The nature of our motivation determines the character of our work. – Dalai Lama
We all start with a blank canvas. What we choose to do with it and what our motivations are, will show in the final product.
What does that mean?
This quote warns us to be mindful of what we do, and what our motivation is when we do it. If we are doing something for the purpose of revenge, hate or anger, the result will not be beneficial to humanity, nor to ourselves. If we do something with compassion, love and beauty in our hearts, the result, no matter how small, will be of benefit to humanity and ourselves.
This quote is speaking the same basic thing we’ve heard hundreds of times in our lives (at least in mine) – If there is good (motivation) in your heart, you will succeed. If you have evil (motivation) in your heart, you will fail.
If you take a broad view of the quote, if you’re trying to do something to help, you will succeed in some manner, even if it is small. If you try to do something to harm, you will fail even if it appears you have succeeded. In this case, the failure is in not helping humanity and yourself, even if you succeed in your stated objective.
Why is a good heart important?
Within us, we have a great deal of potential. We can use this potential to make our lives (and the lives of those around us) better, or we can use it to attempt to help ourselves at the expense of others. The former I would consider a good or positive motivation, the other a bad or negative motivation.
By having a good heart, we are trying to focus on using our potential to make our lives and the lives of others better. Anything we do will be colored by our motivation. If we continue to work from a good motivation, it will show. I would imagine you have seen people who act from a negative motivation, and know how it contaminates everything they do. The choice is yours.
Where can I apply this in my life?
If I think back to the times when I have done big things out of selflessness and compassion, they have turned out very well. Not only did I benefit, but the people I was trying to help benefited, as did all the people who helped me. When I think back on the times I schemed and manipulated others in nefarious manners, only a handful achieved the stated result, and in every case, I caused more problems for myself than I did for the people I was scheming against. Lesson learned.
I am not particularly spontaneous. I tend to think about things, plan things, investigate possibilities and, in general, waste a lot of time before I actually do something. This gives me plenty of time to make sure that both the goal and my motivation for the accomplishment of it to be as well thought out as the plan itself.
Spontaneous things tend to not go quite as well for me, as I still have a bit of a mean streak. If I’m not careful, things can go badly very quickly if I am operating from a less than great position, both emotionally and motivationally. That is part of why I try to put a little thought into what I am doing, it gives me time to check my emotions and motivations.
How about you? Do you tend to do things in a well planned manner, spontaneously, or somewhere between? Grab some paper and write down the five projects, events or activities you are most proud of. Then write down the five you are least proud of.
Take a moment with each item on your list. In your mind, go back to the event, and feel some of the emotion, and remember why you were doing it. Write down what the emotion that you had, what your motivation was, and how your motivation colored your work.
I imagine the feeling was a bit different from the best five to the worst five. Were there any patterns you noticed within the good group? Were there any patterns you noticed within the other group? What did you notice as being the difference between the two groups? Was there a difference in how much thought you put into it, how much emotion you put into it? Was there a difference in your motivation?
The question then becomes how do you maximize the emotion and motivation that were characteristic of the good items, while minimizing those of the others. This goes back to the patterns you (hopefully) saw in your exercise. How will you (to quote a song) accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative?
I participated in an exercise something like this years ago, and found that a clear head was the primary difference between my motivations. As long as I took a little time, eventually I would get my head screwed on straight and get my emotions and motivations properly aligned.
I can’t tell you what to do. You’re going to have to figure out what works for you, and then figure out how to make it happen. But you are now aware of at least some of what is going on, and can take action. It may take some time, and it will take some effort, but I believe it is a worthwhile journey.
From: Twitter, @DalaiLama
confirmed at : it’s his own feed…
Photo by pasukaru76
