What Works As Your Best Motivator To Do Good?

[Pensive]

Is it the fear of a God above? Or the staunch belief you are going to be dealt nicely with if you be nice to others? Or is it some advice your grandfather gave you when little? Or is it something else? If, then please share with us! :)

My question rings a familiar bell to my own ears. If it has been discussed earlier, feel free to delete/merge it!

[Charles Darnay]

My answer, which is not a great one I admit is, why not? I don't have any thoughts about being judged from above, or eternal salvation/damnation, and only care to an extent about being judged by the corporeal beings around me.

But why not hold a door open for someone? Why not offer someone assistance if you can/if it's convenient? Why not be polite to people? Is it any less convenient than being a rude jerk?

Guided by the principle of "why not?" I consider myself to be "a good person" and to do good things, and to help others. That being said, I don't give to every homeless person I pass, or every charity that canvases my area - does make me "not a good person?"

[Pensive]

Actually I wasn't aiming to try and separate people as 'good' or 'bad' either. Just the occasional (or more-than-just-occasional) acts of goodness we perform now and then. :)

BTW your why not attitude sounds interesting. I guess I got to try it sometime soon, too. :p

[cacian]

I don't believe in motives because they spoil the sponteneouty of the soul.
Genuine is what I like and that stems from naivety and innocence.
if you have that then you have succeeded in being more then good, you are not only yourslef but also yourself to other people.
I don't do good because it means I have to try my hardest.
I do what appears to be right and I do it effortlessly.
Life is for living and no doubting.

[stlukesguild]

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/26/61056391_31343afdc6_z.jpg


:D

[Varenne Rodin]

I like being nice to others. It makes me feel good. The root of that good feeling is empathy. Understanding suffering and feeling equal to other earthlings in some very important ways. For me, this is the one life I know that I will have. I don't want to ruin my time here or anyone else's by being unkind. :)

[BienvenuJDC]

Because it's my character.

[Darcy88]

Because it's my character.

I assumed you would say your faith.

I think this is the case with most people. If one is raised right, taught the proper way to act, they will do good and be good naturally, as a result of their character. And as Varenne pointed out, doing good feels good.

I credit my father for my having turned out to be a "moral" individual. I've witnessed him perform many selfless acts. He's lower middle class and I once saw him give a panhandler 50 dollars. Though not religious, he was always quoting from the sermon on the mount.

There is a logic to kindness, its positiveness is undeniable. The evolutionary psychologists have much to say on the matter, but I'll forgo diverting the discussion down that road.

[JuniperWoolf]

I credit my father for my having turned out to be a "moral" individual. I've witnessed him perform many selfless acts.

Me too, actually. My dad's a union pres for the Yellowhead region's prison guards, it's an unpaid position which entails a lot of work and he takes care of the other guards. I've seen that man get a phone call at four in the morning from a desperate nightshift guard who lost his cellphone (that is a HUGE deal in a prison), and even though it was the day after his birthday and he was drinking until two in the morning and my brother had the truck, he walked his hung-over self five kms out into the middle of the woods (that's where the prison is) in the middle of winter to help this stupid kid find his cellphone. It turned out a con DID find it in the laundry room, and my dad argued on the guard's behalf to save his job because he's also an unofficial lawyer at least once a month - when management feels they have cause to fire a union member, they have a sort of court meeting and my dad defends the guard.


There is a logic to kindness, its positiveness is undeniable. The evolutionary psychologists have much to say on the matter, but I'll forgo diverting the discussion down that road.

That's absolutely true, there are dozens of reasons why helping others makes rational sense to our species. Look at us, we have no claws, no fangs, no fur, we're helpless if we don't work together.

[PoeticPassions]

I think one of the reasons/motivations, or call it what you want, is summed up beautifully by Nelson Mandela: “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

But I was also raised by parents who taught me integrity... though I do think it is part of one's character as well. I am a pretty empathetic person, and as we know from research and experience, there are different levels of empathy among people... so there is something to be said about it being in our character.

I also agree here with Juniper and Darcy that being kind, helpful, and cooperative is useful to our species (chimpanzees exhibit empathy and cooperative skills too, which help them survive).

[BienvenuJDC]

I assumed you would say your faith.



Maybe my character is due to my faith. There is a certain standard taught within the Scriptures, whether I learned that from my parents or the book, and the fact that my parents could have gotten it from the book, who knows...

[Alexander III]

I would say pleasure. Sometimes helping out and being kind and putting a smile on someones face gives me pleasure, a strong satisfaction. Just like often doing it the other way round gives a simillar level of satisfaction and pleasure.

[KCurtis]

I believe most people are good and do help others, if needed. I was not used to much empathy when I was growing up, but I am very different from that. I think I have a lot of empathy for others; my character. I also think that yes, while being and doing good does come from how one is raised, it is also innate. People who are not raised well become good people, it is just how the human species have survived.
And not to open a can of worms, but people have been good to others long before religion had anything to do with it. Humans have been around for a very very very long time.

[Delta40]

people are more likely to help others when the responsibility falls on their shoulders. For example, a person lying in a crowded street is less likely to get help sooner since passers by may safely assume someone else will help them which is not necessarily the case if they stumble across the same situation where they are the only person who can help.

Milgrams studies also showed that when an actor refused to administer anymore shocks, the participant sitting next to them would follow suit which means that the good examples of others can motivate others to do good.

[a4et2n]

Sorry, but I'm not a good person, at least not in the general sense of the word. I tend to be selfish and full of myself and really, my best "do good" motivator is a fear of social retribution or punishment. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on perspective), I've also had the "good kid" upbringing, so the fear tends to force me to follow the dominant moral code.

[Sancho Panza]

I am not an especially religious person, but I do like the idea of the Golden Rule. "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." Obviously I can't speak for everybody, but I imagine that many altruistic acts are done in the hope that were the positions reversed, they would recieve similar treatment.

[Delta40]

I am not an especially religious person, but I do like the idea of the Golden Rule. "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." Obviously I can't speak for everybody, but I imagine that many altruistic acts are done in the hope that were the positions reversed, they would recieve similar treatment.

Well that's certainly true for me! I was in town the other day and came across an elderly woman who kept dropping her bag and shopping trolley and when she stood up her summer dress had slipped exposing her breasts. Her speech was completely intelligible and she could barely walk. It was fortunate that the hospital was only a block away and I was able to help her to Emergency. But it also proves my other point. Many people were in town and simply walked past her.

[BookBeauty]

Shaped by my environment, I believe I am motivated to do 'good', or 'right', based upon what I was taught to be so. This is not only because I was told, ''This is good,'' or ''this is bad'', but because I was also shown through experience.

When others threw rocks at me and called me names and gave me glares and mean looks when I was young, these things made me feel awful, and I resolved then and there that I would do my best never to cause others to feel this way, even those that treated me in such a manner.

I knew that I was essentially like this other person, I could see myself in them and the way they acted. Somehow, I knew that if I had been accepted by them, perhaps I would be teasing and throwing rocks at someone else.

Some would have taken that experience to become spiteful, or vengeful, but something in my life has taught me, for whatever reason, that we are a human ecosystem. A network, or organism.

What affects one will eventually affect the other. We're family, if you will. Biologically, and socially. We cannot maintain equilibrium as individuals without having this community, and the willingness to belong, and to get along. No one, at the heart of things, wants to do wrong. But, what becomes wrong is defined by what we learn.

I believe, essentially, we are all in this together. We are all a part of a pattern that no one yet understands mathematically or scientifically, but it is as true as gravity or the earth's rotation around the sun, and can be explained similarly, given enough time to learn.

But, yes. I love to complicate things with many words. As was said above by others. Bottom line: Do unto others. :)

[Buh4Bee]

My reputation- If I write a legal document, my name goes on it and many people read it. This means people are going to judge what I do and I want to be considered good at my job. In my family, what motivated me to do good is the notion of not dying alone. How you treat others is how you will be remembered when you are dead. I don't want to be remembered as a bitter bich, but as a kind and loving person.

[farnoosh]

For me the motivation would be the thought that if I do something right, hopefully people would notice it and follow the lead in their own way. Sometimes the good feeling it gives me works as a pusher. The thought that I did something for someone, and I helped them with their lives, makes it easier to live my own life somehow.

[Buh4Bee]

Farnoosh, I enjoyed your post. It's correct to know that at the end of the day, you did the right thing, because in your heart thise are the standards you want to live by. Thanks for reminding me of that fact!