There is tons of blogging out there already about voiceover technique, voiceover tips, voiceover exercises, and how to get more voiceover auditions and book more voice acting jobs. I write plenty of them myself, so I decided to give you and me a break and work on something we can apply to not only voice over but all aspects of our lives. Our commitment level. Being committed to something involves a lot more than just saying “I want to become a voiceover artist.” A true commitment involves accountability and thought and planning and follow-through. Having goals is one thing, taking the steps to hold yourself accountable to those goals is quite another.
There’s been a fun rumor going around for a long time now about a study done with either Harvard or Yale students and how completely they achieved their goals based on whether they wrote them down or just stated them verbally or even just in their own head. I decided to research this and came across this goal-achievement article that heard the rumors were untrue and did their own focus groups because they sincerely wanted to know the outcomes. The groups were broken up into five categories starting with verbal commitment at the lowest level and ending with written goals including support and accountability with a friend monitoring. The results were very clear – those that wrote down their goals were more successful than those who didn’t. Those who wrote down their goals and formulated action commitments, even more so. Those who did all that and checked in with a supportive friend and sent them weekly progress reports did even better. I have noticed many times when I have wanted to accomplish something that if I write it down in my calendar it not only commits me to it more, but commits me to on a specific date – how’s that for forced accountability! It works every time. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to start improving your voiceover performance? Write it down. Make it happen.