# Motivation > Motivation is a mechanical process that automatically moves a person toward what they believe benefits them and away from what they believe does not with the work being to find hidden definitions that have reversed this mechanism rather than summoning willpower - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/motivation # Motivation *A person begins one small repair beside an unfinished shelter while other materials remain at rest* Motivation, in Bashar's teaching, is not a force you must summon or a virtue you must acquire. It is a mechanical, automatic, unwavering process that is already running in everyone — you included, with no exceptions. The whole framework rests on a single observation: you always, without fail, move toward what you truly believe is to your benefit, and you always move away from what you truly believe is not. The work of change is therefore never to "get motivated"; it is to find the hidden definition that has reversed the mechanism. ## The mechanism and its one rule Bashar states the rule absolutely: "You will always immediately, automatically move in the direction of what you believe to be in your best interest. You will always immediately and automatically move away from what you believe is not in your best interest. … there are no exceptions to this. Not even you." The same rule appears across sessions: "All of you have the same motivational mechanism. It works the same for everyone. You will always move toward what you believe is more beneficial and you will always move away from what you believe is not beneficial." Because motivation is purely a function of what you believe beneficial, two things follow. First, you hold on to nothing — nothing at all — that you do not, on some level, believe is serving you: "no matter how painful they may be, what you're actually saying is the alternative is worse." Second, if you keep choosing something you know empirically does not serve you, then a definition you have not yet brought to consciousness is attached to that choice, making it seem more beneficial than the alternative you say you prefer. ## What change actually requires Change is not a matter of effort or willpower applied to the mechanism; the mechanism is already doing its job. It is a matter of finding the hidden definition and letting it go — because once it is seen consciously, it makes no sense, and you let it go naturally. Until you identify it, "you have nothing to work with." A frequent shape this takes is a definition of the unknown as scarier than playing it safe — so even when you no longer prefer the safe option, it has been defined as the more beneficial one relative to a change experienced as frightening. This is also why "easier said than done" is itself a belief rather than a law of creation. The feeling of struggle is produced by a belief, not by the task itself: "There is absolutely nothing about the phrase, easier said than done, that is an absolute law of creation. It's you that is giving it solidity by believing in that idea. You're the one giving it form. You're the one giving it shape." Pain itself, in this frame, is resistance to the natural self — a readout that points back to the belief beneath it, not an independent obstacle to be overcome. ## Definitions and contradictory pictures of the preferred self When change feels blocked, Bashar often finds the blockage in a muddled picture of the person you intend to become. You can define the self you prefer in a way that secretly includes the very negativity you are trying to leave — for example, "becoming who I prefer will be painful" — which is by definition contradictory: if that self really is who you prefer to be, it cannot contain the negativity you are describing, or it would not be that self. The fear of losing your identity on changing beliefs is contradicted by every previous time you changed a belief system and arrived intact: "How many examples of doing that do you need before you get the point that it's always okay?" Expectation sharpens the same point. Expectation, as Bashar uses the word, means insistence that something work out in a particular way — and that insistence closes the door on every other route the higher mind could use to deliver what you actually need. "If you are willing to just act on any component of this idea with the idea that just being that and acting on that is what excites you without the insistence that it must lead to this or lead to that or come to fruition in a particular way, then you won't shortchange yourself." ## Action and knowing are synonymous Bashar's test for whether a teaching has actually landed is behavioral. To claim understanding without acting on it means you do not yet know it — because "what you know you can do, you just do. You don't think about it. … You just picked it up because you innately knew in every fiber of your being that you could. Action and knowing are synonymous. So when you say, oh, yes, I get it, but you're not doing it, you don't get it. You don't know it yet." Acting like you know it is itself the means by which you come to know it. A parallel instruction appears in the "secret to the secret to the secret": acting on your passion is not enough — you must also be passionate about being passionate. When energy wanes, the practice is to deliberately create, in that moment, an action or behavior that returns you to the passionate state. "You must, in that sense, exhibit passion in order to create passion. This is how you bootstrap yourself up the vibrational ladder." Driven people are literally obsessed with what they are driven toward; the parallel instruction is to become "obsessed about being obsessed," immersing yourself in the permission slips and tools that reignite the state, to the exclusion of every other offering. ## The surface friction is almost never the root Bashar's practical guidance for any persistent conflict is to dig past the surface. The friction you can see — the argument, the momentary disagreement — "is usually never really germane to the true root causes. So that's why we are saying it is important to dig deep. Find out what the true wish fulfillment is that you believe is not being fulfilled and look for the basis, the basic idea of what it is you feel is being unfulfilled and then explore different ways in which that idea can be fulfilled." The point is not to force the original want to be met in its original form, but to recognize the underlying wish and let it be fulfilled in any of the many ways the higher mind can deliver it. ## Practical implications When you find yourself persistently choosing what you know does not serve you, treat it as evidence rather than as failure. Somewhere, a definition is attached to that choice that makes it seem more beneficial than the alternative; the work is to identify that definition, not to apply more willpower. Watch the phrases that pass for laws. "Easier said than done," "it's a struggle," and similar idioms are beliefs giving solidity to struggle; they are not empirical truths about the task. Examine your picture of the self you say you prefer. If that picture secretly contains pain, isolation, or loss, it is contradictory — the self you truly prefer cannot, by definition, contain the negativity you are afraid of. Drop insistence on the form of the outcome. Expectation closes the doors the higher mind would otherwise use; acting on excitement without insisting on a particular route keeps those doors open. Use behavior as the test of knowing. If you understand a teaching but are not acting on it, you do not yet know it; act like you know it, and the knowing follows. When energy wanes, do not wait to feel passionate. Deliberately create an action that returns you to passion — immerse yourself in the tools that reignite the state — because exhibiting passion is what creates it. In ongoing conflict, dig past the presenting issue to the unfulfilled wish beneath it; the surface friction is almost never the root cause. ## Representative passages You will always immediately, automatically move in the direction of what you believe to be in your best interest. You will always immediately and automatically move away from what you believe is not in your best interest. Knowing that, that should tell you something. If you are holding on to something that you know, intellectually, is not in your best interests, and you understand the motivational mechanism I just described, the only way that that could stick around is if you have defined it in the motivational mechanism as actually being in your best interest more, than the alternative.— Bashar, Motivational Mechanism Pleasure Vs Pain (motivational-mechanism-pleasure-vs-pain#qa-1) The only reason you would do that against your natural intuition is because your motivational mechanism must be connected to belief systems that have turned it around backwards. All of you have the same motivational mechanism. It works the same for everyone. You will always move toward what you believe is more beneficial and you will always move away from what you believe is not beneficial.— Bashar, Motivational Mechanism Expectations Overcoming Challenges (motivational-mechanism-expectations-overcoming-challenges#qa-2) There is absolutely nothing about the phrase, easier said than done, that is an absolute law of creation. It's you that is giving it solidity by believing in that idea. You're the one giving it form. You're the one giving it shape.— Bashar, Motivational Mechanism Pleasure Vs Pain (motivational-mechanism-pleasure-vs-pain#qa-2) What you know you can do, you just do. You don't think about it. … You just picked it up because you innately knew in every fiber of your being that you could. Action and knowing are synonymous. So when you say, oh, yes, I get it, but you're not doing it, you don't get it. You don't know it yet.— Bashar, Motivational Mechanism Pleasure Vs Pain (motivational-mechanism-pleasure-vs-pain#qa-5) You must, in that sense, exhibit passion in order to create passion. This is how you bootstrap yourself up the vibrational ladder.— Bashar, The Secret To The Secret To The Secret Passion (the-secret-to-the-secret-to-the-secret-passion#text) ## Related - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) - [Fear](https://sassani.app/topic/fear) - [Pain](https://sassani.app/topic/pain) - [Natural Self](https://sassani.app/topic/natural-self) - [Excitement](https://sassani.app/topic/excitement) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/motivation. The HTML page is the source of truth.