Motivations are what drive us to do what we do. As we are emotional creatures, we tend to feel our way through life. Some of these motivations are nourished more than others and become a part of who we are. We were born with feelings, but as we get older we start to learn about a bigger world. We start to see a world outside of ourselves and develop higher motivations. The motivations that come natural to us and deal with how we feel about our surroundings, I call instinctual motivations. The motivations that come to us through us learning about a world outside of us, is what I call intellectual motivations. Both motivations play a role in our lives, but to varying degrees based on the individual.
Instinctual
Naturally we are inclined to certain motivations. These motivations were meant to apply to our immediate surroundings. It deals with things like the things we own, our status, our family, our work and so on. As we grow up dealing with these things we gravitate towards certain emotions which crowd out the others. This happens without much notice and weaves effortlessly into the story of who we are. The issue becomes when we don’t know why we are doing what we are doing. We have to reevaluate what emotions we give power to and look at which ones we believe are better suited for us. While these motivations are hard to change because they are so deeply rooted, they still must align with our foundation if we want it to be solid.
Intellectual
What I would call higher motivations, intellectual motivations emerge from the world we live in. They are motivations that are bigger than ourselves. In many cases they can relate to our world or humanity itself. These drives occur when we are motivated to do more than just affect our immediate surroundings. It is where our emotions meet our imagination. These motivations are becoming more and more of who we are in the modern world.
Alignment
Rebuilding your foundation starts to become difficult when you get to your motivations. Motivations are rooted much stronger than anything else you will rebuild. The focus here has to be alignment. If your motivations aren’t aligned with the rest of your foundation, it can cause you to have a foundation that slowly cracks. The best way to avoid this is to work on being aware whenever you are feeling a lot of emotions. Once you identify it, you can talk yourself through it to better understand what is going on and to change it. Your motivations will solidify your foundation, so that you can build on top of it.
