Game your brain for success
Five psychology hacks that dramatically improve your chances of achieving your goals
At the end of every training session we run, we ask participants to commit to SMART actions - specific, measurable steps that will help them apply what they’ve learned in the real world. It’s important to us that the success rate of these SMART actions is high. After all, if the status quo simply persists after a Honeycomb training programme, our clients end up with nothing more than an interesting day or two away from their desk.
But, as anyone who has ever set a New Year’s resolution knows, setting a goal and actually achieving it are two very different things. Why? The problem isn’t a simple lack of willpower - it’s that we’re often working against our brains rather than with them. The key to success lies in understanding how our brains are wired and how we can hack them to our benefit.
In this article, we explore five simple but powerful techniques, backed by science, that can help you set better goals, stay motivated, and overcome obstacles.
1. Position your goals to be ‘approach-oriented’
The way you frame your goal will impact how likely your brain is to commit to it. The human brain is much more likely to be motivated by the idea of doing or gaining something, than the idea of abstaining or losing something. A research study looking at the effectiveness of resolutions concluded:
People with approach-oriented goals are significantly more successful than those with avoidance-oriented goals.
So if, for example, you feel you need to invest more in your client relationships, you will do better with a goal like, ‘I will build stronger client relationships by scheduling weekly check-ins’ than one like, ‘I will stop neglecting my client check-ins’.
This positive orientation also means you are beginning to build a picture in your mind of the scenario you desire. And the more you can build that picture in vivid detail, the more successful you are likely to be. This brings us to the power of visualisation.
2. Visualisation: Let your brain fake it ‘til you make it
Many sportspeople and highly successful individuals advocate the use of visualisation (think Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, Arnie, and Oprah). It is one of the six habits identified by Hal Elrod in The Miracle Morning that ‘will transform your life’. He describes it as:
The practice of seeking to generate positive mental pictures of specific behaviours and outcomes occurring in your life.
The neuroscience associated with visualisation is fascinating and complex. There are three key reasons why the technique helps us game the brain for success:
Brain plasticity – The brain is always adapting and reorganising based on our experiences. When we vividly imagine an activity or scenario, we create a simulation of the experience for our brain. This can trigger a neural response as if it were actually happening, strengthening the neural pathways that will help us repeat the activity in the real world.
Emotional engagement – When you vividly visualise a goal, not only do you see the image of it, but you experience the emotions associated with it. If the visualisation elicits positive feelings (e.g. joy, pride, or satisfaction), this can serve as a powerful motivator to pursue the goal in real life. Emotions are also tied to memory formation, helping you encode the scenario in your brain.
Cognitive-behavioural techniques – Visualisation aligns with CBT, which emphasises the interconnectedness of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Imagining yourself doing something well can also challenge your limiting beliefs and create confidence in your capacity to achieve your goals. In other words, fake it ‘til you make it.
For visualisation to be effective, a few things are important: the goals must be meaningful to you and aligned with your values, they must be fully developed and immersive (i.e. involve your senses and emotions), and you must be able to revisit them easily and frequently to experience the neurological benefits.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a vision board. This is a collection of images and words that convey your aspirations and bring them to life. Your board can cover a time period of your choosing - some people like to make one for the year, others prefer a mixture of short- and long-term goals. You could cut up images from magazines and clip art books or use a design program like Canva to organise digital images. Either way, place it somewhere you will see it every day - on your wall, desk, or as your phone wallpaper.
3. Make friends with your Chimp
In his acclaimed book The Chimp Paradox, Prof Steve Peters describes the human brain as having three distinct entities - the Human, the Chimp and the Computer. The Chimp is a representation of the limbic system, the part of your brain which is more primitive and reactive. A useful and necessary job of the limbic system is to protect you. It is responsible for the fight-flight-freeze-fawn response to perceived danger. When we set ambitious goals, our Chimp brain can perceive the change as a threat and have a bit of a tantrum to try and keep us safe. In this YouTube clip Prof Steve explains this behaviour, describing it as ‘absolutely healthy and natural, but unhelpful’.
The very simple question, therefore, is to begin with ‘Do I want…’ and then finish the sentence. For example: ‘Do I want these feelings?’ or ‘Do I want these thoughts?’ or ‘Do I want to be behaving this way?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then you are in Chimp mode and if the answer is ‘yes’ then you are in Human mode.
A central tenant of The Chimp Paradox is that the Human (the frontal lobe, rational brain) is in charge and must learn to manage the Chimp. If a human fights a chimp it will lose, the chimp is faster and much stronger. But a human is smarter and can placate the chimp if it learns how. This could look like the Human thanking the Chimp for alerting it to potential danger and coming up with a plan of action which makes it feel safe.
4. Eat that frog: Beating procrastination
Do you have some things on your ‘to do’ list that never make it to the top? Procrastination can affect us all. But when we repeatedly postpone an important task we create stress which can drain our cognitive resources. As the day (or week) progresses and your brain keeps finding excuses, getting started becomes even harder and you end up in a cycle of anxiety and avoidance.
Research suggests that procrastination usually stems from emotional discomfort (e.g. boredom, uncertainty, perceived effort) rather than laziness. This means we can learn to game our brain to get past it.
Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog method suggests that if you start by tackling the frog - the most important or challenging task - you activate a sense of accomplishment and motivation that propels you through the rest of your day. The psychological principle at play is task initiation momentum. The theory is that by completing something difficult early on, our brain rewards us with a release of dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation) which makes subsequent tasks feel easier in comparison.
If you are still struggling to get started with your frog, try the ‘5-minute rule’. By committing to working for just 5 minutes on your task you lower the emotional hurdle in front of you. Frequently, once you begin it is easier to continue.
5. Find yourself an Accountability Partner
Our chances of achieving our goals on our own are depressingly low (<50% even if we plan them thoroughly). However, if we introduce an accountability partner into the mix, things start to look much better.
An accountability partner is someone who helps you achieve your goals by checking in on your progress, offering support, and holding you to your commitments. Research shows that having an accountability partner increases your likelihood of success to 65%, but if you schedule regular catch-ups with them your chance of success will improve to 95%.
This approach works because you are tapping into some strong psychological drivers:
Social pressure is powerful – We’re more likely to follow through when someone else is watching because we want to be seen as credible and trustworthy.
External motivation is stronger than internal drive – When your partner celebrates your wins or challenges your excuses, you are more likely to stay engaged because you don’t want to disappoint them.
It forces clarity – Regular check-ins make you articulate your next steps and commit to deadlines which means it feels uncomfortable to have vague plans and postpone things.
Finding the right accountability partner is obviously crucial. Choose someone you respect and feel motivated to impress. They must be able to challenge you, encourage you, and not let you off the hook too easily!
Make it work for you
The biggest difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t isn’t talent or luck - it’s the systems they put in place. If you understand how your brain works you can use that knowledge to your advantage and significantly improve your chances of achieving what you set out to do. These small but powerful psychological shifts can make all the difference between a goal that stays a distant dream and one that becomes a reality.
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Love this list, Jo, thanks for sharing.
I've also found brain.fm's Focus playlist to be incredibly helpful for nixing procrastination. Try it free for 30 days here: https://www.brain.fm/garethrusselluk
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