<div class="insight_content">The neurotransmitter called dopamine is more about the anticipation of a reward than it is about the reward itself.</div><p>Some specific cues found in our environment hint to a potential reward and dopamine starts to raise anticipation. So dopamine is the one responsible to make us take action towards a specific goal.</p>

The role of dopamine

<div class="insight_content">In every moment of our lives, we are making decisions on how to act. Problems arise when we have to choose between what's immediately gratifying and what is not, but will be in the future. </div><p>The difficulty thus lies in delaying gratification.</p>

Making decisions

<div>We have hold self-control as a high virtue since the earliest times, and that's why it is a staple in most religions and the moral of many myths.</div>

The virtue of self-control

<div>Habits are the ones that mediate the relationship between our desires and our environment.</div><p>To change a habit, both we and the environment have to change, and that's why self-discipline is so hard.</p>

Self-discipline and habits

<p>An individual can be changed through education.</p><p>We have so little control over the biology that determines our desires. But the part of our biology that is more malleable is our brain.<br></p>

The role of education

<div class="insight_content">Self-discipline is both an environmental and an individual problem: we can change our behaviors and beliefs through education, but the resources available for education are provided by our environment. Also, our habits are a product of what's available in the environment.</div><p>By acknowledging this, we can start finding alternative opportunities for learning and for satisfying our needs.</p>

The product of our environment

<div>When we're deciding between immediate and delayed rewards, our brain chooses how much dopamine to send to each part of the brain (the limbic targets for immediate rewards and the frontocortical targets for the delayed ones) pragmatically by how pleasurable the reward is and how much time would take us to get to that reward.</div>

Dopamine and rewards

<div>We usually use this term when we describe a person that makes positive long-term decisions, by overcoming short-term temptations.</div><p>We associate this process with some sort of "will" or "willpower", though what these really mean is not that obvious.</p>

Defining self-discipline

<div>There are different factors behind every decision we make: genes, hormones, social environment, physical environment, past experiences, the context of the situation, etc. </div><p>But the most immediate cause of any of our actions can be traced back to our brain activity.</p>

Behind decision-making

Signup for your FREE trial to The Great Courses Plus here: http://ow.ly/ffLP30l0I5A<br><br>Support Freedom in Thought: http://patreon.com/freedominthought<br><br>In this video, we get to the bottom of why self-discipline (self-control) is so hard. <br><br>Instagram: http://instagram.com/freedomintht<br>Twitter: http://twitter.com/freedomintht<br>Facebook: http://facebook.com/freedomintht<br>Read more essays: http://freedominthought.com<br><br>Art by Arianna Belotti: http://ariannabelotti.com/<br><br>Transcript and sources: http://freedominthought.com/archive/why-self-discipline-is-so-hard<br><br>The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US, UK, and Australian markets. The Great Courses Plus is currently working to both optimize the product globally and accept credit card payments globally.

Self-discipline and habits

Why Self-Discipline is so Hard

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