What’s Your Motivation?

Proverbs 16:2 – All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

Why do we do the things we do?
For self-satisfaction or the praise of men?
Maybe it’s the rush you feel as you do it.
Or for giving God glory?
 
If you have low self-esteem like I do, then your motivation may be always looking for ways to please others. We need that, “Atta Boy!” Or at least a smile after we’ve turned in a project at work.
 
But if we live life seeking other’s attention and praise, I’m afraid we can become very discouraged. And this is the wrong kind of motivation.
 
Find something you like to do. Then enjoy doing it. Maybe you’re writing a book and want it to touch other people’s lives, but you don’t have the courage to try sending it to a publisher for review.
 
Will we fold up on the inside and decide to not care about life anymore when we get our book manuscript sent back denied without a reason why? Or when you submit a project at work your boss rejects it and tells you to start over will we just give up? In both examples there wasn’t the right motive.
 
Sometimes we have to find our motivation in what we do. If we know why we are doing something and we are doing it for the right reason, it can help keep us motivated no matter what the outcome is. Thriveglobal.com in their article, “Examine Your Real Motives: Are Your Motives Aligned with Your Values and Actions?” we can learn how to discover our real motivation. Motives are the underlying reasons for the actions we take the words we say. There are several methods in the article of how to tell your motives. One of them is to ask “why?” five times. It takes courage to examine yourself and your motivation. It may take less than five times to ask yourself what your motives are, but it can also take more. Often our motivation is buried deep inside of us. If you find out, you have the wrong motive then turn it around and search for a right motive such as to uplift the human condition. This means that what I’m doing isn’t just to benefit myself but to also benefit others.
 
We can try to fool ourselves into thinking that our motives are pure, but God will be able to tell. He wants us to put others before ourselves and find ways to help others by what we do. This can seem like an impossible task if for years we’ve been doing our “own thing”. But once we’ve checked one motive it will be easier to check our motivation in the future.

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