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3 Hormones That Create Strong Leaders
If common sense isn’t enough to drive us back to the strong-silent leaders, biology might be.
Most of us are familiar with endorphins and dopamine.
Endorphins are the anti-pain hormone. Their sole purpose is to alleviate our physical pain and reward us for it. If you’ve ever felt a runner’s high — the feeling of enlightenment and release — it was endorphins at work. You will feel the full damage you did to your muscles one hour later, but, for now, you’re feeling great.
In an evolutionary sense, endorphins were crucial for our survival. It’s the hormone that enables us to go gather berries even if you’re injured or ill. It’s the hormone that makes us want to push ourselves to the limit by rewarding us with a gentle high.
Dopamine is the “I did it!!” hormone. Our bodies release dopamine when we complete a task we set for ourselves. We get a hit of dopamine whenever we achieve something we deem important. Whenever you cross an item off your to-do list, you get a hit of dopamine. No explanation needed here — wanting to get stuff done is a very useful function in all areas of life. The only danger is that software creators are getting scarily good at exploiting our craving for dopamine.
