Introduction
The underlying Motivation Check is a tool used in the Sense of Self Method (SoS) to create more self-awareness. The forms that are presented in this section of the HySoS website are for download purposes for the following people:
Those of you who have read (or are reading) the book, Healthy Sense of Self, how to be true to yourself and make your world a better place by Antoinetta Vogels; those of you who are involved in doing the Online Course “Do you have what it takes to be yourself?”
If you understand your Motivation, you have a key to understanding yourself. WHY do you do WHAT you do, or avoid doing some things – often at all cost? If you understand what you are actually after, you come closer to seeing the whole picture of yourself.
On the surface we think we know what makes us get up in the morning but surprisingly, deeply hidden underneath that surface of our conscious awareness, there can be a whole world of motivations at work that so far we have no idea of. By figuring out what your ultimate goals are, you get to know yourself thoroughly and learn what you are all about. Self-knowledge is power! Knowing yourself fully will enable you to make smart decisions from which others also benefit.
Questioning your Motivation is a way to find out whether you have a Natural Sense of Self or are dependent on a Substitute Sense of Self for your Self-experience. With the help of the forms below you’ll shed more light in the dark corners of your subconscious motivations, thus getting more of a true understanding of WHY you do WHAT you do.
These checklists will be more understandable and useful after you have spent some time reading about the Healthy Sense of Self Method so you are familiar with the concepts. Please refer to the Glossary (https://healthysenseofself.com/glossary) if you want to refresh your memory about any term. If these checklists make no sense to you at all, we suggest you read and learn more about the Method and then return here later.
Please study the first and second charts thoroughly so you get a sense of the categories of each concept in the header. The third and fourth charts are blank forms for you to print out and fill in yourself.
The sequence in these lists gives a clear outline of how, through the pattern of Indirect Motivation, a Vehicle is used to work on improving those conditions which form our Ego- References, with the goal of accomplishing our Hidden Agenda, which will take us on our way to our (ultimate) Hidden Goal.
The first form describes what the concepts Vehicle, Ego-Reference, Hidden Agenda and Hidden Goal mean or represent. The second form lists examples of types of activity or behavior they cover.
The third form gives an idea of the difference in physical experiences and in flow between a Direct Motivation and an Indirect Motivation.
The fourth form is to be filled in by you with what you might use as Vehicle and what would be your Ego-References and Hidden Agenda, and personal Hidden Goal?
So the first three forms are for general understanding, and the fourth one is the most important for your own growth process. Here you have a chance to write down what you can presently detect within you, about what might be your own Vehicle, Ego-References, Hidden Agenda. This will help you learn to identify your Motivation Pattern; is it Direct or Indirect? Knowing that is a great help in self-assessing whether you have a Healthy Sense of Self or whether you are without it. In case you are without it, the Motivation Check also helps to find out what, if not your Self, your ultimate drive is and what that means in your life.
You might want to make more than one blank copy of these last two charts, because as you learn more about yourself through introspecting, you will become increasingly clear about what to write here. Therefore, filling out a new copy of the chart every few weeks is a good idea.
Understanding and adjusting your Motivation is necessary to developing and maintaining health and a reasonable degree of happiness.
“A Healthy Sense of Self is the backbone to the human psyche. Without it a person skips his/her own life all together.”
Click any image to see a larger version. Right-click to download images to your computer. You can also download the Motivation Check Process as a printable document (pdf.)
