Do acts of kindness have a motive?

The world is filled with many different types of people; a lot of these people are, thankfully, kind. These are the type of people who will lend you a helping hand when you ask for it, who will help you when they see you are having trouble, who will listen to you when you need a shoulder to cry on, or just need someone to talk to.

It’s nice that we have kind people in this world, they make the journey on this blue-green marble that much more enjoyable. But that’s not what I’m focusing on right now; what I’m focusing on is motive.

For the most part, people like to say that the best acts of kindness are the ones without any motive behind them. That means that the best acts of kindness are the ones where the person doing the kind act doesn’t really get anything in return. After all there are a lot of people who only act nice to others when they think they can get something out of it or they are trying to put up a false persona that they know people will like.

You’ve probably met these types of people, the ones who suck up to you or the higher ups, the ones who are always praising you and then asking you to do something for them, the ones who only ever give you the time of day when they need something from you. They act kind, but only because they will get something out of it.

But what about the others? What about the people who are kind even when it seems that they won’t get anything out of it? Are they just benevolent and have no motive?

For me, I think the answer is no. I think they do have a motive behind what they do. Now before you start hurling rotten tomatoes at me, hear me out. When I say that they have motive, I don’t mean they think they will earn money or favours down the road by doing these kind deeds, nor am I saying that they are just putting up a persona. I’m saying that they have their own reasons for doing these things like:

1. They like the feeling they get from helping people.
2. They might feel a little guilty about their situation and they want to help these less fortunate people.
3. They know what it’s like to be in a bad situation and they know how much a helping hand means to someone.
4. They believe in karma and spreading good karma all around.
5. They are sad when they see something and by doing a good deed they feel like they are changing the world for the better.

I’m not sure if I was able to get my point across properly, but basically what I’m saying is that people who perform kind acts do have some kind of motive behind what they are doing and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You don’t have to be just a benevolent being to do good things. If you’re doing something good/kind (even a small act) and it is coming from a relatively good place, then you’re spreading good all-around and making the journey on the marble more enjoyable (I guess I’m the karma type).

Anyway that’s it for this post. I hope you liked it and I hope you have a good day ahead.