EP736 - The Science of Resilience, Human Behavior, and Real Change with Dr Robyn Hanley Dafoe
The Brad Jensen Show
Brad Jensen
4.9 • 792 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of The Brad Jensen Show, I sit down with Dr Robyn Hanley Dafoe, one of the leading voices in human behavior and resiliency research.
Dr Robyn has spent her entire career studying why humans behave the way they do, what actually drives real behavior change, and why some people seem naturally more resilient than others. We get into the science behind resilience, but also the very real, very practical application of it in everyday life.
We talk about why motivation alone is unreliable, how environment and identity shape our choices far more than willpower, and what resilient people are doing differently when life gets hard. We also unpack how resilience is not something you either have or don't have, but a skill set that can be intentionally built over time.
This conversation goes deep into stress, emotional regulation, adaptability, and how our nervous system plays a role in how we respond to adversity. We also discuss common misconceptions around resilience, why pushing harder is often the wrong answer, and how small shifts in awareness and behavior can create massive long term change.
If you've ever felt stuck in old patterns, burned out, overwhelmed, or frustrated that you know what to do but struggle to follow through, this episode will hit home. It's an honest, grounded, and science backed conversation about becoming more resilient, more self aware, and more equipped to handle whatever life throws your way.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are now listening to the Brad Jensen show with Health and Mindset Optimization podcast. |
| 0:04.6 | Let's go. All right. Welcome back to another episode of the Brad Jensen show. I am super pumped for today's |
| 0:30.6 | guest. I was actually a guest on her show about a month ago. I don't think it's came out yet, |
| 0:36.7 | right? It's almost, almost out. Not yet. Yeah, well, that's great. No, and she was also a guest speaker in our next public experience program, Dr. Robin, Hanley Defoe, right? Yeah, that's me. I was like, it's just phonetic. You never know. Just fanatic, yes. I just kept calling you Dr. Robin. And they're like, do you know her last name? I'm like, it's hype. That's all I know. I love it. There you go. Well, Brad, I'm excited to be here with you today. Thanks for the invitation. Yeah. Thank you so much. I don't want to be like too redundant from our conversation but i like asked you some questions and on our group call that i was just like |
| 1:14.4 | gosh that was so I don't want to be like too redundant from our conversation, but I like asked you some questions |
| 1:12.3 | on our group call that I was just like, gosh, that was such a good answer. That was so good. |
| 1:17.1 | So some of them might be. But if you guys can, if you can tell the listeners just real briefly, |
| 1:24.1 | like what it is you do for a living and, uh, and yeah, how you got to this place. |
| 1:30.4 | Yeah, I love that, Brad. And again, thanks for the invitation of it. I feel very fortunate to |
| 1:34.2 | be able to connect with your audience today. So yeah, my name is Robin. I am somebody who studies |
| 1:39.8 | human behavior. So I study performance behavior specifically around resiliency and stress and |
| 1:46.2 | change and challenge and whatnot. And where I started in this work was I've been teaching at the |
| 1:51.7 | university for about 20 years from a research perspective looking at this. But at the same time, |
| 1:57.8 | personally, these were topics I was always really curious about. |
| 2:01.1 | And after experiencing a pretty bumpy adolescence, dropped out of high school, |
| 2:06.7 | had some pretty wild things kind of unfold for me in those early years. |
| 2:10.6 | It really gave me a different perspective about what it really takes to be resilient. |
| 2:15.5 | At the heart of resiliency, Brad, what I see, |
| 2:18.3 | it's essentially like our ability to respond to what's happening around us. And some days, |
| 2:25.5 | it is a matter of, you know what, I just have to like do the basics, right? I just have to do the |
| 2:30.8 | basics. Other times it's, you know, navigating things where we're facing big challenges and we have to dig deep. But ultimately, it's how we choose to respond to what's |
| 2:39.8 | happening around us. And what we see in the research, there are certain things that we can do |
... |
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