my routine for the last 30 days that I was here on Mallorca.

It's always a little bit difficult if you switch location,

so I didn't go for any walks, I didn't do any workouts

and all that kind of stuff, so it was definitely a goal to get it going again.

When I came back home, I said hi to the other dogs

and made myself cereals with milk for breakfast.

Instead of watching YouTube videos while having breakfast,

I basically did nothing...

Which was kinda boring.

After that, it was time for work.

In the next hours, I reviewed a script for my notion workflow video

and planned the shortlist for the intro of this video.

I pretty quickly started to get into a good flow

because my phone was still at the side of my bed.

I didn't see any good use in having it with me as I couldn't access social media or listen to music,

so I just focused on my work and got a lot of things done.

After that it was time for a good old Spanish lunch with fuet and tortilla.

Spanish food is the best.

First thing I noticed when I came into the car: there was music running.

I immediately turned it off, but it's just so weird to drive without music.

I normally listen to music all the time, especially when I'm driving in the car.

Today I'm not going to listen to anything.

Next up, I went to the supermarket where I bought a ton of chocolate bars

in order to shoot the intro of this video.

So, as you can hear, there is music running here.

There's just nothing I can do. That doesn't count as my fault here.

When I came back home, I filmed all the different b-rool footage for the intro and the fridge scene,

which turned out to be a lot funnier than expected.

This is definitely the most stupid intro I've ever filmed.

I'm not actually eating the chocolate.

So, the day is getting to an end,

the sun is already setting back here

and yeah, it has been a successful day to be honest.

Overall, I felt very very focused today,

because there were just no distractions that could pull me out of my flow.

Yeah, I got a lot of things done. I reviewed a script and sent it out to a client,

I shot the whole intro of this video and a lot of additional b-roll.

I just felt super super productive today.

So, you might wonder why would you do a dopamine detox,

and the thing is that for the last one or two weeks I've been feeling really off.

I was just not focused, I didn't have any motivation to create videos,

I didn't want to stand in front of a camera and I was super indecisive.

Like, I thought at least 10 times if I should shoot this video

or if I should push it back and shoot it later.

That's when I thought like "okay, I've got to get rid of all of these distractions

and I have to focus on the things that I actually want to get done".

And the dopamine detox doesn't mean that you're going to detox from all kinds of dopamine.

Like, my dopamine level is hopefully going to stay consistent,

but what I'm focusing on are all of the external factors,

like social media, like alcohol and all the other things

that just create those impulsive behaviours.

Like, everybody knows when you're just sitting on the toilet and suddenly...

You just have your phone open with Instagram and you're like "how did I get here?",

and that's just the thing. Like, as soon as we get a lot of dopamine from one source,

then our brain just rewires

and we have these impulsive behaviours where we don't even think about it,

but we just do it right away, automatically,

because our brain tells us "okay, I'm going to get a lot of dopamine from there,

so I'm going to do it".

And that's something I definitely want to get rid of. I want to control my own decisions

and control my own actions and yeah,

that's why I'm going to do detox from these sources

in order to just see what kind of benefits they bring me and hopefully to do it in long term.

The sun is set, the birds are still out and...

I still have a couple of hours to kill for today

and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet.

I don't know what's wrong with this dog.

She just has so much energy.

Bad news.

All of my cereals are empty.

Actually, I wanted to just eat a couple of those ones instead for breakfast,

but I'm going to stick to Spanish food again.

I want one of those really bad right now.

You're not gonna get anything!

I'd say that the second day was just as productive as the day before.

I spent all day long editing on a YouTube video where I made a lot more progress than usual

and most importantly, I really enjoyed to edit again.

It felt like the motivation that I had been missing for these past weeks was finally back.

So, for the majority of the day I've been editing my video on how I learned to fly FPV.

I made some real progress there and now I'm actually gonna get out and do a workout

in order to get back to my daily routine

and stay fit.

Honestly, sport without any music...

Kind of sucks.

Do you know what's the funniest thing about this dog?

That he's just like one big muscle and he can't relax at all.

Look at this!

He's just always under pressure!

Right?

Say hello!

Hello!

I love this dog.

When it comes to food, I had the huge advantage that my stepmother is really talented at cooking,

so in the evenings I always had very healthy and tasty meals.

The evenings after dinner were usually the time when the boredom kicked in,

and instead of working another few hours on my videos in order to escape that boredom,

I decided to play with the animals and started to watch more and more sunsets,

which really helped me to slow things down and be more mindful.

So, I just watched the sun go down and...

Yeah, to be honest, I'm feeling super present.

I'm always just like listening to the birds and not having any distractions.

That's just like...

It's so liberating, because...

Normally I would obviously take out my phone all the time to capture everything,

and right now it's just like...

A moment of calm.

So right now it's 5:40 a.m.

This is much earlier than I normally get up,

but today...

I'm gonna go for sunrise because I want to fly my FPV drone.

Let's do this.

Currently on the way to the viewpoint.

I haven't been here before to be honest.

I think it's gonna be a good sunrise.

Look at that drop going down here.

This is epic, hey!

I think the sun is coming up in a minute,

I think we have the perfect timing.

Look at that.

Let's go!

To be honest, I've always struggled with dedicating my time to new hobbies.

I never got started with flying an FPV drone

because I thought that it would take too long to learn it, and...

I wouldn't have time for my other work.

But, as I didn't spend any time watching Netflix or scrolling through my phone,

I was able to replace those toxic activities with things that I always wanted to do,

like flying my FPV drone.

Being up in the air, cruising through this beautiful landscape, I felt super excited.

Not only because I was flying with more than 70 km/h through trees,

but because I finally prioritized my time in the right way and engaged in a new hobby.

So, I just finished my flight.

If you've been watching my last videos,

you know that I am currently practicing on learning how to fly FPV,

and yeah, it's going well so far and...