Brain scans of sharp older adults point to one area that thrives on challenge.
One of the best ways to keep your brain strong as you age is to keep doing small hard things on purpose, especially the ones you honestly don’t want to do. Brain scans of sharp older adults, and of older adults learning new skills, point the same way: the brain holds on to what you keep challenging.
That idea came alive in a conversation between neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and David Goggins on the Huberman Lab podcast. Here’s what they said, what research on aging brains adds, the 7 things to practice, and how to make them a daily habit.
Why doesn’t hard work you enjoy build willpower?
Hard work you enjoy doesn’t build much willpower because there’s no inner fight to win. Willpower is the skill of acting against your own resistance. If there’s no resistance, there’s nothing to practice on.
Huberman gave a clear example. He said he loves lifting weights and even likes pushing past failure with extra reps. Because he likes it, he said, it doesn’t train the brain area tied to willpower. He contrasted that with someone who’s afraid of water putting their head under anyway. That person is practicing will.
He also said something that surprises most people. Once a hard thing turns fun, the training effect fades. If you go from hating your cold shower to loving it, it’s time to find a new challenge.
Takeaway: ask “Do I want to do this?” If the answer is yes, it’s a joy. If the answer is no and you do it anyway, it’s training.
How do hard things keep an aging brain strong?
Hard things seem to help an aging brain stay strong because the brain keeps building and protecting the areas you keep using, at any age. The research is still young, but it points in a hopeful direction.
In a 2016 study in the Journal of Neuroscience, a Massachusetts General Hospital team led by Felicity Sun and Bradford Dickerson scanned “superagers.” These are people in their 60s and 70s whose memory matches adults 20 to 30 years younger. One of the areas where their brains looked youthful was the midcingulate cortex, the same region linked to willpower and pushing through effort.
Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett, one of the researchers, wrote in The New York Times that pushing past your physical and mental comfort zone may be part of how superagers keep these areas strong. She was clear that the science can’t yet prove which comes first, the strong brain or the hard work.
A second clue comes from a 2008 study in the Journal of Neuroscience by Janina Boyke and Arne May. Adults aged 50 to 67 practiced juggling for 3 months. Those who learned it showed growth in brain areas tied to seeing motion, and also in the hippocampus, a memory hub. It was one of the first studies to show that an older brain still physically changes with training.
Takeaway: the 7 things in the table below are small, daily ways to give your brain the kind of challenge it seems to need as the years go by.
What does the brain science say about unwanted effort?
Research shows that effort usually feels unpleasant, and that a brain area called the anterior midcingulate cortex helps decide whether that effort is worth paying. Willpower lives in that trade-off.
A 2024 review in Psychological Bulletin looked at 170 studies with more than 4,600 people. Across jobs, tasks, and countries, harder mental effort went along with more negative feelings. So if trying hard feels bad to you, you’re normal. That feeling is the raw material, not a sign you’re weak.
In our main guide to the anterior midcingulate cortex, you’ll see how Harvard and Northeastern scientists describe this area as a hub for tenacity. It weighs the cost of effort against the reward. Each time you pay the cost on purpose, you’re giving that system practice.
One honest note: the exact claim that the area grows from unwanted effort comes mostly from Huberman’s reading of the research. It’s a useful guide, and the direction of the evidence supports it, but it isn’t fully proven yet.
Can you learn to value effort over time?
Yes, studies show people can learn to value effort itself when effort gets rewarded. This is one of the most hopeful findings in the whole topic.
In a 2022 study in PNAS, Georgia Clay and her colleagues rewarded some people for trying hard on a memory task. Later, even when no reward was offered, those people chose harder math problems more often than others. They’d learned that effort itself was worth something.
Psychologist Michael Inzlicht calls this the effort paradox. Effort costs us, yet we also value things more because we worked for them. Think of the meal you cooked yourself, or the savings you built one paycheck at a time.
How to use it: after each hard thing, give yourself a small, honest reward. It can be a check mark, a proud sentence in your journal, or a quiet moment of gratitude. You’re teaching your brain that effort pays.
Which hard things keep your brain strong?
The best challenges are small, uncomfortable for you personally, and chosen on purpose. Size matters less than resistance. These are the 7 things to practice, at any age, and how they compare.
| Challenge | Time | Builds willpower if… | Stop counting it when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold shower finish | 30 to 90 seconds | You dread the cold | You start looking forward to it |
| Taking the stairs | 2 to 5 minutes | The elevator tempts you | It feels like nothing |
| Phone-free first hour | 60 minutes | You reach for your phone on waking | You no longer miss it |
| The avoided call or email | 5 to 15 minutes | You’ve put it off for days | It’s done (pick the next one) |
| Extra 5 minutes of exercise | 5 minutes | You’re tired and want to quit | You enjoy the extra time |
| Learning a new skill | 15 minutes | It feels clumsy and slow, like juggling at first | You can do it without thinking |
| Skipping a craving | A few minutes of urge | You really want the snack | The craving has faded |
A common mistake is choosing something huge, like a 5 a.m. two-hour workout, and quitting on day 3. Goggins himself said growth starts with small building blocks. Small and daily wins over big and rare.
How do you build willpower step by step?
Build willpower with a simple loop: choose, notice, act, record, and rotate. Here’s the 5-step practice.
- Choose 1 task tonight. Pick something from the table above, or your own “ugh” task. Keep it under 20 minutes.
- Notice the resistance. When the time comes, feel the pull to skip it. Say to yourself, “There it is.”
- Act within 5 seconds. Don’t debate. The longer you negotiate, the louder the excuses get.
- Record it. Write one line: “Didn’t want to. Did it.” Over weeks, this page becomes proof of who you are.
- Rotate every 1 to 2 weeks. When a task stops feeling hard, swap it for a new one.
If mornings are your hardest time, stack your challenge onto something you already do. Our guide to habit stacking shows how to attach a new action to an old routine so it sticks.
What if you miss a day?
Missing a day doesn’t erase your progress. Start again the next morning with a smaller task. What matters is the long pattern, not one perfect streak.
How does willpower help you manifest your dreams?
Willpower is what carries your dream from the page into your days. A clear vision tells you where to go. Willpower gets you out the door when the road is uphill.
Many people love the feeling part of manifesting, the vision board and the hopeful thoughts. Then real life asks for a hard conversation, a boring practice session, or a no to something tempting. That’s where the dream is won or lost.
Every time you choose the harder, wiser path, you align your actions with the future you’re calling in. Our article on consistency and manifestation shows how daily action turns intention into results.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to build willpower?
Do 1 small thing each day that you honestly don’t want to do, and do it on purpose. Keep it short, act before you can argue with yourself, and switch tasks once they get easy.
Does exercise build willpower?
Exercise builds willpower when it feels hard and unwanted to you. According to Andrew Huberman, workouts you enjoy are great for health but don’t train willpower in the same way.
Is willpower something you’re born with?
Not fully. Research suggests people can learn to value effort when effort is rewarded, and David Goggins says his own will was built over years of practice, not given at birth.
Why does trying hard feel so bad?
A 2024 review of 170 studies found that mental effort feels unpleasant for most people in most tasks. That discomfort is normal, and it’s the very thing you practice pushing through.
How long does it take to build willpower?
Most people notice it feels easier to start hard things within a few weeks of daily practice. Treat it as a lifelong habit, since willpower tends to fade when you stop using it.
If today feels heavy, start smaller, not later. The universe keeps sending you signs. Get one in your inbox every morning → And to see how willpower fits into the bigger picture, read our guide on how to manifest.