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In this week’s vlog, I want to share something new about a part of the brain that plays a powerful role in motivation and tenacity. Cheryl Cozad wrote in about struggling with willpower after four years as a Bright Lifer. She described feeling worn down, losing interest, and facing what she called “sorrow fatigue.” An exercise coach mentioned a brain region connected to willpower and action, called the anterior midcingulate cortex, and Cheryl wanted to know more about how it affects motivation, especially when it feels hard to do anything at all, and you need to ReZoom.

Brain Science Alert! Where Willpower & Resilience Live…

I talk a lot about the anterior cingulate cortex as the seat of willpower. It’s the part of the brain that gets fatigued when we regulate emotions, resist temptations, and persist through challenges. When it’s depleted, we may eat things we shouldn’t eat.

The cingulate cortex is divided into several regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex, the midcingulate cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex. Today we’re talking about the midcingulate cortex, but the anterior part of it—the front part of the midcingulate cortex.

The Brain Benefit of Doing Hard Things

This area is incredibly neuroplastic. It grows and shrinks based on how we respond to difficulty. When we consistently do hard but beneficial things, it grows in both size and connectivity. If we avoid challenges, it shrinks.

Cold showers, for example. They’re good for us but uncomfortable, which makes them easy to avoid. When you choose to do something like that anyway, this part of the brain strengthens.

Over time, however, as the habit becomes automatic, the growth plateaus, which means you need to gently increase the challenge. A morning walk may start out hard, then become routine. To keep this part of the brain growing, you might add climbing a hill or picking up your pace. If you stop altogether, the brain shrinks back down to its baseline.

Build Resilience with “Micro-Sucks”

Some researchers even encourage looking for “micro-sucks”—small, healthy choices that feel a bit uncomfortable—to build resilience. Resisting urges, such as staying aligned with your food plan, also strengthens this region. Hormetic stressors may also work. Things like heat exposure, cold exposure, or breathwork to challenge the body.

There’s some fascinating research on “super agers,” older adults who remain mentally sharp for decades longer than average. They tend to have notably larger anterior midcingulate cortices

This region also appears smaller in people with sedentary lifestyles and larger in athletes, suggesting a lifestyle connection. It even seems to play a role in our brain’s cost-benefit calculations—the internal “is this worth it?” question that guides our choices.

Building Tenacity in Bright Line Eating

What’s interesting to me is that Bright Line Eating is a playground for building tenacity. From morning and evening habit stacks to food planning and other daily choices, there are countless opportunities to choose the harder but healthier option. You can even make it a kind of game, stretching yourself just enough to keep this part of the brain growing. And doing so often gives you a dopamine boost as well.

An Opportunity to Grow

With that in mind, I’m offering a webinar for Bright Lifers, as well as those who have done the Boot Camp, or did Bright Line Eating with the books or all-access membership. It’s called “Reset. Recommit. Renew. The Bright Way Forward.” It will be offered three times in the coming weeks, LIVE only, with no recording. If you want to ReZoom your program and strengthen your tenacity, this is the way.

We also offer a course called “The Bright Reset,” our most popular course ever, taken by more than 2,000 people who saw remarkable success. It’s a targeted, three-week course, and the webinar will go into the science of it. The Bright Reset will be coming up this month as well—register for one of the webinars to get access!

Cheryl, thank you for the great question. We’re sending you so much love. We’ve all gone through similar times, and I hope the science in today’s vlog brings you encouragement and renewed strength.

Register here for a live webinar.