The Motivational Triad: Why Your Brain Resists Growth (And What to Do About It)
Every ambitious leader I coach eventually bumps into the same invisible barrier: their brain’s default wiring.
The Life Coach School calls this The Motivational Triad—your primitive brain’s built‑in operating system designed for survival, not success.
The Triad has three goals:
Seek pleasure
Avoid pain
Conserve energy
Fantastic for staying alive in the wild. Not so great for executive performance.
Below are a few ways the Triad shows up at work.
1. Seek Pleasure
You land the promotion you’ve been working toward… and suddenly feel like a fraud. Imposter syndrome is the brain’s attempt to sprint back to emotional comfort. New roles require stretch. The primitive brain craves safety.
2. Avoid Pain
You have a big project to start—but instead you procrastinate. Not because you’re lazy. Because beginning opens the door to possible failure, critique, or imperfection. Your brain avoids emotional risk the way it avoids physical danger.
3. Conserve Energy
You could elevate the presentation, refine the draft, or push the idea further—but that would take effort. Your brain wants you to coast. Energy saved feels safer than excellence created.
The Real Work
There’s nothing wrong with you. Your brain is simply doing its job.
Your prefrontal cortex—the part of you capable of planning, leading, and growing—must override the Triad with intentional thought and committed action.
Ask yourself:
Where am I seeking comfort over progress?
What discomfort am I avoiding?
Where am I doing the minimum instead of stepping into mastery?
What am I willing to feel to get the result I want?
This is the shift from survival to leadership.
And once you see the Triad at work, you can choose differently—on purpose.
