In Intentional, Chris Bailey is drawing on the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior: instead of asking only, “How can I force myself to do this?”, ask “What conditions would make me actually want to do it?” Research in this model suggests that desire is shaped by attitudes, social norms, perceived control, anticipated emotions, and past/repeated behavior. Bailey translates these into five practical “antecedents of desire.”
1. Social norms — “People like me do this”
We are heavily influenced by what the people around us consider normal. If your friends exercise, read, save money, study, or build businesses, those behaviors begin to feel more normal—and therefore more attractive.
This is why Bailey emphasizes social contagion. Motivation can spread through groups, not because someone lectures you, but because your brain quietly updates its definition of “normal.”
How to amplify it: Put yourself around people who already behave the way you want to behave. If you want to exercise, join people who exercise. If you want to study consistently, spend time with serious learners. Even podcasts, communities, classes and discussion groups can help.
The psychological shift is:
“I should exercise.” → “We exercise.”
That second statement requires much less willpower.
2. Habit — “This is simply what I do”
The more often you perform a behavior in a consistent context, the less negotiation it requires.
Suppose every morning you ask:
“Do I feel like studying today?”
Your brain gets another opportunity to say no.
But if studying at 6:30 every morning becomes automatic, desire becomes less relevant because the behavior increasingly becomes your default. In the underlying research, frequency of past behavior is associated with later desire and intention; Bailey presents habit as one of the practical levers we can deliberately cultivate.
How to amplify it: Attach the behavior to the same cue.
Coffee → read 10 pages.
Dinner → walk 20 minutes.
Sit at desk → work on the most important task first.
The goal is eventually to reach:
“Should I do it?” → “Of course I do it.”
3. Perceived control — “I believe I can actually do this”
This one is extremely important.
You can desire an outcome but still avoid it if your brain believes:
“This is too difficult.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“There are too many moving pieces.”
Psychologists call this perceived behavioral control—roughly, how capable and in-control you feel about carrying out the behavior. It is a major component of goal-directed behavior models.
So instead of telling yourself:
“I need to finish this huge project.”
reduce it to:
“For the next 20 minutes, I’m just going to outline the first section.”
Suddenly your brain thinks:
“Oh. I can do that.”
That feeling itself can increase motivation.
This is why breaking goals into small steps is so effective. You’re not merely organizing the project—you are increasing perceived control.
4. Attitude — “I actually see this as a good thing”
Your attitude is your overall evaluation of the behavior:
Is exercise enjoyable or miserable?
Is studying interesting or punishment?
Is saving money deprivation or freedom?
Attitudes toward a behavior are one of the classic predictors feeding into desire.
You can sometimes change motivation simply by changing what the action means.
Instead of:
“I have to exercise.”
try:
“Exercise gives me energy and keeps me independent as I age.”
Instead of:
“I have to study.”
try:
“Every hour I study makes me more competent.”
This becomes especially powerful when a goal connects to your values.
If learning is part of how you see yourself, studying doesn’t feel like an arbitrary chore. It expresses something you care about.
So:
Goal → Value → Desire
5. Expected emotions — “Imagine how good completion will feel”
This may be the most underused technique.
Before acting, your brain predicts how you will feel afterward.
Researchers distinguish positive anticipated emotions associated with succeeding and negative anticipated emotions associated with failing. Both can influence desire.
Suppose you’re deciding whether to exercise.
Don’t picture the unpleasant first five minutes.
Picture yourself afterward:
energized, showered, proud that you did it.
Or imagine tonight thinking:
“I’m glad I didn’t skip it.”
You’re effectively borrowing emotion from your future self to motivate your present self.
A particularly useful question is:
“How will I feel 30 minutes after I finish this?”
That can completely change your motivation.
6. Curiosity and Novelty — “I want to know what happens”
This may be the most surprising—and one of the most powerful—ways to increase desire.
Curiosity turns effort into discovery.
A difficult task often feels unpleasant when your brain interprets it as an obligation:
“I have to finish this.”
“I need to get this right.”
“I can’t make mistakes.”
Those thoughts create pressure.
But change the question to:
“I wonder what I can discover?”
and the psychological experience changes.
Curiosity is closely tied to the brain’s reward and learning systems. When we encounter a gap between what we know and what we want to know, the brain becomes motivated to close that gap.
That’s why unanswered questions can be strangely difficult to ignore.
Think about the difference:
“I need to read 30 pages.”
versus:
“I wonder what the author’s strongest argument will be.”
Same book.
Same 30 pages.
Completely different motivation.
How to amplify it
Turn the task into an experiment.
Instead of demanding a particular outcome from yourself, ask a question.
Instead of:
“I have to exercise for an hour.”
try:
“I wonder how much better I’ll feel after just 20 minutes.”
Instead of:
“I need to understand this entire chapter.”
try:
“What’s one idea in this chapter that could change how I think?”
Instead of:
“I must solve this problem.”
try:
“What happens if I try this approach?”
And instead of:
“I have to work on this project for two hours.”
ask:
“I wonder how much progress I can make in the next 15 minutes?”
That last question is especially powerful because it combines curiosity + a small achievable challenge.
Outcome mindset vs. inquiry mindset
An outcome mindset says:
“I must succeed.”
An inquiry mindset says:
“Let’s see what happens.”
The first creates pressure.
The second creates exploration.
And exploration is naturally attractive to the human brain.
This is why curiosity can be such a useful antidote to procrastination. You don’t necessarily have to make an unpleasant task suddenly enjoyable.
You only need to make it interesting enough to begin.
So when you catch yourself avoiding something, try asking:
“What could I learn, discover, test, or uncover if I worked on this for just 15 minutes?”
Sometimes the fastest way to create motivation isn’t to convince yourself that you should do something.
It’s to make yourself genuinely curious about what happens when you do.
Bailey’s bigger idea
You can think of motivation roughly as a tug-of-war:
DESIRE → You move toward the task
AVERSION ← You move away from the task
Most productivity advice says:
“Push harder.”
Bailey’s approach is smarter:
Reduce the forces pushing you away and increase the forces pulling you forward.
So when you’re procrastinating, don’t immediately conclude “I need more discipline.”
Diagnose the task instead:
Social: Are the people around me reinforcing this behavior?
Habit: Can I make it automatic?
Control: Does the next step feel achievable?
Attitude: Do I see the behavior positively?
Emotion: Am I vividly anticipating how good completion will feel?
Curiosity: What can I learn from this?
Even improving two or three of these simultaneously can dramatically change how a task feels.
For example, instead of trying to force yourself to exercise:
Friend + 7 AM routine + 20-minute workout + favorite podcast + imagining the post-workout feeling
You’ve attacked motivation from several directions at once.
And that’s one of the most useful ideas in Intentional: don’t merely try to become more motivated—redesign the conditions that create motivation.
