Motivation vs. Intention

“Motivated Individuals Wanted!” 

We’ve all seen these recruitment headlines and they all seem to be advertising commission sales jobs. The ads often stipulate that they’re looking for people who are “motivated by money,” and they almost always dangle the carrot of “limitless earning potential” somewhere in the ad.

These ads are usually recruiting for high (often 100%) commission, low (if any) base pay positions. It’s a way of shifting the risk off of the company and onto the employee. 

If you don’t sell, you don’t get paid.

The reality is, if you’re a working voice actor, if you don’t get business in the door, either through auditions, referrals, repeat business, or direct outreach, you won’t work and you won’t get paid. There’s no shift of risk because you’re not just the employee, you’re the company: there’s no one else to shoulder the risk but you.

The fear that comes from that risk and responsibility – the one that says, “If I don’t do what I need to do, then I don’t work, and I don’t get paid, and I won’t be able to pay my bills, then my business will fail.” – that fear is motivation.

Motivation is the emotion, the feeling, that drives your actions. In this case, it’s the feeling of fear of failure.

The problem with emotions is, as powerful as they can be, they’re fleeting. They wax and wane; they’re inconsistent –  what drives your actions is inconsistent, your actions themselves can’t help but be inconsistent.

Consider the classic case of the New Year’s Gym Resolution. “This is the year that I finally get in shape,” you say to yourself. The coming year is a wide expanse of clean, white paper on which to write The Story of The New Buff You. Dreams of shredded abs and rock-hard biceps fill your head and you’re all psyched up and you really do get in the gym and do the work.

Suddenly one January morning, it’s cold. And dark. And you were up later than usual. And you’re super tired. Images of rock-hard biceps are nowhere to be found and in their place are images of your warm, comfy bed. Which you’re already in! Double bonus, right?

And so, you rationalize: “Well, I hit it really hard at the gym yesterday. And I WAS up late last night. I’ll take a day off today.” And so you do. And one day off becomes two. And the next week, you say “I think I’m over training. I’m gonna shift to every other day,” and so on and so on and by March you’re visiting the dentist more often than the gym.

Emotions are fleeting. They’re inconsistent. They’re unreliable. 

The emotional desire to be fit is not what separates gym rats from couch potatoes. Everyone has the desire. Very few do the work and get the results.

Every team in the league is motivated to win the championship. The motivation doesn’t determine the champion. “You just gotta want it more” is a myth. Wanting it has nothing to do with getting it.

So how do you get yourself to do the things you need to do to be successful without relying on your transient emotions?

Set an intention.

Wait, a what? Setting an intention means planning a specific action with a specific time and location attached. It’s the difference between, “I’m gonna go to the gym,” and “I am going to do these 3 chest exercises and these 3 back exercises tomorrow at 5:30pm at the gym.”

The power of intention-setting is specificity. One of my go-to methods of intention setting is scheduling. To me, if it’s not important enough to schedule, it’s not important enough to get done. I block time in advance every week for the things I know I need to do to reach my goals. Every day from 7-8:00 am I have an hour scheduled to reach out to a specific number of voice-over leads. Every day from 5:00–6:30 pm I have 90 minutes scheduled to train at the gym and walking in the door I know specifically what my workout will consist of. 

But what if something happens and I can’t do what I need to at the time I need to? Relax. You have the power to move intentions. Scheduled intentions can move, but don’t let them disappear. Have a live session at 7am and can’t prospect then? Fine, move that prospecting time block to an open slot. The intention remains, the time just changes. Move it. Don’t lose it.

When you set an intention, you’re pre-deciding what your actions will be on a specific date and time at a specific location. This takes the onus off you to decide to do the thing when it’s time to do the thing. You’ve already decided and have committed the time. Setting the intention in advance makes follow through significantly easier.

It’s like marking up your script. Once it’s out of your head and on the paper, you don’t have to think about it anymore. You don’t have to decide to pause, you simply pause when it’s time to because you see the notation on the script.

Researchers have found that setting specific intentions leads to more than double the actual follow-through as opposed to simply relying on motivation alone.

Another method I use to set intentions is a habit tracker. I recently decided I wanted to drink more water and stay better hydrated throughout the day. It would be ridiculous to schedule time to drink water. But I can still set the intention, “I will drink 120 ounces of water every day, no matter where I am or what else I have to do.” 

The specificity comes from the habit tracker. I use one called Streaks, and I set the intention by adding the habit of drinking 120 ounces of water, daily, in ten 12-ounce segments. Every time I finish a 12-ounce glass of water, I mark it off in the app on my phone. I know with a glance throughout the day how on-track I am to reach my daily goal. Simple. Easy. (Editor’s note: another great app in this habit-setting space is Productive)

Intention setting eats motivation for lunch. Motivation comes and goes. Setting intentions leads to consistent follow through, results, and ultimately, oh yeah, that important goal you wanted to achieve.

Wishing you a wildly successful new year.