10 Brain Exercises for Success

Every morning, before the sun comes up, I'm sitting in the quiet of my house with a cup of coffee and my eyes closed, not because I'm still half-asleep, but because I'm doing the most important work of my day.

I'm training my brain.

Not with textbooks or spreadsheets. Not with a fancy app or an expensive course. With simple, targeted exercises that take fifteen to twenty minutes and have genuinely changed the trajectory of my life, my business, and my sense of who I am.

I know that probably sounds dramatic. But let me take you back to where this all started.

I was stuck in a corporate job that was slowly draining the life out of me. Six-figure salary, sure, but I was up at 4 a.m., grinding through emails before most people had their first sip of coffee. The commute was brutal. The stress was relentless. And every night, I'd collapse into bed feeling like I'd run a marathon without actually going anywhere.

I'd started investing in real estate on the side, a couple of long-term rentals that weren't exactly setting the world on fire. I had dreams of building something bigger, something that would let me walk away from the corporate world and work for myself. But every time those dreams started to take shape, a voice in my head would shut them down: "You don't have the funds. You're not ready. Just stick it out."

That voice had been running the show for years. And it wasn't until I discovered John Assaraf's work on brain science, the idea that you can actually reprogram your mental patterns through deliberate, daily exercises, that I realized the voice wasn't telling me the truth. It was just a well-worn neural pathway. A six-lane highway of self-doubt that my brain had been cruising on autopilot for decades.

The exercises I'm about to share with you in this article are some of the same tools that helped me dismantle those highways of doubt and build new ones paved with confidence, clarity, and courage. Within eighteen months of making brain training a daily practice, I took $50K and turned it into a $2 million real estate portfolio. I walked away from my corporate career at forty-eight. And I built the number one training program for women in the short-term rental industry.

These life-changing brain exercises are not complicated. Some of them will feel a little awkward at first, maybe even a little "woo-woo." But I want you to do them anyway. Because in LIVE BIG, we don't just learn concepts. We practice them. We live them. And we watch them transform everything.

Let's get your brain fired up.

Table of Contents

Why Brain Exercises Matter for Entrepreneurs

Before we dive into the exercises themselves, let's talk about why this matters, especially for someone running a business.

Your brain fires off tens of thousands of thoughts every day. Research suggests that a large percentage of those thoughts are negative, and most are just repeats of yesterday's thinking. If you're not deliberately intervening in that pattern, you're essentially letting your brain run on autopilot, and autopilot is almost always tuned to the channel of self-doubt, fear, and playing it safe.

As I teach in LIVE BIG, your brain has two core priorities: safety and efficiency. It wants to keep you alive and conserve energy. Those are great priorities when you're being chased by a bear, but they're terrible priorities when you're trying to launch a business, make a bold investment, or step onto a stage and tell your story.

Brain exercises for entrepreneurs are designed to interrupt the autopilot. They give your conscious mind, your tiger, the tools to direct your subconscious mind, your elephant, toward the outcomes you actually want. Every time you practice one of these exercises, you're literally building new neural pathways. You're laying down fresh concrete on dirt roads. And over time, those new roads become the highways your brain travels automatically.

According to Harvard Health, engaging in diverse, stimulating activities supports brain health by promoting neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change its structure and function in response to experience. The exercises in this article are designed to do exactly that.

"Thoughts become things, but only when you learn to direct the traffic in your brain," Stacey St. John, LIVE BIG

Before You Start: Setting Up for Success

Here's my biggest tip before we get into the exercises: practice these every single day. Memorize the steps so they become second nature. Then, when a challenge pops up, a difficult client, a scary decision, a wave of self-doubt, you can whip these powerful tools right out of your back pocket and conquer anything.

Don't wait until you're in crisis to try brain training for success. Build the muscle now so it's strong when you need it most.

All you need is a quiet space, ten to twenty minutes, and a willingness to feel a little silly at first. Trust me, that feeling goes away fast when you start seeing results.

Exercise 1: Power Breaths

This is the foundation of everything. Power Breaths are the exercise I use most often, and they work in virtually any situation.

How to do it: Take six deep breaths. With each breath, say to yourself, "I breathe in [insert noun]; I breathe out [insert noun]."

What's incredible about this exercise is that you can tailor it to any moment:

Screaming kiddos have you ready to lose your cool? "I breathe in calmness; I breathe out anger."
Feeling foggy about a big decision? "I breathe in clarity; I breathe out confusion."
Prepping for a big presentation? "I breathe in confidence; I breathe out overwhelm."
Your packed calendar has you feeling anxious? "I breathe in tranquility; I breathe out anxiety."

As you breathe in, hold it for a second, savoring the feeling. Then, slowly exhale through pursed lips, like you're blowing out a birthday candle. Imagine all the stress and tension leaving your body with that exhale.

This isn't just relaxation, it's brain reprogramming. You're telling your brain what you're taking in and what you're releasing. This helps counter the natural stress reaction and activates what researchers call the parasympathetic nervous system. As Mayo Clinic Health System has noted, deep breathing can activate your body's relaxation response, reducing overall stress and anxiety.

Stacey Says: "Power Breaths are my go-to. I use them before meetings, during tough conversations, and first thing every morning. They take thirty seconds, and they change everything."

Exercise 2: Triple D (Discover, Decide, Do)

The Triple D is your emergency reset button, perfect for when stress is spiraling, and you need to regain control fast.

How to do it:

Close your eyes and picture yourself in your ultimate chill zone. Maybe it's a sandy beach with turquoise water, or a hammock in peaceful woods. Take six Power Breaths in that visualization.

Then move through three stages:

Discover. Ask yourself, "What is my intention for this moment?" or "What is my intention for today?" Check in with your body. How are your shoulders? Is your mind calmer? Don't judge, just observe.

Decide. You have the power to choose. Choose peace, clarity, or calmness. Choose to be in control. Pick something powerful and positive.

Do. Take one action step toward your intention. Right now. Don't wait. Immediate action moves you out of the reactive zone and into a proactive state where you're the boss of your emotions.

This simple practice boosts your awareness, letting you respond to situations instead of reacting to them. You'll see challenges differently, focusing on what you do want, not what you don't.

Exercise 3: Switch Gears

This exercise proves something powerful: you are not your emotions. You have emotions, but they don't own you. They're triggered by your subconscious and create the feelings you experience, but you can choose to redirect them at any time.

How to do it:

Stand tall, chin up, and give your biggest, brightest smile. Feel the energy run through you. Notice how your body responds to positivity.

Now switch gears. Be sad. Feel the weight of sadness and notice what happens in your body. What does your chest feel like? Your arms?

Switch again. Get angry. Think of something that truly makes your blood boil. Notice how anger affects your body differently than sadness.

Now switch one more time. Picture yourself achieving a major goal, absolute elation. Feel that surge of happiness. Notice how your breath deepens, muscles relax, and a smile naturally appears.

You just proved to yourself that you can flip from negative to positive on command. The key is staying aware of your emotions and actively choosing where you want them to go. Take breaks throughout your day, check in with yourself, and consciously choose how you want to feel.

As Entrepreneur magazine has reported, how you use your brain matters far more than how much of it you use, and mindset exercises like Switch Gears train you to use it deliberately rather than reactively.

Exercise 4: Gratitude Dial

Gratitude isn't just a nice idea, it's a neuroscience-backed strategy for rewiring your brain toward positivity and abundance.

How to do it:

Take six Power Breaths to center yourself. Then picture a dial right in the center of your chest, like the dial on a stove burner. This is your personal Gratitude Dial, and it controls the intensity of an imaginary Gratitude Flame burning inside you.

Think of something you're incredibly grateful for, a supportive spouse, a business opportunity, your health, your kids. As you focus on this feeling, imagine turning the dial clockwise. Feel the Gratitude Flame get bigger and brighter with each tick.

Spend two to three minutes fully immersed in gratitude. Let the warmth fill your entire being. Then go wild, turn that dial all the way up. Think about everything you're grateful for, big and small. Let those feelings turn that flame into a blazing inferno of positivity.

When you focus on gratitude, you're activating powerful chemicals in your brain. Research suggests that regular gratitude practice can increase positive emotions and life satisfaction. The more you train your brain to find things to be grateful for, the easier it becomes. It's a superpower you can develop.

Exercise 5: The Experience Coin

Every situation has two sides. The Experience Coin teaches you to choose the empowering one.

How to do it:

Take six Power Breaths. Then picture yourself holding a coin in the palm of your hand. One side is shiny gold, engraved with "Positive + Empowering." The other side is dull and gray, marked "Negative + Disempowering."

Throughout the day, catch yourself when you judge a situation. Is a conversation leaving you drained? Maybe an email drips with negativity. That's your cue to flip the coin.

As you envision it spinning, ask yourself empowering questions: "What's the hidden gem in this challenge? How can I use this to become stronger?" With each empowering question, the coin lands on the shiny, positive side.

Then close your eyes and repeat this declaration:

From this moment forward, I empower myself through heightened awareness. I intentionally select thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and meanings that energize me and drive me toward my goals.

Your brain is a feeling machine. The perspective you assign to an experience determines how you feel about it, which then affects your actions. Choose empowering perspectives, and watch your life transform.

Exercise 6: Cloud 9

This is pure creative brain training, and honestly, it's the most fun you'll have with your eyes closed.

How to do it:

Set a timer for nine minutes. Find a cozy spot and close your eyes. Start with six Power Breaths: "I breathe in calmness; I breathe out stress."

Now imagine yourself gently sinking into a big, fluffy white cloud, softer than the plushest marshmallow you can dream of. Take flight in the sky. Feel the weightlessness. Picture the smile on your face.

There are no rules here, drift over sparkling oceans, soar above mountains, and visit your dream vacation spot. Let your imagination and your cloud take flight. The whole time, keep focusing on the feeling of letting go of everything weighing you down.

When your nine-minute mini-vacation is over, gently drift back to earth. Wiggle your toes and come back to the present. Then grab your journal and jot down anything interesting you experienced.

When you let your brain run wild with creativity and wonder, something magical happens. You're building brand new neural pathways. The more you do these nine-minute brain workouts, the more your brain adapts and grows, making it easier to achieve those goals you've been dreaming of.

"The key involves discovering how to hone your mental energy on the task at hand." Entrepreneur magazine

Exercise 7: The Reframing Rockstar

This is a mindset exercise you practice throughout your entire day, not just in a dedicated session.

How to do it:

Throughout your day, catch yourself when Grumpy Greg starts rattling his cage or when disempowering thoughts creep in. Maybe you're dwelling on a mistake, or you walk into the kitchen and see a mountain of dirty dishes and immediately think, "Why am I always the one cleaning up?"

That's your cue to reframe. Ask yourself: "What's the positive side of this? How can I use this to grow?"

Those dishes become an opportunity to pop in your headphones and feed your brain with a great audiobook. That client who cancelled becomes an opportunity to refine your offering and attract someone who's a better fit. That failed product launch becomes a masterclass in what to do differently next time.

Here's my confession: this morning I walked into the kitchen and saw dishes piled high, and Grumpy Greg immediately busted out with thoughts like, "Why can't anyone else pitch in around here?" Even though I know how to manage my mindset, I'm not perfect at it. The goal isn't perfection, it's awareness. Catch the negativity, flip it with a positive spin, and keep moving forward.

Exercise 8: The "I Am Done With That" Declaration

This is one of the most powerful brain training for success techniques I learned from John Assaraf, and I use it constantly.

How to do it:

When you identify a limiting belief or a negative thought pattern, stop everything and say out loud, with conviction: "I am done with that!"

Then immediately replace the limiting belief with an empowering one:

"I can't handle this" becomes "I am resourceful and capable."
"I'm not smart enough" becomes "I am always learning and growing."
"I don't deserve success" becomes "I am worthy of abundance."

The power is in the conviction. You're not gently suggesting to your brain that things might change. You're declaring it. You're stuffing Grumpy Greg back in his cage and slamming the door shut.

Say your new empowering belief out loud. Write it down. Repeat it every morning. Over time, this becomes the new script running in the background of your mind.

Exercise 9: The Visualization Power-Up

Visualization is one of the most well-researched tools in performance psychology, used by Olympic athletes, Fortune 500 executives, and now, by LIVE BIG entrepreneurs everywhere.

How to do it:

Close your eyes and take six Power Breaths. Then vividly picture yourself achieving a specific goal. Not a vague "I want to be successful" image, a specific, detailed scene.

See the room you're in. Feel what you're wearing. Notice the expressions on the faces around you. Hear the congratulations. Feel the emotions, pride, joy, gratitude, and excitement.

Spend three to five minutes in this visualization. The more vivid and emotionally charged it is, the more powerful the effect on your neural pathways.

Research supports the effectiveness of this practice. According to Psychology Today, visualization activates many of the same neural networks that are involved in actually performing the activity you're imagining. Your brain literally cannot tell the difference between a vividly imagined experience and a real one, which means visualization is essentially a rehearsal for success.

Exercise 10: The Morning Mindset Stack

This is my daily ritual, the routine that brings everything together. It takes about fifteen minutes and sets the tone for an entire day of intentional living.

How to do it:

Start with gratitude. Write down three things you're grateful for and why. This shifts your mindset before the day's chaos begins.
Set your three non-negotiables. Identify three must-do tasks that will move your business forward and block time for them. Everything else can be delegated or postponed.
Prioritize learning. Commit to feeding your brain with education, fifteen minutes of an audiobook, a podcast episode, or an article.
Show up for someone else. Think about how you can serve someone today, a quick text to check on a friend, or a response to a question online.
Show up for yourself. Write down how you'll prioritize your own well-being, the gym, meditation, and a quiet coffee.
Visualize your success. Take a moment to see your day unfolding smoothly. Picture yourself solving challenges with ease.
Write and speak your affirmations. Don't skip this. Speaking them out loud trains your brain and reinforces your intentions.

This isn't just planning, it's building the neural infrastructure for an exceptional day. Commit to this fifteen-minute routine and you'll bring laser focus and structure into every twenty-four hours.

Common Mistakes with Brain Training

Even with the best intentions, people stumble. Here's what to watch out for:

Doing exercises once and expecting a transformation. These tools work through repetition. One Power Breath session won't rewire decades of negative thinking. Daily practice over weeks and months is what creates lasting change. As Malcolm Gladwell has argued, mastery requires significant practice. Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA, offers a more accessible benchmark, twenty hours of focused effort can take you from novice to competent. That's just forty-five minutes a day for a month.

Skipping the physical foundations. Your brain needs proper sleep, nutrition, and exercise to rewire effectively. Harvard Health research shows that aerobic exercise triggers the release of brain growth factors essential for neuroplasticity. Don't try to build new neural highways on a foundation of sleep deprivation and junk food.

Treating brain exercises as separate from "real work." These exercises are the most important work you'll do. They're not a warm-up act before the main event. The mindset you bring to your business is the engine that drives every strategy, decision, and outcome. Investing fifteen minutes in brain training for success every morning will yield returns in every hour that follows.

Comparing your progress to someone else's. Your neural wiring is unique. Your starting point is unique. Your timeline for change is unique. Measure yourself by your own ruler, not someone else's highlight reel.

But What If This Sounds Too Simple?

If you're thinking, "Come on, Stacey, breathing exercises and gratitude dials are going to change my life?", I hear you. I had the same reaction when I first encountered this work.

But consider this: the most powerful tools are often the simplest ones. Drinking water. Getting sleep. Taking a walk. These aren't complicated, but they're transformative when done consistently.

As I share in LIVE BIG, I was okay with a little "woo-woo" if it meant unlocking my full potential. And unlock it, these exercises did. The corporate job I thought I'd never leave? I walked away. The real estate portfolio I dreamed about? I built it. The self-doubt that had been running the show for years? It's still there sometimes, but now I know exactly how to handle it.

The simplicity is the feature, not the bug. These exercises are simple enough to do every day, which is exactly what makes them powerful enough to change your life.

What are the best brain exercises for entrepreneurs?

The best brain exercises for entrepreneurs include practices that target stress reduction, emotional regulation, positive mindset reinforcement, and creative thinking. Key exercises from the LIVE BIG framework include Power Breaths (intentional deep breathing paired with positive affirmations), the Triple D (Discover, Decide, Do, a three-step process for regaining emotional control), the Gratitude Dial (a visualization that amplifies feelings of gratitude), Switch Gears (an exercise that proves you can redirect emotions on command), and Cloud 9 (a nine-minute guided imagination exercise that builds new neural pathways). Research from Harvard Health and Mayo Clinic supports the effectiveness of breathwork, meditation, and visualization for reducing stress, improving cognitive function, and promoting neuroplasticity. The key to success with brain exercises is daily consistency. Practicing for fifteen to twenty minutes each morning creates cumulative neurological change over time.

How does the Power Breaths technique work for stress relief?

The Power Breaths technique, developed by Stacey St. John in her book LIVE BIG, combines intentional deep breathing with targeted affirmation statements. To practice, you take six deep breaths, pairing each inhale and exhale with a specific intention, for example, "I breathe in calmness; I breathe out stress." As you breathe in through your nose, you hold the breath briefly, then exhale slowly through pursed lips while visualizing tension leaving your body. This technique works by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the body's built-in relaxation response, which reduces stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. According to Mayo Clinic, deep breathing exercises can slow your heartbeat and help lower blood pressure. What makes Power Breaths unique is the addition of intentional noun pairing, which simultaneously directs the brain to release negative states and adopt positive ones, creating both a physiological and psychological shift.

Your Brain Is Ready, Are You?

Remember that woman who used to wake up at 4 a.m. with a heavy weight on her chest, dreaming about doing work that fulfilled her but playing the same disempowering loop every single morning? "Stacey, you make too much money to change. Feeling fulfilled isn't that important. Just deal with it."

That loop doesn't play anymore.

It stopped playing because I made a decision, not just to learn about brain science, but to practice it. Every single day. Power Breaths before tough conversations. The Triple D when stress starts spiraling. Switch Gears when emotions try to hijack my afternoon. The Gratitude Dial when I need to remember how far I've come. Cloud 9 when my creativity needs fuel.

These life-changing brain exercises didn't just help me build a business. They helped me become the person who could build it. And that's the real transformation.

You don't need to be a neuroscientist to use these tools. You don't need to meditate for hours or retreat to a mountaintop. You need fifteen minutes, a quiet corner, and the willingness to show up for yourself every morning.

Your brain already has the hardware. These exercises are the software update.

So grab a journal. Set your alarm fifteen minutes earlier tomorrow. And start training the most powerful asset you've ever owned. Because when your brain is working for you instead of against you, there is absolutely nothing you cannot create.

It's time to LIVE BIG. And it starts between your ears.

About Stacey St. John

Stacey St. John is the bestselling author of LIVE BIG: An Entrepreneur's Playbook to Boss Up Your Business, Show Up for Yourself, and Step into Your Dream Life and the founder of LIVE BIG®, the platform helping women entrepreneurs build businesses and lives that light them up.

A Certified Stagnation Assassin (https://stagnationassassins.com) and host of The STR Sisterhood Podcast, Stacey is an advisor to high-performing women and an architect of scalable, life-first businesses. She built the #1 training, mentoring, and mastermind program for women in the short-term rental industry and grew the Female Short-Term Rental Investors community to more than 60,000 members worldwide.

Stacey turned $50K into a $4M real estate portfolio, walked away from her six-figure corporate career at 48, and has been featured in Forbes, named a Wheel of Fortune winner, and recognized as a Guinness World Record holder. She now helps women stop building businesses that drain them and start building businesses that fuel them.

Learn more at LiveBigWithStacey.com.

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Stacey St. John

Stacey is living proof that big dreams and bold moves can lead to incredible results. With a successful career in sales and corporate America, Stacey cannonballed into real estate with just $50,000 and turned it into a 7-figure portfolio in just a few years. Whew!

Now, she’s on a mission to show other women (including you!) how they can do the same with any dream, in any industry, or even their personal goals.

Stacey’s passion is all about lifting others up and enabling them with tools to create their best lives. She knows that dreaming big can feel scary, but she’s living proof that with the right guidance, some hard work, and a proven plan, those dreams can turn into reality.

Drawing on her years of not only business experience but a ton of mindset work – which honestly, can be harder to practice – Stacey now mentors women who are ready to take control of their future, break through barriers to finally get un-stuck, and design the life they’ve always dreamed of.