Vicissitudes and Victories

What's my Motivation

I have been thinking a lot about the reasons that we do the things we do. Especially about what motivates me in the things that I do. History teaches us that there are many motivations that influence past events--many of them selfish. For example some people are motivated by greed and accrue large fortunes by stepping on the toes of anyone who dares get in their way. Other men are motivated by power, and they manipulate and intimidate their way through life. Others are motivated by intellectualism, and spend their entire lives trying to discover new truth in order to manifest their intelligence to everyone around them. Other are motivated by lusts, and they spend all their time trying to find new and exciting pleasures because in doing so they feel like are really alive.

Unfortunately, I have let these motivations creep into my life at times. I think that everyone does, but I think that the only truly good motivation in life is love. Not the kind of sappy, white-bread love portrayed in the movies, but love that builds and betters humanity. Love is selfless not selfish. This type of love motivated people like Ghandi and Abraham Lincoln. They weren't perfect people, and they didn't always avoid the other types of motivations, but they did think about others more than themselves--thus truly embracing love as a motivating factor in their lives. So today I come before my readers to promise them that I will try to do everything I do because of real and true love. I need to incorporate love into my relationships, into my employment, and into my scholarship. I can't promise that I will always succeed in pushing power-seeking, greed, intellectualism, and lust out of my life, but I am willing to try. I hope my readers will look into their own lives as well and decide what exactly are their motivations. The amazing thing about us as humans is that if we really want to, we can change our motivations.

posted by Joel @ 10:13 AM