HD101: The 6 Human Design Motivations
Today we're talking about something I really love: the 6 human design motivations!
In this article, we're going to talk about how to find your Human Design motivation, what yours means, why you might feel like the exact opposite of your motivation, and some advice on how to use all of this stuff.
PSSSST - Want me to watch this, instead of reading it? Check out the vid below!
WHAT IS HUMAN DESIGN MOTIVATION?
Motivation comes from something called variable (the four arrows at the top of your chart). The motivation variable comes from the top right arrow on your chart.
Your motivation variable basically represents the thing, or things, you see out in the world that are correct for you to take action based on. So, it’s not really the stuff you DO with it -- it's more what's motivating you to do this stuff.
Your Human Design motivation tells you how you make your biggest positive impact, not just in your life but out in the world, when you're allowing yourself to be motivated by the right things.
When we know our motivation, we have more information about what we are supposed to be acting on. That's going to help us do what we’re meant to do, and put the right things out into the world!
A QUICK NOTE - THIS STUFF IS ADVANCED
Listen: variable itself is already a really advanced topic, but motivation is really the final step of knowing and using your variable. So it's kind of the final step of using your whole design.
Remember, too: basically everything in your chart falls into place when you follow your strategy and authority.
So if it doesn't make sense to you or you're like, “Wait, that sounds like it conflicts with another part of my chart,” don't worry about it!
HOW DO I FIND MY HUMAN DESIGN MOTIVATION?
Not all chart generator platforms actually show you your motivation. For example, my chart generator doesn't do that – because true to my own motivation (need), I really only give people what they need to know about their charts!
Here are some platforms that will show your Human Design motivation variable:
VANESS HENRY’S VARIABLE CALCULATOR - This calculator will show you all four of your variables, including your motivation variable. Super simple, super helpful.
GENETIC MATRIX - This is what I use, but I'm actually not sure if they show you motivation on the free version. I use the paid version, since I’m a ~professional Human Design reader~ (nail polish emoji). So if it doesn't, Vaness’s is more than enough!
THE 6 HUMAN DESIGN MOTIVATIONS (AND WHAT YOURS MEANS!)
There are six possible motivations, and you have one of them.
FEAR MOTIVATION (1st color)
If you have fear motivation, to be clear: it doesn't mean that you're a scared person, or that you're doomed to live your life in fear.
It really means that you are someone who is here to create a firm solid foundation by getting to the bottom of things and learning all about something. You are here to understand it from all sides. People with fear motivation are supposed to be the “just in case” people.
That means for you, it's really actually quite aligned and healthy for you to leave no stone unturned, and make sure that we have all of our bases covered.
What's supposed to be motivating you to take action is when you think to yourself, “I really need to create more security around this. I really need to feel like all the boxes are checked here because, I don't feel like we've really gotten to the bottom of this, and that means that we need to do more of that.”
The reason it's called fear is, again, because it comes from this healthy fear of, “What if we don't know everything? It would actually be very helpful for us to know as much as we can, and we need to know more to get there.”
That drives someone like you to get to the bottom of it and make sure that we're not missing any of the important stuff.
HOPE MOTIVATION (2nd color)
If you have hope, motivation, that means that you are someone who is here to have a lot of hope in general in life that things will work out – and only get yourself involved when you truly feel that, “Okay, this really needs some intervention!”
You don’t have to force yourself to, or worry about whether you should, jump into something, make it happen, solve it, or fix it immediately.
It's really okay if you don't automatically feel drawn to jump into a situation, and to just trust that the issue might just dissolve itself. You are meant to know that if it's not going to do that, you're intuitively going to know when it's time to get to work on that thing.
You also really represent hope to the rest of the world and kind of remind the rest of us that we don't always have to get so involved for a situation to get better.
The manifestation teachings of Richard Dotts are great for people with hope motivation. He talks all about dissolving problems simply by not paying so much attention to them. That’s right up your alley!
DESIRE MOTIVATION (3rd color)
This is literally about honing in on what you want, owning that, and using that to decide whether or not to do something.
Even though guilt and fear motivation sound the worst in terms of phrasing, it's really this motivation that we see being shamed the most when it's used out in the world. People with desire motivation can feel that if their reasons for doing something are out of their desire, they're selfish, they're a bad person, or they can't also help others.
So if you have this, you have to know that owning what you want is one of your superpowers.
The things you notice out in the world that make you think, “Oh, wow! I WANT!” are the perfect things for you to be focusing on. It’s normal for you to think about what you want, or what you want to get next, quite a bit of the time. These are the things that are meant to motivate you.
It is really important for finding the right things to work on… and you never know who you'll impact positively by focusing on that!
NEED MOTIVATION (4th color)
The fourth motivation is need, and it’s all about the essentials of what we need to know, do, or be.
While fear of motivation is really, really good at making sure we're getting all the way to the bottom, people with need motivation are really good at the opposite. We're really good at filtering through things and knowing which things we really need to pay attention to right now. This is what we need to tell people about, act on, work on, etc.
A good question to ask, “Is there a need to be filled here?” If so, that’s when these people are meant to take action.
This includes information, too! So people who have need motivation are really good at parsing through information and getting people precisely as much as they need to move forward.
It's okay for you to, for lack of better word or phrasing, do the bare minimum or just focus on “the bare minimum.” Rather than thinking about all the different possibilities or taking into account all the smaller things, it's just okay for someone like you to say, “I don't need to be concerned with that; THIS is the one important thing right now. Then, when I need the next thing, I'm going to go get that or do that.”
GUILT MOTIVATION (5th color)
People don't usually like to hear they have guilt motivation, because it sounds very misleading (and sounds super gloomy). Just like fear motivation, though, it’s not bad!
With this motivation, you are meant to take action when you look at a situation and think, “Oh, gosh, this could be so much better. There's something to fix here… and I see a solution. I would be bummed if it wasn’t fixed.”
So it is a little bit of guilt of not being part of this that motivates you, but it's not going to feel like a bad thing, or like you’re a bad person. It will feel more like you need to get involved because you could truly help elevate that thing – and dang, what a shame if that wasn't happening.
GUILT MOTIVATION (6th color)
If you have innocence motivation, it's actually the exact opposite of desire motivation. It's about not clinging too tightly to your desires, and instead knowing that you can achieve, create, manifest, and make an impact – without forcing yourself to have a Vulcan grip on the things you want.
And to be clear, this doesn't mean that you don't have desires! It means that you don't have to use your desires as the motivator to get shit done all the time.
As weird as it sounds, people with innocence motivation are supposed to be motivated by the fact that they know life is going to give them the next thing to do, work on, focus on, get involved with. You don't have to worry that if you aren't focused on what you want right now, or you're not always striving, that you won't ever make moves in your life.
A lot of people with innocence motivation think that if they embody this, they will never be successful. It might even look a little naive to other people… because, “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll never achieve anything??” That belief is NOT true, though! This is really the key for them to work on the correct things that will propel them forward.
MOTIVATION TRANSFERENCE
Interestingly, it’s actually pretty common for someone to feel like their motivation sounds like the complete opposite of how they operate.
That's because of something called transference, which is basically the not self of your motivation.
Your motivation transference is the opposite motivation of what you have. It’s the motivation that's either three numbers before, or after, your motivation, depending on what number it is. For example: if you have fear motivation (which is the first motivation), your transference is need motivation (which is the fourth motivation).
When we're in transference, we will embody the negative expression of that motivation.
That’s because it's not where we're supposed to be working from (just like any aspect of the not-self)! To continue this example: If you have need transference, for example, you will be tapping into/expressing the shadow sides of need, like “neediness.”
Our transference works as one of our biggest mental saboteurs, if not our biggest mental saboteur. It's the voice in our head that leads us the wrong way… and it really doesn't feel good.
NOTE: We all get into transference sometimes - it’s part of life
Just like any other part of the not-self in Human Design, being in transference is not this huge, bad thing. It’s just a helpful notification from your body that something is off, and you need to realign with your strategy and authority. You’ll get into it now and again, it’s just about spending less time there.
Yes, because much of the world is in misalignment, most of the world spends quite a bit of time in our transference. That's not unfixable, of course! It’s just why it’s so helpful to understand what our transference is, so we can identify it, know that we aren’t meant to be acting from it, and pop back out of it.
HOW KNOWING MY MOTIVATION AND TRANSFERENCE HAS HELPED ME
I have need motivation, but for most my life I've lived in fear transference – which means that most of my life, my biggest internal blocks in life have been about getting stuck in this mental tornado of asking,
“But what about that? What about this? Did I consider this? What if this part goes wrong?”
“I need to know everything and cover all of my bases, and make sure I'm not missing anything.”
“What if I miss something, and then what I want doesn't happen, it's all my fault? I have to control this to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“I didn’t forget anything, right? I’m basically 100% sure I didn’t, but let me endlessly circle my own mind for the next 2 hours as I try to convince myself that I did.”
It's a very frantic, very controlling mental energy that can only come from someone who is just… so afraid.
In manifestation, my biggest block has been the fear that if I don't have my eyes on my intention all the time, then it can't take care of itself. I worry that I'm not going to get what I want, because I'm not watching it and making sure every box has been checked.
In my business, one of my most notable fears is that I won't give people enough information. I’m afraid I won’t cover all my bases, and then I’ll be unhelpful or (gasp) look like I don’t know everything. Which is hilarious, because sometimes I give people WAY too much information!
Learning that I have need motivation (and fear transference) has helped me so much, because I've realized I don't need to worry about all that stuff. I can just focus on the stuff that I actually need to know or do or tell people about right now. This helps me get out of my spirals and back on track.
I can do things on a need-to-know basis. I can work with the basics. I don't have to focus on all the bells and whistles. This gives me so much relief, and works out so much better for me.
For example, sometimes not giving someone every piece of information is like why they like me as a Human Design teacher. They like that I’m not overloading them! That’s how my work helps them. I’ve learned that for me, until I actually need more, I can just focus on the bare essentials that feel good. That’s plenty. I'm doing more than enough.
Now, when I’m spiraling in fear transference, I can get out of it a lot easier (and faster). I don’t have to waste my time thinking or acting on things that aren’t helpful, fulfilling, or necessary. It’s dope!
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[SONG CREDIT: SCOTT HOLMES]