Worse before better

I’m currently working through Dr. Anna Lembke’s “Dopamine Nation Workbook” which offers practical tips on how to establish healthier, more moderate relationships with highly rewarding, potentially addictive activities that threaten to reduce our enjoyment of other activities.

In my case, I’m working on reducing phone usage and, more specifically, social media apps on the phone.

The promise of establishing these healthier relationships is a brain with recalibrated reward pathways which enables us to find more things in life enjoyable and meaningful.

A word of caution and advice that Dr. Lembke offers at the outset: it gets worse before it gets better. Remembering that it gets better helps you get through things when they’re worse.

Beyond the context of my efforts to abstain from phone usage where I’ve found this to be very true, I think this is generally good advice for most challenges we go through in life.

Entering into a challenging project? It might suck at first. But it helps to know that as you acclimate, you’ll become more adept at handling whatever the project throws at you.

Have a tough conversation that you know you need to have? The conversation itself probably won’t feel great. But knowing that you will feel accomplished after having it is certainly motivating.

Let this be a mantra in your mind as you prepare to enter into your next challenge or period of growth: it may get worse before it gets better. Remember it will get better.