Why don’t we do what we know is good for us?

We all know that exercise is good, that sufficient sleep helps, and that it is better to keep the phone away from the table for a while. Yet we do not do it. This has little to do with a lack of willpower and everything to do with how our brain works. In this keynote, Elke Van Hoof explains why the gap between knowing and doing is so persistent, and how you build sustainable change by working with your brain instead of fighting against it.

You actually know exactly what you should do. And yet, in the evening, you reach for the screen instead of your sports shoes, and for the snack instead of the cauliflower. This is not a character flaw. We make tens of thousands of decisions every day, and by far the majority are not made consciously. Conscious thinking requires a lot of energy, and so our brain runs on autopilot most of the time.

Elke Van Hoof makes this understandable with a simple distinction: the primal brain and the human brain. The primal brain is fast, instinctive, and focused on survival; it directs the vast majority of our choices. The human brain is slow, conscious, and rational, but it consumes a lot of energy and becomes exhausted quickly. Therefore, in almost every temptation, the primal brain wins. Our habits are not mistakes; they are efficient survival strategies.

Next, she shows why the gap between knowing and doing persists. Our primal brain is still programmed for scarcity and prefers fat and sugar. The conscious brain runs out of fuel throughout the day, causing us to reach for the easiest option in the evening. Peer pressure disables our own judgment, and our perception is distorted because the brain constantly fills in patterns. Stress makes it even more difficult: chronic stress reinforces that very primal brain, making us more impulsive and putting conscious choices further out of reach.

The good news is that you do not have to conquer the primal brain. That is impossible and even undesirable. The art is to engage the human brain in time, before the autopilot takes over. Elke Van Hoof shows how you do this: arrange your environment so that the right choice becomes the easiest one, reduce stress as a basic requirement, work with concrete if-then plans, and anchor change in your own deep motivations instead of in guilt or external pressure. Starting small and prioritizing repetition over perfection do the rest. You will understand why your resolutions fail every time and leave with concrete, achievable ways to build new behavior by working with your brain instead of against it.