Understanding Motive

If our goal is to get to the bottom of things, to find the cause in the effect, we will want to understand motive and it's place in the equation. Questions like, "why did I do that" or "why are people so mean", can all be explained by understanding motive. First we can remove all the complications and mystery from "motive" by saying that it is the same as desire. We can identify our motives by asking ourselves what we truly, deep down at the core desire. Whatever we find is what has been motivating us. That is motive. There is a little more to look at. Wouldn't our lives would be simpler if we really understood motive? If we could explain it? Take out the riddles? Let's do that.

All people have a desire to be happy and that motivates all people. So first we have to decide what it is we're setting out to accomplish in our lives. OK, we want to be happy...this is what a motivates us. So the answer to those questions we ask earlier will always be: we did that because we were confused about the path to happiness. People are mean because they are confused about the path to happiness. I've personally decided that my life will be best spent being useful. This decision is all about understanding motive. My motive is to be happy. Looking around, reading, watching others, I decided the path to happiness could at least start with me being useful.

It's important to understand that all people have one built in motivation. This, being happy, may seem sort of silly, but if we want to know what makes the world go round, what makes people do what they do, recognizing this fact is essential. Once we cross this bridge we will stop being confused as to peoples actions. You see having what we think of as the best motives does not make everything go smoothly. Understanding motive will do more for us than having, what we think of as, a good motive. We'll see this as we go along. Let's say we've come to see that being happy is our primary motive, how do we proceed? How do we exercise this motive?

Everyday I ask "everything that is" to direct me to what is best. I sit still and open myself to whatever comes up. I spend this time in meditation because I see it as a useful endeavor. It fits my motive. You see we can say we understand motive, but not do one thing that falls in line with our understanding. In time our conditions will give us a clue as to the true nature of our understanding. This is handy if we want to know why we're doing what we're doing. Early on in my journey I got in trouble over a relationship. I was suffering badly. One thing I knew for sure is that I didn't want to feel like I felt. I told a mentor about the problem I was having. She said to find out what my motives were. When I got to thought I'd gotten to the bottom of things I saw that my motive (desire) was not - to be useful. My motive was to do something I enjoyed. Something I associated with "happy". In order to do this I needed to get someone else involved and I really didn't pay any attention when my inner voice told me to stop. My favorite part of romantic relationships is getting in a romantic relationship. My motive for involving someone else was that I needed someone else to get what I wanted. The only requirement I had of them was that they looked a certain way. This was a kind of foul behavior and so foulness came from it. I haven't done that since, even though I want to - all the time.

The crux of the matter is that understanding motive is one step toward intentional accomplishment. We're all really great at accomplishing stuff. We want to get better at intentional accomplishment. Which means understanding the process. Lets return to the prime motivation that is shared by everyone. That of being happy. It's one of the only aspects of our nature that we're born with. Babies like to be happy. If something happens to get them unhappy they will do everything in their power to get happy. They will make sounds that make grown ups go to any length to restore the babies happiness. This basic human nature to be happy never changes. We only ever change what we believe will make us happy, then we pursue it. From the time we're born till the time we leave, this is what we do. Mother Theresa did what she thought would bring happiness. So did Genghis Khan. Same motive, different take on life. The difference is never one, of what we might want to call, the prime motivation. As usual, as we have found in everything we've looked at so far, the difference is our data. We'll use Mother Theresa and Genghis Khan. Both start there lives on earth as little babies. We can't know what the whole situation of their mothers were, what their embryonic diets were. What sounds and feelings were transmitted. All this has an effect on brain chemistry. Personalities are starting to form before the actual birth. Who knows what different DNA was actuated in response to conditions. But we know they both made it here and they arrived like everyone else with their innate motivations intact. Shortly there after they started to form a plan. They gathered data from there surroundings and this was stored in there data bases. They formed ideas from these files about the world. Then, in exactly the same manner, working from the same motivation, they decided how they would proceed in the pursuit of happiness. Same motivation, same or similar brains, completely opposite end of the spectrum results.

Whats happening in ones life has a direct relationship to the prime motive. If my life is not what I would like it to be then I must examine it, starting with what I know about motive. What am I after? Why did I think doing what I was doing would bring happiness? Write these conclusions on paper. We concentrate on this until we are able to get a better picture of how the process unfolded. The system of life is like any other system, as we learn the system we get better at operating within it. Finding out how the system works is the most important thing anyone can do, if they want to be happy.

If the goal of the reader is to get started on a self determined path then this area of motive must be examined. The first thing that needs to be done is to find out why our current motivation is active. By current I mean "what got me my job, my car, my relationships"? We already know what the prime motivation is. That's the easy part. Look for where the ideas about happiness came from. This is always where we will find the answer to the "unhappiness" in our lives. Ask questions. Write them down. They will be answered once you've got them written down. Getting good answers is all about asking good questions. All the help you may need is available.