What You Can Learn from Your Human Design Motivation
What motivates you? It seems like a simple question but if you stop to reflect on this it becomes an extremely layered question. Beyond the realms of material gains, recognition, or love, how can we understand what really is driving our patterns and behaviors? In Human Design, motivation provides some insight here.
The motivation layer of your Human Design chart, like cognition, is a deeper part of the substructure of your design that is called “color”. The color is derived from the roots of your personality sun and earth profile lines and creates the motivation in your chart. The founder of Human Design explains that “nature of color is to understand it with the psychological perspective that is given to the word 'motive'.” Without getting toooo into the weeds here, you can think of this aspect like what happens when light hits a crystal and refracts a color outward. The structure and makeup of the crystal influence how the light refracts and what color frequency is emitted from there. Using this imagery, your design is the crystal that determines what gets filtered through and thus colors your experience of the world, as well as patterns, and motivations. There are 6 different motivations and they speak to a few key themes.
As with many aspects of Human Design, I will preface this by urging you not to take the meaning at face value or read the word associated with your motivation and thing that is literally what drives you. The language used in Human Design is known for being jarring. If you are feeling triggered or dragged by your motivation, I invite you to do some inner parts work and investigate why the word is causing such a strong reaction. Human Design can be a wonderful catalyst for shadow work so be sure to be kind to yourself and spend some time asking what you need to feel safe and supported within yourself.
Ok, now that you are primed for the journey into your motivation, let’s dive into what they all mean.
Fear
Starting with the first line, fear motivation is our most basic need to understand something to its core. It shares many similar traits with the 1st line profile archetype and Caves environment (more coming on this soon!). Fear motivation gains comfort through research, exploration, and is in constant pursuit of the truth. This motivation is tied to our survival instincts and is all about giving yourself the time needed to really investigate something before you commit your energy there. This motivation can be great for deep, esoteric work because you’re always searching for the root of things. Be mindful, however, of letting that need to be 100% certain get in the way of taking action or growth.
Hope
Associated with the 2nd line, Hope motivation is the ability to hold the belief that everything you need will be provided. Unlike Fear that actively seeks to get to the bottom of things, Hope’s strength is surrender. Trusting that things will turn out in your favor and releasing the need to control every possible outcome is the purest expression of Hope. Like the 2nd line that is naturally gifted and can’t explain why, Hope motivation gains magnetism by not worrying about the end goal. Spending time focusing on what lights you up and allowing your gifts to be seen, then waiting patiently (really big key here!) for the right people to recognize/appreciate your genius leads to the results you desire. It can be very tempting to step in a fix, micromanage, or insert your will in circumstances, but the more you release and relax into your own ability to trust the right calls will come your way, the more your motivation works in your favor.
Desire
Desire motivation carries the 3rd line’s resilience and charisma. Feeling drawn to causes, ideas, concepts that seem revolutionary is natural for the desire motivation as it seeks to find what tidbits of information others really need to thrive and excel in life. This energy lends itself to leadership because you are designed to share what you have tried, learned, and gleaned about the value or importance of things. Connecting with your inner passions keeps you moving forward so if you’re feeling disillusioned or burnt out, spend some time doing things you truly love. The fire within is meant to spark countless others, so take time to align yourself with your inner truth and lead from there.
need
This motivation is focused on delivering information, communication, resources in a way that suits the most immediate need. To the point and clear, this motivation is centered on being able to make sense of complex situations and distill key next steps to enable forward motion. Similar to the 4th line that creates a foundation and trusts just the right contacts will come through for them, Need motivation is here to create a domino of action. People with Need motivation are most likely to tell you the “top 3 things” you need to know or give you the cliff note version of your favorite book. This motivation doesn’t like to get too bogged down in details. You need to trust that the details that feel the most important or compelling to you are all that is required to get started. You’re here to give the birds-eye view of the world. Be mindful not to get lost in doubt, trust your awareness is tailored to show you what is needed.
Guilt
Let’s get it allllll out on the table, shall we? This is the true power of Guilt motivation. Like the 5th line that is able to spot the flaws and struggles of humanity and present alternatives, Guilt motivation’s strength is providing solutions. People with this motivation need to understand that they are ultimately the person they have always needed to come into the picture and “fix” things. Studying tools and systems that allow you to understand yourself and/or the landscape of your social environment will give you extra confidence confronting that which needs changing. When you see a better way forward or a shortcut, your greatest gift is sharing that with others.
Innocence
The journey for innocence motivation is to understand that you are not here to get in the weeds of things. Leading by your own example and finding what feels most authentic and aligned for you is your primary motivation in life. While you may learn and develop many tools and systems that allow you to help others, your message is more universal than personal. Think of the role model archetype of the 6th line profile, it’s true power is influence rather than individual leadership. When you’re feeling pulled into the details of a problem or conflict, imagine you are looking at the issue from a high vantage point. What would you do or say? Your goal is not to direct others but to honestly share what you see with a dose of innocence and love. Focus on being your own role model and embody the qualities and actions that feel most aligned.
If you have looked into your “transferred” motivation, that shows you the opposite of your motivation (it is also the motivation that is three places away from yours because it deals with the profile line structure). There is a tendency to act from the transferred motivation due to conditioning or even a discomfort owning the part of your personality associated with your motivation. That is all totally normal and moving back and forth between your motivation and the transfer is common – it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong, it just shows you have the awareness to pull yourself back to your strength. I find that any time I’m really struggling or facing a lot of resistance it’s because I’m not embodying my desire motivation and leading but differing to innocence and providing general feedback without initiative.
Motivation is just one part of a much larger story so I urge you to play with this information and experiment – do you feel things work out differently when you follow your motivation? Or not? If you’re looking for more guidance on how to decipher your motivation and how it plays out in your life, I’d love to chat with you in a session!