Goodwill and Motivation

Why good people do good things?

I don’t find the question of good people doing bad things nearly as interesting as the one of good people doing good things. We are a greedy, sometimes quite ignorant bunch of people. We seek to do the right thing (which makes us good enough), but still can’t help but think, “What’s in it for me?”

The opposite question is much more interesting: What makes us beat ourselves to help out, to change the world, and to work towards a common goal instead of focusing in selfish short term gains?

Train for Humanity

Last December, I found some answers to this question as I offered to help Mark Hayward and his Train for Humanity team bring the next version of the Train for Humanity site to existence. Work is now well underway, and it won’t be too long until Mark can finally announce the launch of the project’s second phase.

Train for Humanity is an exciting initiative to collect money for humanitarian causes by combining everyday athletes’ training efforts with social media and blogging. The cause is good and important. 

But why did I join this team and not some other, equally good and important, non-profit? Why am I not giving my time and money to Greenpeace or the Red Cross instead? What motivated me to act this time when in my past 28 years I have done so little?

Investigating My Motives

I am not saying that these are the only reasons why someone would do good deeds, but I thought it would be interesting to share my motivators and see if you share any of them:

1. An opportunity to work with great people: I have a great deal of appreciation for all the guys who started and built Train for Humanity to what it is today. I wanted to get to know them better and work with people I can learn from and who seem to share many of the values I hold dear.
2. Being part of a movement: ”getting fit + social media + blogging = social good” is a tag line and mission statement I can believe in. I see it as a part of a bigger movement of using the world of social media and blogging to create meaningful connections to build a future that we can be proud of. Something I hope could be the movement that our generation will be remembered for.
3. Doing something meaningful: I have labeled the year 2009 with a keyword, MEANINGFUL, which means that I want to make all my actions count. Things can be meaningful in many ways, so what is great about Train for Humanity and the things I’m working on in the project is that it combines so many meaningful things into one: learning more about WordPress development, doing something to help the poorest people in the world, getting fit (see next bullet), and so on.
4. Getting fit: Working in an office, I have gained a few pounds more than I should and haven’t done all the training that my body craves for. That’s why, around the last months of 2008, I decided to fix all that and resume my running habit. Being a part of a project that is all about training should be a great additional motivator to keep me going and actually completing my first racing event!

The cause itself matters: I want to bring humanitarian relief to this planet and, just like anyone, I’d love to eradicate poverty and make the world a fair place for everyone to live in. But, as painful as it is, I must admit that this hasn’t been enough of a reason for me to become active in the past.  

I needed the additional motives. If I didn’t, I would have already been out there helping all the various charities a long time ago.

What are the motives that make you do good things? Or what keeps you from doing them? Let’s talk! And if you haven’t yet, check out Train for Humanity. And stay tuned for the web site update in the near future!