From the course: Your Brain at Work (Blinkist Summary)

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Regulating your expectations is key to a general feeling of happiness

Regulating your expectations is key to a general feeling of happiness

From the course: Your Brain at Work (Blinkist Summary)

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Regulating your expectations is key to a general feeling of happiness

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- [Instructor] Blink number seven, regulating your expectations is key to a general feeling of happiness. Have you ever become so excited over a certain prospect, say when you truly believe you were just about to win a game of Texas Hold'em that you felt terrible when it didn't transpire? Why do unmet expectations make us feel so bad? In a word, dopamine. If what transpires exceeds our expectations, our brains dopamine levels increase, generating our interest and desire. For example, unexpected rewards like receiving a surprise small bonus at work, have a far more positive effect on our brain chemistry than expected rewards like receiving exactly the pay raise you had expected. On the other hand, expecting a reward like a pay raise, but not getting it, causes our dopamine levels to plunge. And this results in us feeling something very similar to pain. It follows then, that to maintain a positive mental state, we have to…

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