Mindset & high performance 2:22 · Transcript included
Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa, host of DYFM?, on why you should choose discomfort first.
Discomfort is inevitable; the only choice is when you feel it. Alexis explains the difference between quick "dumb" dopamine and the slower, earned kind, and why doing the hard thing first gives you the drive for everything else, even the fun things.
Interviewed by Jess Wilson · Influential Women Series · The Pillars, Sydney · October 2026
Three takeaways on dopamine and discomfort.
- 01Discomfort is always a trade-off. Feel it now and enjoy the reward after, or take the quick hit now and feel the disappointment later.
- 02Quick dopamine ends in a crash. Scrolling and shopping give you a fast spike, then drop you below baseline, like a sugar crash, and leave you with no drive.
- 03Earn it, and it lasts. Exercise or a task that’s hard enough to show progress releases dopamine slowly, during the process and after, and lifts your motivation for everything else.
Full transcript
Lightly edited for readability.
Jess Wilson: We spoke a lot today around high performance, and in high performance there is that piece of discomfort to be able to get there. Can you share a little bit around that for us?
Alexis: Yeah. So when you look at discomfort, I always say it’s inevitable. There’s always going to be a level of discomfort. If we do something we like, and if we do something we don’t like, there will always be some sort of trade-off. We either trade in the discomfort now for the pleasure after, that dopamine, like we were talking about before, this earned dopamine versus the quick dopamine. Or we feel that discomfort after, of not having done what we wanted to do, and being disappointed in ourselves.
Alexis: And you mentioned dopamine in the talk that we had before, which was great, because I was like, oh, I should have spoken about that too. When we talk about dopamine, that quick hit of dopamine, like shopping, buying something or scrolling on social media, the reason why they call it ’dumb dopamine’ is because you get that spike and then that drop below baseline. Then the spike, and then the drop below. Because we haven’t earned it, it’s a really quick release and then a bit of a crash, like a sugar crash.
Alexis: But if we earn something, that feeling of fulfilment and validation comes through the process, and it’s a slower release. That comes from exercising. It comes from doing a difficult task, but not so difficult that nothing comes out of it; hard enough, but where we’re seeing progress. With these things, it’s not only the end of that session, so once I’ve studied for an hour or once I’ve completed that task, of course that feels good, but the actual process releases dopamine as well, because it’s the earning.
Alexis: So that’s one of the best ways, when we talk about discomfort: make your discomfort first. Make it something you’re earning. The result of that is you feel really good about yourself, and because you’ve got that higher motivation, more dopamine, you’ve got higher motivation to do other things.
Jess Wilson: It’s interesting, that prolonged… you know, the up and down.
Alexis: Yeah, exactly. And dopamine, if you look at dopamine, is your willingness to do something. If I have no dopamine, I’m not going to be willing to do something. So if I’ve depleted it, of course you feel terrible after doom scrolling, because you have no drive. But if I have this nice, slow release of dopamine and I’ve earned something, then after the fact I’m probably in the mood to go see my friends, or socialise. I’m feeling social, I’m feeling good. So even for the fun things, even when I can relax, I’m willing to do things that make my day richer.