Motivate Yourself to Practice or Study a Language Using Neuroscience
A must read article featuring Andrew Huberman's work
Recently I have been actively exposing myself to new ideas by consuming content created by experts on topics I don’t usually think about. One of the people I have come across is Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In this article, I would like to share how I feel Huberman’s work around adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin applies to motivating yourself to study or practice a foreign language.
Limbic Friction
Adjusting habits requires overcoming what I call “limbic friction” (energy to overcome anxiety, procrastination and/or fatigue). - Andrew Huberman.
That is a quote from this article written by Huberman called Build or Break Habits Using These Science-Based Tools. The concept of limbic friction is meaningful to me because I didn’t previously know that there is a term for the internal struggle between what we know we should do and what we feel like doing. By naming and defining that struggle, overcoming it becomes easier.
Overcoming Limbic Friction
As stated earlier, I view limbic friction as the internal struggle between what we know we should do and what we feel like doing. In this interview, Andrew Huberman describes the struggle further by detailing the relationship between adrenaline and dopamine. He explains that when expending effort (i.e., working), an increasing amount of adrenaline is released, eventually leading to fatigue and a desire to quit. However, if dopamine is also secreted while you work, the effects of adrenaline are at least partially counteracted.
As Huberman states in his interview, “dopamine has an amazing ability to buffer adrenaline.” Thus, you have the energy to continue working. It is worth noting that dopamine is released when you feel like you are making progress toward something meaningful (i.e., a goal). Therefore, if you are working hard and feel like you are making progress, you will have the energy and motivation to keep going. You will be less likely to quit.
How to Secrete Dopamine
According to Huberman’s work, we have the ability to secrete dopamine on command. This is good news. One way to do so (I follow this practice this myself) is to reward yourself more for effort than the end result. Thought leaders such as Seth Godin claim that this is not a mainstream idea. He proposes that we live in a world that incentivizes results far too much in comparison to incentivizing learning. Here’s an example of this from this article Godin wrote back in 2016.
Here’s the thing: large universities have built their institutions around lectures, tests and accreditation. So have many internal training functions.
Lectures are at the heart of the last century of higher learning. A proven scholar orates in front of a class of selected students.
Tests are the way institutions enforce compliance. They’re the stick.
And accreditation is the carrot. Put up with the lectures and the tests and we’ll give you the certificate, the scarce piece of paper that is (supposed to be) worth far more than the effort you went through to get certified.
In one question, then, an easy way to understand modern education: “Will this be on the test?” The student absorbs, the student regurgitates, the student gets the prize of a degree (and a job).
The validity of Godin’s perspective on the modern school system is irrelevant for our purposes. Godin’s article does, however, demonstrate a point: society tends to value results more than effort.
Don’t get me wrong: results are not unimportant. Nobody wants a surgeon who got As at university simply for effort. The consequences would be disastrous! Instead, according to Huberman, we should set goals and measure progress in order to orient us, but the primary focus should be on the action steps that advance us toward said goals. Don’t impatiently race to the finish line in an anxious fervour, falsely believing that finishing the race is all that matters.
“I’m on the Right Path”
Everyone has heard of expressions such as, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In the interview with Huberman linked earlier in this article, the neuroscientist says that he agrees with that statement. However, each step is not the same size. For this reason, it is crucial, especially during the deepest emotional lows, to constantly remind ourselves that taking difficult action is what keeps us chugging along on the right path.
When you don’t feel like practicing or studying your target language, but you know it would be a good idea to do so, say the following to yourself:
Dedicating time to my target language takes me one step closer to fluency. It puts me on the right path.
This is a way to train yourself to secrete dopamine when you are having difficulty overcoming limbic friction. Another effective way to trigger a dopamine release is through play, which is particularly important to remember if you are feeling frustrated. Finding a way to bring play into your studies and have fun will counteract frustration.
Dopamine Alone is Not Enough
“Dopamine is the pursuit motivation molecule [whereas] serotonin is really about feeling like we have enough in our immediate environment. Unless that serotonin box is checked off periodically, we cannot lean back into the dopamine outward pursuit process for very long.” - Andrew Huberman
When discussing adrenaline and dopamine, it is also important to bring serotonin into the conversation. Huberman states in his video that, “serotonin is a reward molecule, just like dopamine, except that it’s released in the brain in response to the subjective experience that we have enough resources.” It is the warm and fuzzy feeling you get when feeling, for example, gratitude or love. Without serotonin, you run the risk of burnout and empty victories. Remember to replenish your batteries. Get lots of rest, practice gratitude, and spend time with loved ones.
What resonates with me is your simpler advice: practice gratitude. I am grateful for the opportunity each day to practice Spanish! Oremos!
Very nice, thank you! "Dedicating time to my target language takes me 1 step closer to fluency. It puts me on the right path." -Azren (My new "Language Learning Mantra") :D