What's Your Motivation?

One of the questions I keep coming back to in my own process as well as in my work with others is 'what is the motivation behind the action?'

You may wonder why motivation is so important.  Well, very simple, if you are not clear about your motivation, your action and therefore reaction can easily distort/disrupt your reality. Let's say you are giving somebody a gift, the action in itself is clear, it could be fueled by love and appreciation for that person, or you might wish to have them owe you something, or you want to be appreciated and loved yourself, or perhaps your want to make them feel guilty for not having gotten you a gift for your birthday. So you see the undercurrent in this seemingly harmless transaction could be quite powerful. Depending on what your motivation was, you might be angered/disappointed if you don't get the response you were looking for.

For myself that is a question that I often return to, especially if a situation leaves me feeling dissatisfied in any way. This works for smaller circumstances as well as the larger questions in life.

A few years back I was thrown off by the Universe/God/Divine Source asking me what I wanted, I was so used to marching orders at that point, that the question really threw me off. After a couple of years of meditating on what it was that I wanted I realized that I had to examine the source of my motivation first, because you may want things for ego/instant gratification, setting goals to prove a point, ambition, fear, revenge, healing, evolution, love, compassion all of these and more can be strong motivating forces behind our actions.

I prefer to choose motivations like love, personal evolution, healing, balance as my motivators these days. When I smell something else, I clear it first before continuing to the next action.