Ep. 142: Motivation vs. Commitment: What You Actually Need
EPISODE 142
Motivation vs. Commitment: What You Actually Need
About the Episode:
Are you waiting for motivation to strike before you write that email, make that donor call, or launch that campaign?
In this episode of the Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast, I break down the sneaky trap nonprofit leaders fall into when we rely too much on either motivation (which feels good but disappears fast) or commitment (which can quickly turn into burnout if we’re not careful). I share real-life examples—from my improv class to client wins—and show you how to build momentum even when you don’t feel ready. This one’s packed with mindset shifts, real talk about dread, and actionable ways to get unstuck, take brave action, and actually feel better doing it.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The real difference between motivation and commitment (and why we need both)
Why relying only on motivation leads to inconsistency and waiting
How over-relying on commitment leads to burnout and resentment
Real stories from nonprofit leaders who took action—even when it wasn’t perfect
How to create motivation by celebrating small wins
What dread really is and how to move through it with kindness
Why messy action beats over-prep (every time)
Tips for getting unstuck with personal examples you can try today
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Motivation feels good, but it is fleeting.”
“Commitment keeps you going, but it can feel heavy.”
“Commitment only leads to burnout, stress cycles, resentment and avoidance.”
“Motivation only looks like inconsistency and waiting for ideal conditions.”
“Most people aren't lazy; they dread the discomfort of doing the thing.”
“You must find the commitment and the softness that works for you.”
“You can think of motivation as a bonus, commitment as the structure, and community as the fuel.”
“Celebrate their wins. Celebration is how you cultivate the skill of creating motivation.”
“Celebrating yourself, whatever action you took along the way, will help you cultivate more self-motivation in the future.”
“Motivation is an internal spark, whereas commitment is decision plus follow through.”
“Let yourself be imperfect. Let yourself be human.”
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Christina Edwards 0:04Welcome back to the purpose and profit club podcast. I am excited for this topic today. It's something that I've really been working on in my own life, and has been working really, really well for my clients. We're going to talk about sort of the push pull between motivation and commitment. Okay, so we think we need motivation to do things. It makes sense, right? But if you're waiting to feel like it to do something, you will stay stuck. Meaning, if you're waiting to feel motivated to take a really important action, an important, a critical, a brave action towards your goals, it will keep you stuck. And if you're relying solely on commitment. You may grind yourself into the ground. Okay? You may grind yourself into the ground. So what most people believe about motivation and commitment, we're going to dig into today, and why this conversation especially matters for fundraisers, nonprofit leaders and marketers, because y'all are doing hard things right, and it is very easy to get stuck in. I will call them sort of To Do List tasks, tasks that are important but don't actually drive the needle forward. I always think of like, you know, one last pass through that email draft tinkering with a blog post, those are tasks you can do that actually don't meet move you towards your big, bold goals. And the reason why people get stuck doing them is because they're waiting for inspiration to strike. They're waiting for that dose of motivation or commitment to strike to actually do the bigger, harder thing.
So before we dig in too much, I'm going to share with you a goal that I'm working on, I have a goal to get nine more podcast reviews. So if you have not reviewed the podcast and you enjoy it, we're gonna pause right now and hit five stars on your podcast app. If you're using Apple podcast, you have to scroll to the bottom and you'll see, leave a review. You can leave a review and share your wisdom with our listeners. I would be so grateful, because I'd love to get nine more reviews by the end of this month. All right, let's dig in.
So here's why this trips people up. Motivation actually feels good, but it is fleeting. It is fleeting. Commitment keeps you going, but it can feel heavy like that grind. Okay, so let's actually look at this like in what this looks like. Okay, so the consequences of relying on only one either motivation or commitment. Commitment only, I find, leads to burnout, stress cycles, resentment and avoidance. If you think about anything as a child that you were committed to doing but you didn't love doing so I was committed to doing math. It's just part of the deal. I did not love doing it. That commitment felt like I have to energy, and at some point, if I had to continue to study calculus throughout my entire academic career, I would have gotten burnt out. I would have avoided it even more. Think about things that you right now are just heavy and commitment. It sounds like I have to in your head, I have to energy, I have to do this. Then let's switch the gears. Let's talk about motivation. Motivation only looks like inconsistency and waiting for ideal conditions. I think that most adults, if you're not somebody who has, like, has a fitness regimen that you love, or a sport you love, I think we can easily see this show up in either fitness or wellness or food choices health kind of, kind of bucket. Okay, so motivation is like, Yeah, I'm gonna go for a run today, right? You're like, Yeah, I'll go for a run today. But then you're like, I don't know. And you know, it's kind of, it's a little hot, right? You're waiting for the ideal conditions. You talk yourself out of it, versus, I'm going for a run today because I said I would commitment to self. So there's this, like, Dread factor that happens where, you know, I want you to know that most people aren't lazy, they're dreading the discomfort of doing the thing, and that's, that's like, the first piece of this. So if we use the run example, if you haven't been for a run in a while, there's going to be some dread, there's going to be some discomfort, because you're like, I it'd be so much easier than not. That's homeostasis, right? And the motivation isn't there. It isn't like, already turning inside of you, neither is the commitment, because you haven't done it in a while, and there's a lot of reasons why you can talk yourself out of it. And today, I'm going to talk to you about some strategies that are working so well for me, so well for my clients, and get you out of what I think is like white knuckling grind culture that we can see when you're too heavy on commitment, and really kind of have more of a harmonious relationship with both commitment and motivation. So you can kind of pull on one when you need it.
so what I see very often in fundraising and nonprofit leadership is that leaders avoid the big, hard thing, whether that's the email, the phone call, the Ask the follow up, oh my gosh, you did the thing, but now you have to follow up, and all you want to do is talk yourself out of the follow up, right? Because it feels scary, because we don't want to bug people, right? Or you force yourself to power through without support, and then wonder why you feel exhausted and disconnected. Take a moment and go. Which one am I more likely to do? Which oneam I? Am I am a little more avoidant? Or am I at the power through type? And I will tell you, personally, I'm the power through type. I'm like, grind, grind, grind, grind. Until I'm like, wait a second. Let's do it. Let's do a internal check in how we feeling. Why are we doing this? Do I like my reasons for doing this? Is there another way I can still take this action but actually feel better through it?
here's where I see it showing up, avoiding a donor meeting, sitting on an amazing idea for a campaign that you never actually that let it you never birth it right? It never goes out the door. Over prepping instead of taking action over prepping, instead of pitching over prepping, instead of just putting your hat in the ring, pitching the media, pitching the podcast, calling the donor, letting fear of rejection keep you quiet. So let's look at some examples here. I think it will help you to see like, the contrast of how motivation and commitment show up. So motivation is wanting to eat healthier after watching a documentary. Who here has ever watched a documentary, and you know, it doesn't even matter what it was about, but it had a healthy spin, and suddenly you're like, I'm gonna go vegan for 30 days. I'm gonna do whole 30 for 30 days. I'm gonna eat only organic for the next month, or whatever. Right? You feel inspired some outside something gave you that jolt of inspiration and motivation, and you're like, that's it. No more, you know, and only fresh fruits and vegetables. That's it, because you felt inspired by reading a book, watching a documentary, listening to podcasts, whatever it is, maybe a friend is having success, and so you're like, Oh, I'm gonna try this. Versus commitment, meal prepping on Sunday, even when you'd rather relax, that's commitment, right? There's no outside real source making you do that, or inspiring you to do that. Motivation, feeling inspired to start a new hobby or fitness routine, commitment going to the gym, even when you're tired, cranky or it's raining. Okay, so motivation, I will say to you, let's see with one of my like hobbies. So I have two that come to mind. One is I took an improv class last year, and I really, really loved it, and I just had one little drop in moment of Motivation where I was like, this could be fun. Add to Cart. Sign up. I didn't let myself overthink it. I didn't even I just said, I think this will be fun. I'm gonna do this and the and then every Monday, when I had improv class, I would have those moments of really having to rely on commitment, because it was a Monday night, and what do I want to do on Monday night? I want to chill at home. It's been a Monday. I don't want to go back out. I don't want to talk to people. And so I had to rely on commitment. I signed up for this class, and we go, and every time I got there, it was like going through the doors. We do our first round of, like, warm up exercises. I was so happy. Then I was in motivation, right? Was so happy I was there, but I had to lean on, like, 20% commitment. It wasn't a hard amount of commitment just to get me through the door. Okay, so motivation.
I here's a fundraising example, motivation, having a donor say yes and writing the momentum to reach out to three more. This is a hot tip. So if you've ever had a really great phone call, meeting, something, even the even, maybe you go to check your mailbox and you had a bunch of written checks come in. You know the you're having a celebratory moment. Take that celebratory moment and call three more donors, even if you weren't planning on today. Why? Because your body is like dopamine. This feels amazing. Go call three more donors. That's using motivation. When you heard the yes and you called three more people, you're riding the wave, okay? Using motivation that. One versus commitment, reaching out before anyone says yes, when it's still quiet and scary. This is a lot of what we're doing in the sprint method. That is my new program, where I'm teaching smaller shops, solo fundraisers and founders, how to raise five figures in every fundraising campaign. This is the work. This is the work batching what we call CEO time with a couple of times throughout the week. So you're batching that time. And you may go, Oh, here's my CEO block. It's at 11am that's time. I don't want to reach out to any donor. I haven't heard it yesterday. And we go, so you rely on commitment there. And so here's the thing you actually need both. You actually need motivation and commitment. So I don't want you to take from today. I'm just going to commit to everything, because I think there are a lot of gurus, thought leaders out there. If you've ever listened to one of those annoying 5am club I wake up at 4am and then I have my protein shake, and then I go to the gym, and then I do my cold plunge, and all of this happens before 530 that's really heavy on commitment. Have to energy, and I think it works for some people, if you're a morning person, if you're not, you can commit to doing things at a different time. You have to find the commitment and the softness that works for you. I'm not a morning person. I had at one time, one time, went to a 6am yoga class, and I was like, oh boy, this is not for me. I came home, I was wiped for the day like done. So I know that I have to be gentler to myself in the morning, and I will commit to my most courageous, most high impact work between the hours of like 10 and two. That's prime time for me. So everybody's different. So if I know I need to do something that is reliant on commitment, that I may not have a lot of internal motivation for. I'm going to plan that not at 7am I'm going to plan that when I feel best. So there's kind of a little bit of a hack for you too.
You can also think of motivation as a bonus, commitment, as the structure, community as the fuel. that personally is why I love coaching and community. Having group, coaching programs, being a part of them, and, of course, coaching within them, in the club and the sprint method, that is why I do this, because there's something that happens when people come together, when they have, you know, a shared belief, they have a shared mission. They are in this work of social impact. Even if you don't get coached, you leave better than you came. And if you can ride that little motivation, it's a shorter wave than commitment. After those coaching calls, we get to work, we get to work, and we and we can feel that, and that's also why in the club, we really have a practice of celebrating. I make everyone celebrate their wins. You have to celebrate because celebration is how you cultivate the skill of creating motivation. That's kind of meta. So stay with me. So I told you the improv example where I signed up for it and I really had to rely on commitment, because it would be very easy to talk myself out of going on Monday nights. And I want to offer, I'd say 20% maybe 30% of the people in our class trailed off. Did it show up? I know they were dealing with the same mindset crap that I was. I'm just not gonna go. I don't know anyone the right, the whole garbage loop, right? And so instead, I would self talk to myself on the way home and be like, here's 10 reasons why I'm so glad I came here. Was a win today. I did my first scene, and it was fine. It was silly. I actually, you know, stretched that muscle, or I did my first scene, it was a total flop, and I didn't die, right, like any of it. And so celebrating yourself, whatever action you took along the way, will actually help you cultivate more self motivation in the future. Okay? So it's, it's, it really is a skill you build. It really is a skill you build.
So I want to define it motivation I think of as an internal spark. It can be practiced, it can be grown. It can be something you put your reps in for. But it isn't always accessible, right? It's not always there. It's a rainy, gloomy day, and the last thing you want to do is anything but Netflix and jammies, right? You got to channel some commitment. In that case, it's going to be hard to get motivated. Whereas commitment is decision plus follow through, I find. The chatter of the internal self talk of commitment, to be a little bit more of that parent relationship and a little bit more decisive. So if you think about a kid who's like, have some candy, can I have some gum? Can I have a snack before dinner? Did it this would be really fun. The parent style of like, No, we're just gonna do this. Nope. We're just gonna do this. That's the tone of commitment for me, is, nope. We're just gonna call that donor. I know, I know you think we shouldn't, but we're gonna call that donor today, because it's our CEO time, and that's what we're doing today. It's okay, got you. It's like loving and firm, loving and firm. It's the same energy that gets people out of bed at 5am if that's their jam loving and firm.
So I want to share some examples of what this looks like in the wild. Okay, so for example, you may be like, I gotta send an email this week. I've got to send an email to my list, or I have to send out that fundraising later. But you're not feeling inspired. You're not feeling inspired. Whereas last week, you had a really inspirational story to share with your community, and you wrote a beautiful post about it, you send out a great email about it, and now you're like, now, what? Now? What? So you're going to have to lean on commitment, in that case, sending the email even when the story doesn't feel big enough for the week, even when you think you don't have a big, flashy, headlined to tell that's how we land and lean on commitment, and then you gotta celebrate yourself for sending it. You gotta find the win in there. You've gotta talk to yourself in a way that feels uplifting and cup filling, not like that was a dumb email, right? That was a dumb letter said, no, no. So I worked with a client inside the club who had been avoiding a campaign launch email for several days. The longer she waited, the worse she felt. Right. There's that loop. Well, hang on, I gotta Tinker it. I'm not sure we're ready to do I need to look at this page. I gotta get my street team pop up. Lots of good air quotes, reasons to not send it, but she showed up for a Power Hour. That is a co working session we have inside the club where we do the hard thing in community. We do the hard thing in community. She dropped perfectionism, wrote the email, sent it during the session, and the result donations came in that day. It didn't have to be perfect. She didn't need to feel like, you know, her, her high vibe self. She didn't have to wake up and feel, you know, an 11 out of 10. She could just feel how she was feeling and write the email. It wasn't about the perfect words. It was about taking action. Being in community and celebrating was essential, creating just enough motivation to act. This is why power hours are so important. This is why celebrating the work you do exists in the club and should exist if you're listening to this write out like make it a daily practice, celebrate the wins that you take, big and small. Every win is not we received a $50,000 donation today. A win is I left a voicemail for an important donor that I've been putting off. That's a win. I got my board to attend a group think a THON. We just had a client do that. So good. I engaged my board, right? That's a win.
Christina Edwards 18:24
we talk about dread for a minute? Dread in our brain is 10x maybe 100x of what it actually is in real life, meaning it's never as bad as you think. It's never as bad as you think. Oftentimes, the story that is keeping us from taking action is prolonging what isn't even bad at all, what isn't even bad at all, and it's making the entire process take more time, feel harder and will drain you, will create more stress, will create more burden, right? So the dread is almost worse than the actual doing. Once you act, you shift your energy, your mindset and your results. The task doesn't have to get easier, but you get better at just doing it and doing it in a way that is kind to yourself, not doing it in the way of the have to gonna punish myself through this, gonna make this call and feel terrible. I'm working with a client right now who is in a major donor conversation for really urgent need, and the conversation that she's having can go one of two ways, right it can go in this way of like I have to call her. I'm tightening my fist. I better say the right things, or this is what I told her, remember, there are no perfect, exact right words to say, to splice. Together in a sentence. If there was a perfect right words to say, there would be one book called fundraising, one book called marketing, and we would all repeat them, all to each other, to high capacity people, right? That's just all. That's ridiculous. Let yourself be imperfect. Let yourself be human. Make the call. Have the coffee meeting. Sit down in person, ask good questions. Be a listener. Be a great listener. Take the action. Be kind to yourself during it. Let yourself trip on your words. That's okay, because humans trip on your words. Even your major donor prospect will trip on their words, right? We are all imperfect, but it's really, really important that you get in the arena. It's really, really important that even if you can't channel motivation that day, you realize you're going to lean on commitment, and the next time you have to do it, you're going to be motivated to do it inside the club. We also have this concept of the flywheel, the profit and impact flywheel, and we go through a process where you actually create internal motivation. And that internal motivation is, again, it's a skill, right? Because it's not always there for you. But if you want that internal if you want that skill to be larger of having more internal motivation. So if you think about, you know, the biggest, most time sensitive, three things, three goals that you want to accomplish, and you're like, you know what? Christina, I don't want this to just be so heavy on commitment. Have to energy. I wonder how I could be motivated to do the big, hard thing. I wonder how I could be motivated to launch our recurring giving campaign, even though I've never actually done a campaign like this before. I wonder how I could be motivated to sell out our tickets to our event a week ahead of time, even though I've never done it before. And you have to ask yourself, and I would get a pen and paper out and say, How can I create some motivation for it? And the biggest shift you have to make is you have to take yourself out of it and think about why in the world you're doing this to begin with your purpose.
everyone in our sector and social impact, has a deep purpose. You're not selling shoes. You're not, you know, building cars. You're doing the work you're doing unless you're building toy cars, like one of our clients, actually, but you're in this with deep purpose, and I want you to think about your purpose and how that purpose could create motivation. How could you create the motivation? How is it so much more than you? How is it so much more impactful? And why does it matter so much more? And you're just a vessel to make that call, send that email, follow up for the third time to that donor that you're scared has ghosted you. They haven't ghosted you. By the way, that's a story you're telling. They just didn't respond your email. Your email could be in spam. Pick up the phone, call them. It's wild. The stories we jump to, the conclusions we jump to. We think things are true that aren't actually true. This is a different client that told me recently that one of their donors, he had declined donating to a particular program, and then we actually kind of poked around, and we're like, No, he didn't. He was never actually overtly asked. We inferred. We inferred. Inference is not an it's as much of a guess as it is a no, it's a nada. It doesn't even count. So moving towards the thing that's hard because you want to, you choose to move towards that hard thing. You choose to do the brave thing, because that gets you closer to the people you serve the impact that you want to create, that your mission creates. Okay?
So if you're waiting for motivation to hit before doing that thing, don't try this. Instead, just commit for 20 minutes. Do it messy, show up for others if you can, and celebrate the doing. And actually, this could be one of the best ways you start doing it. Start doing it in your personal life first, because maybe it won't feel so charged, maybe it won't feel so hard. So if you're somebody who's like, you know what, Christina, I would like to go for a run twice a week, then your very first step is you're going to go for a run tomorrow, and you're going to make a run five minutes long. You're going to give yourself little bite sized pieces, whatever feels doable. Okay, you're not going to go for the 5k tomorrow and the next day and the next day. You've got to show yourself some wins along the way. And what we do want in one area of our life is transferable. That skill is transferable in other areas of our life. So what's one thing that you've been dreading or putting off or delaying wanting to be perfect, that you need a little more commitment over motivation? Or how could you create some motivation? And to do that one thing, DM me over on LinkedIn or Instagram at splendid consulting and tell me when you do it. I want to celebrate you. All right, I'll see you next time. And as a reminder, if you enjoy this podcast, help me get those nine new reviews. I'd love to hear what you enjoy about the podcast. And if you are interested in joining the sprint method or the purpose and profit club, the best way to do it is to get on our wait list. We'll link to those in the notes, or you can always go to splendid atl.com, forward slash, start, see you next time you.