admin Posted on 4:35 am

Motivated for all the wrong reasons

Sometimes trying to be spiritual keeps us from really living the spiritual life we ​​want. In our quest to live a good, spiritual life, we often avoid things that make us seem unspiritual, even if those very things can lead to our own spiritual growth.

Spiritual seekers are well aware of the power of intention. We know that it is the thought behind the action that is more important than the action itself. We know that if we are motivated by fear and act on that fear, the results can be limiting and work against us.

Therefore, we try to align our intentions with those of love, abundance and fulfillment. Unfortunately, for many of us, when we go deep into exploring our motivation, searching for that deeper answer to why we want something, we sometimes end up no deeper than where we started. We may tell ourselves that we really want to do or get something to help humanity or some other noble reason to make us feel better about ourselves, but in reality, we may simply be motivated by money, greed, fame, power etc

Discovering this, we sit down and tell ourselves that we don’t want to do something unless we’re doing it for the right reasons. So we sat, sat, and sat. Years go by and we continue to sit, waiting for that just reason to arrive, that spiritual reason, pure and noble.

While it’s noble to want to act for the right reasons, sometimes the wrong reasons can be the catalyst we need to act and find the right reasons.

It is through the process of pursuing our destiny that we create our destiny and discover who we really are and what it is all about. If we sit back and wait to be noble and whole before we act toward nobility and integrity, we will never get there.

When I was 19, I dated a recovering alcoholic. He was in Alcoholics Anonymous and suggested I go to Al-Anon (for family and friends of alcoholics) to understand it better. He also knew that my father was a heavy drinker and he thought it would be good for me to understand more about alcoholism in general. For no other reason than to please him and be a “good” girlfriend, I went. I certainly didn’t think I needed to go, not for me, not for him, not for my father.

Now we all know that pleasing people, an ego-driven motive, is not a good spiritual reason to do something. But was it the right reason for me? Yes. And here’s why.

In those meetings, I learned about the true nature of alcoholism. I learned that it’s not my fault my father drinks (I didn’t even know he had been blaming me). I learned that I am worthy, valuable and important. I learned to trust in a Higher Power, to have faith that the Universe is in order and most importantly, I learned to trust and believe in myself.

This all came out of my ego’s desire to please someone else, to make them think I’m a “good” girlfriend and therefore a “good” person.

If I had refused to go because my intentions weren’t pure and spiritually driven, who knows how many more years I would have lived in guilt, shame, and denial.

My point is, don’t sit back and wait for the right reasons to motivate you. Sometimes the right reasons are disguised as the wrong reasons. If greed is the only thing that will motivate you to get off that couch and take action towards your dreams, I tell you to do it! Use whatever is currently available to you, right or wrong, good or bad, to begin the process.

If you’ve searched within yourself and can’t seem to find the right reasons, use those “wrong” reasons to catapult you into action toward fulfilling your life’s purpose. Somewhere along the way, the right reasons will come up and become very clear to you. We often think that we want something for a certain reason and when we get it, or in the process of getting it, we discover the true meaning behind our motivations. But our reasons change, our intentions and motivations change as we learn and grow.

I have a friend who started a business years ago strictly to make money. Her husband left her and she had to find a way to not only support herself, but also show him that she didn’t need him. It was part need, part revenge. Actually, to be honest, it was mostly revenge. She could easily have taken an office job to support herself, since her previous employer before they were married had offered her her old job. But she refused. She wanted to earn a lot of money and become a successful business woman to spite her ex-husband.

After two years in the business, he discovered that he loved working for himself. He loved the independence and satisfaction that came from creating his own income. Her business was transformed as she was transformed. She discovered that she loved seeing her customers happy and she began to focus a large part of her business on customer satisfaction. She discovered that she had great strength and courage and that she did not need to depend on anyone else for her well-being.

Initially motivated by revenge, she soon learned that it didn’t matter what he thought. In fact, to this day, she has no idea if he knows about her success and she couldn’t care less. She is happy, self-confident and leads a happy and fulfilling life. She is no longer motivated by revenge, spite, or her ego-driven desires.

Like me, if she hadn’t taken action and instead sat around hoping for more noble intentions, it’s unclear where she would be today.

So go out and live your dreams. Lead your spiritual life by accepting and embracing seemingly non-spiritual things. Pursue your goals, no matter how spiritually unmotivated they may be. If this is the only way to get moving, it doesn’t matter if you do it for money, revenge, greed, power, attention, glory, martyrdom, sainthood, or any other ego-driven desire. Along the way, you will find your true self and all those “wrong” reasons will disappear and be replaced by purer and nobler reasons. If it takes a wrong reason to turn your life toward wholeness, it must not be so “wrong” after all.

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