Dopamine
Simon Sinek examined comprehensively, in his book “Leaders Eat Last”, how significant role play dopamine in our success. Knowing how to stimulate the release of this hormone in our body is a positive life changer in our personal and professional life.
Chemicals of progress – the “selfish” chemicals
Dopamine, together with endorphins, are focused on getting us where we need to go as individuals. This includes activities like self -preservation, need for inventing new tools and drive forward to get things done. Simon Sinek calls these chemicals of progress – the “selfish” chemicals. When we do something that needs to get done, dopamine makes us feel good. Satisfaction is a result of crossing tasks off our to-do list, reaching a goal or even completion of a step towards a bigger goal.
A marathon runner gets reward with dopamine after each mile toward the finish line so that he will keep going. The harder to achieve a goal, the more dopamine we get.
No biological incentive to do nothing
Doing something quick and easy may only give us a little hit if anything at all. As Simon Sinek emphasised, “There is no biological incentive to do nothing.” Activities, tasks and even speeches are exciting thanks to dopamine, reacting to our progress toward something larger than ourselves.
Feeling of satisfaction when we accomplish a goal
This a chemical of progress which gives us an intense feeling of satisfaction when we accomplish a goal, in the past, it incentivized us to find food and survive. In the experiment focused on the role the dopamine, rats were set in a scenario in which they had a choice between two piles of food. A small one, with easy access, and a big one behind the fence. Rats with a low level of dopamine never chose to make an effort to climb up the fence. Rats with higher dopamine level climbed the fence to get to the bigger pile.
Dopamine rewards us
Dopamine rewards us with a chemical rush when we have accomplished something, making us want to do it again and again, which is exactly what it takes to find things, build things and get things done. But it is harder to do all things alone, especially the big things. We are able to achieve a lot but we may feel very lonely, no matter how much money we will accumulate.
Dopamine motivates us to get a college degree. Dopamine is mostly associated with pleasure and reward as it can motivate you to work hard to achieve desired results. Dopamine gives us also a feeling of pride and reward when you have completed everything you wanted to do.
This a chemical of progress is highly addictive
An excessive amount of dopamine in our body can lead to addictions. For example, drugs, alcohol, coffee or candy make the body produce more dopamine. However, nowadays there is a new threat to our dopamine reward system – social media. It feels great to receive a text message, e-mail or see the increase in the number of likes we collect. The flash of the phone or sound of the incoming message leads to the dopamine-releasing feeling. This is the most destructive addiction of our times and it can lead to procrastination, anxiety and unhappiness.
Lack of dopamine can lead to slow and uncoordinated movements. In contrast, too much can result in too many unnecessary movements and ticks.
Next week – Oxytocin!
Next week in “Hormones awareness Part 3” with powerful hormones: Oxytocin! Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss it!
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