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Not sure whether you’ve been following the ongoing saga to get my book on human-centric leadership written and published?

Well, I had an amazing two weeks over the Christmas and New Year break. I genuinely switched off. No emails. No operational fires to fight. Just time to relax, spend time with my family, and to regenerate.

And in that space, something wonderful happened. I gained absolute clarity about how I want to lead in 2026. I could see it so clearly: I’d finally start writing the book I’ve been promising myself for years. I’d delegate more of the operational detail that drains my energy. I’d focus on the strategic work that only I can do. I felt energised. Focused. Ready.

Well, it’s now halfway through January.

That crystal-clear vision? Rapidly fading. The book? Still unwritten. I’ve found myself reverting to type – getting stressed, bogged down in operational detail, firefighting issues that I could have delegated to someone else. And here’s the worst bit: I’m being horribly self-critical about it. Why can’t you stick to the plan? You know better than this. What’s wrong with you?

Sound familiar?

Here’s what I’ve realised: it’s not about willpower. According to research by psychologist Richard Wiseman, 88% of New Year’s resolutions fail. And the same underlying phenomenon can cause professional and business goals and objectives and your well-laid plans to fail too. Not because we lack commitment, but because we’re fighting against the very design of our brains.

Why Your Brain Sabotages Your Best Intentions

Why Your Brain Sabotages Your Best Intentions

Let me explain what’s actually happening in your head right now.

When you set a goal or objective, and make a plan to achieve it – whether it’s writing a book, delegating more, or exercising regularly – you’re using your conscious brain. Your prefrontal cortex is brilliant at planning, decision-making, and rational thought.

But here’s the problem: your conscious brain requires significant energy to function and makes up only a tiny fraction of your brain’s processing power. Meanwhile, your non-conscious brain – running hundreds of millions of years of evolved programming – is fast, efficient, and doesn’t require deliberate thought. It’s designed to keep you alive by seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, and conserving energy.

Research shows that non-conscious emotional responses are processed many times faster than conscious rational thought. So when that moment arrives to start writing or to delegate that task, your non-conscious brain has already evaluated the situation and decided that staying in your comfortable routine is the superior option – all before your conscious brain has even engaged.

This morning, I watched myself do exactly this. My diary had a two-hour block marked ‘Book Writing’. As the time approached, my non-conscious brain started offering me alternatives: That email really should be answered now. This operational issue can’t wait. You’ll think more clearly about the book later. All perfectly reasonable-sounding arguments. All complete sabotage.

The Willpower Myth

Now here’s something that might surprise you: willpower isn’t a character trait. It’s a finite resource.

Research by social psychologist Roy Baumeister demonstrated this brilliantly. In one famous study, participants who were asked to resist eating freshly baked cookies were less tenacious and performed worse on subsequent problem-solving tasks than those who’d been allowed to eat them. The effort of resisting the cookies had depleted their willpower and cognitive resources.

Think of willpower as a bucket. We all start each day with a full bucket, but every decision, every act of self-control, every time we resist temptation – it empties a bit. Use your willpower to stick to Dry January? You won’t have as much left for starting that book. Force yourself through a morning of tedious admin? You’ll find it harder to resist checking your email inbox during your strategic planning time.

This isn’t a weakness. It’s neuroscience. Your prefrontal cortex uses glucose to function. Deplete the glucose through constant decision-making and self-control, and your non-conscious brain takes over more readily. By 2pm, after dozens of decisions and interruptions, is it any wonder that your  aim to write every day feels impossibly difficult?

The answer isn’t to try harder. It’s to stop relying on willpower altogether.

The Future You Problem

But it gets worse. There’s an unconscious bias called present bias that makes us dramatically undervalue future rewards compared to immediate ones.

This made sense in our hunter-gather days when getting food today was a survival imperative. Long-term planning made very little sense as it was questionable if we’d survive that long.

When you think about an immediate reward – say, the satisfaction of clearing your inbox right now – your brain processes it as something happening to you. Present you. Real you.

But when you think about a future reward – the book you’ll have written, or the strategic clarity you’ll gain – brain imaging studies show something remarkable: the same regions activate as when we think about strangers. Your future self is literally processed as someone else.

So that crystal-clear vision I had over Christmas? My well-rested brain was making plans for someone else – Future Tom, who would reap the benefits. But Present Tom, sitting here in mid-January dealing with today’s pressures? He’s far more interested in today’s rewards.

No wonder our  objectives fade and our plans come to naught. We’re essentially asking Present You to make sacrifices for a stranger!

Your Brain Can Change – But Not Through Willpower

Here’s where it gets interesting. The good news: your brain isn’t fixed.

Neuroplasticity shows that your brain can literally rewire itself and create new neural pathways well into your later years. Every time you repeat a behaviour, you strengthen the neural pathway associated with it. Every time you practise a new habit, you’re literally rewiring your brain.

This happens at any age. Neuroplasticity doesn’t retire when you turn 40 or 60 or 80. Your brain remains capable of change throughout your life. Recent research also confirms that neurogenesis — the creation of entirely new neurons — continues in adult brains, particularly in areas associated with learning and memory.

But – and this is crucial – you can’t force this change through willpower alone. Trying to overpower your non-conscious brain with willpower is like trying to swim directly against a rip current. You might manage it briefly, but you’ll exhaust yourself. The key is to swim parallel to the shore – to escape the current’s pull by moving sideways, not fighting it head-on.

You need to work with your brain’s design, not against it

Four Strategies That Work With Your Brain

So here’s what I’m doing differently this time. Not theories – strategies I’m actively applying:

1. The aggregation of marginal gains

Dave Brailsford, the coach who transformed British Cycling from decades of mediocrity to Olympic dominance, had a philosophy he called ‘the aggregation of marginal gains.’ His idea was simple: if you improve everything you do by just 1%, those tiny gains compound into remarkable results.

James Clear popularised this concept in Atomic Habits. He points out that if you get 1% better each day for a year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the end. Not through heroic effort. Through tiny, almost invisible improvements.

My yoga practice taught me this viscerally. Ten years ago, I didn’t start with ‘I’ll attend an hour-long class each week.’ That created too many barriers. Instead, I committed to four minutes first thing every morning. Four minutes. In my bedroom. In my pyjamas.

It felt almost pointless at first. What difference will four minutes make? But because it was so easy, I actually did it. Every single day. And I’ve maintained that practice for a decade. Some days it’s still just four minutes. Other days it naturally expands to twenty. But the foundation – the four minutes that bypass my non-conscious brain’s objections – has never failed.

So for my leadership goals this year? I’m delegating one operational task per week. Just one. This week, the team schedule. Next week, perhaps client invoicing. The week after, monthly sales reporting.

Each task feels trivial on its own. But here’s the compounding effect: one task per week means by the end of February, I’ll have permanently delegated eight tasks. By the end of June, twenty-six tasks. By year-end, fifty-two operational responsibilities I’m no longer carrying.

That’s not just arithmetic – it’s transformation. Fifty-two tasks create hours of reclaimed time. Hours that become my writing time. Hours that, compounded weekly, become a finished book.

The key? Make each change so small your non-conscious brain doesn’t register it as threatening.

2. Create if-then plans that bypass decisions

Research by psychologist Peter Gollwitzer shows that people who create specific ‘if-then’ plans are significantly more likely to follow through. His research across 94 studies found these plans dramatically improve goal attainment.

The magic is that these plans bypass willpower entirely. Instead of ‘I will delegate more,’ I’ve created: ‘If it’s Monday at 9am, then I hand this week’s task to Sarah.’

No decision required on Monday morning. No willpower needed. When 9am arrives, my brain already knows what happens. The situation automatically triggers the new behaviour.

This morning was my second Monday testing this. It worked again. Not because I suddenly have more discipline, but because I’ve removed the decision point where my non-conscious brain could interfere.

3. Reduce activation energy to under 20 seconds

Shawn Achor’s research in The Happiness Advantage revealed the ‘ 20-second rule’: if something takes longer than 20 seconds to start, we probably won’t do it. Our non-conscious brain will offer alternatives.

I’ve applied this ruthlessly. My book-writing session? I close my email before 8:30am. Not at 8:30am. Before. I physically move to a different room with just my laptop and notebook. Checking email would require getting up, walking back, opening the programme – more than 20 seconds. So I don’t.

My yoga mat stays permanently unrolled. Rolling it out took 30 seconds – enough time for my brain to suggest alternatives. Now? I step directly onto it from my bed. Zero activation energy.

The easier you make the right behaviour, the less your non-conscious brain can interfere.

4. Recognise present bias and hold your nerve

This is the most powerful strategy, but it requires conscious awareness. When that moment comes – and it will – where today’s urgency feels more important than tomorrow’s goal, pause.

Literally name what’s happening: “This is present bias. My brain is prioritising immediate rewards.”

Yesterday afternoon, I felt the pull to abandon my writing session for ‘urgent’ emails. So I paused and recognised what was happening. This is present bias. Christmas Tom – the one with clarity – already made this decision. Hold your nerve.

And I did. The emails waited. Nothing catastrophic happened. And I wrote 300 words. Three hundred words that wouldn’t exist if I’d let present bias win.

This awareness doesn’t eliminate present bias – that’s neurologically impossible. But it gives you a fighting chance to override it when it matters.

Your Resolution Isn’t Dead and Your Objectives Live On!

So if you’re reading this halfway through January feeling like you’ve already failed, here’s what I want you to know: you haven’t failed. Your resolution just wasn’t designed for how your brain actually works.

Your non-conscious brain is doing exactly what evolution designed it to do: conserve energy, seek immediate rewards, protect you from threat.

The question isn’t whether you have enough willpower. Willpower is finite – it runs out, regardless of your determination. The question is whether you’re willing to work with your brain’s design rather than against it.

Make it ridiculously small. One task per week. Four minutes per day. One page per session. Create if-then plans that remove decisions. Reduce activation energy below 20 seconds. And when present bias kicks in – and it will – pause, name it, and hold your nerve.

My Christmas clarity about writing hasn’t completely faded. But I’ve stopped expecting willpower to carry me through. Instead, I’ve created a system: 30 minutes every morning at 8:30am. Same time. Same room. Email closed. No decisions required.

Most mornings, I write 200-300 words. Not impressive. But 250 words per day, five days per week, equals 65,000 words by year-end. A complete book. Through marginal gains so small I barely notice them accumulating.

This is neuroplasticity in action. Not through heroic willpower, but through tiny changes repeated until they become neural pathways. Until they become who you are.

It’s working. Slowly. Almost imperceptibly.

Want to join me?

Learn how to work with your brain, not against it

Discover how neuroscience can help you and your team achieve your objectives by designing behaviour change that actually sticks, get in touch.

And here is a link to the survey for my human-centric leadership book. I’d appreciate your contribution… https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lGOm2VvYqTRc5lIs7-xiKouv3ohfcRtiC0lsgiubZJo

Tom Flatau is CEO of Teamworking International and has been applying neuroscience to leadership development for over 25 years. His upcoming book on human-centric leadership explores how understanding our social brains can transform organisational performance. Connect with him at team-working.com.