Why “Mindset Work” Doesn’t Work and What Actually Changes Your Life
If information, affirmations and mindset shifts actually created change, every self-aware woman would already be living her dream life. But most aren’t and there’s a reason.
Knowledge doesn’t change behaviour.
Mindset doesn’t change behaviour.
Even changing beliefs doesn’t change behaviour.
Why? Behaviour isn’t controlled by the conscious mind it’s controlled by the nervous system and the subconscious.
When you try to will yourself into being “different”, you’re fighting a system that doesn’t respond to willpower. The emotional charge, the survival wiring, the old story-loops all remain hidden beneath the surface, quietly undermining you.
The Neuroscience: what the research actually shows
A major new review of meta-analyses (Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions, Albarracín et al., 2024) found that interventions which target knowledge, beliefs or attitudes produce negligible or very small effects on actual behaviour change.
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12407158/
The strongest effects were found when interventions targeted:
Habits (automated behaviours) - enabling people to act without needing to think consciously.
Social support (relational, systemic, accountability) - people change when they are supported by others, not just told what to do.
In plain language: telling someone what to do, or helping them believe why they should do it, is rarely enough. You must create the conditions for the behaviour to happen reliably, and for the nervous system to allow it.
This is where most change work goes wrong
Most programs aim top-down: “Change your thoughts → change your beliefs → you’ll change your behaviour.”
But by the time you’re at the behaviour-phase, the unconscious wiring is still running the show.
That’s why you’ve done the books, the journaling, the affirmations, the mindset work… and still feel stuck, anxious, hollow, unseen.
My method: working bottom-up so you can finally act
Here’s how I work with those ambitious, self-aware people who are done playing small:
Regulate and release the survival responses that block action
We use tools like EFT to calm the nervous system, release stored charge, and make the body say: “Yes, I can move.”
Rewrite the emotional meaning behind behaviours
We uncover the “why” beneath the “what” — the childhood wounding, the subconscious fear of “what if”, the hidden identity story that says you’re “not enough”.
Then take aligned action that becomes repeatable
Once you feel safe enough in your body and your meaning is clear, we set real tasks you can do in your business / life that actually move you forward.
Reinforce it through accountability + safety
You’re not working alone. You’ve got relational support, check-ins, structures that create consistency (which the habit loop relies on).
Turn it into a habit that becomes automatic
When the behaviour is safe, repeatable, supported, it becomes automatic. The system doesn’t need constant conscious effort; you’ve built the loop.
Why this works faster & deeper
Most approaches try to change one layer of you, usually your thoughts. But you’re not a floating mind. You’re a whole system.
Mindset work only targets the top floor of that system. Belief work only shifts the stories inside it. Strategy-only approaches try to force action from a dysregulated body.
We don’t stop at your mindset and beliefs.
We transform the system that creates behaviour: nervous system + meaning + action + routine + support.
That’s why my clients change faster and more deeply than they ever have before. They stop circling frustration and start moving with grounded confidence.
Ready to stop spinning and finally step into the life you’ve been working toward?
If you’ve tried everything and nothing sticks, this is the missing piece.
Contact me here, I’ll show you how we can work together to build your body-safe, action-oriented, habit-driven transformation.
Sources & Further Reading
Albarracín, D., et al. (2024). Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions. Nature Reviews Psychology.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-024-00305-0
PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40909436/Wood, W. & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417Lally, P., et al. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674Baumeister, R. & Masicampo, E. (2010). Conscious thought is for facilitating social and cultural interactions: explaining the meaning of the “social animal”. Psychological Inquiry.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2010.528743Porges, S. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. (For nervous-system foundations of behavioural responses.)
