Same gesture. Same joke. Same service. Same policy.

Sweetly genuine helpfulness…or the way a martyr can manipulate?
Loving light-heartedness meant to lift your spirits, or a sarcastic stab to show you who’s who?
Inclusive social justice, or thoroughly calculated human oppression?

How can you spot the selfish intention when the branding is so glorious? Or how can you sense the true wisdom when the delivery is so 2000-and tacky? How can you really hear someone when your judgment is clouded by…judgment?

Just ask: What’s the motive? And your common sense or intuition will know the answer. You’ll feel it in your bones.

Because maybe she really had the very best of intentions –– and solutions, and you need to just get over being offended. Or maybe their “very special offer” has nothing to do with how special they think you are.

Selfish or inclusive?
Bitter or kind?
Disingenuous or naturally generous?

You can feel it. Just try. Please try. As much as you can, on every occasion. Because…

Motives design our reality.

Danielle LaPorte is an invited member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” She is author of White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path—from one seeker to another. The Fire Starter Sessions, and The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul—the book that has been translated into 8 languages, evolved into a yearly day planner system, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries.

Named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes, millions of visitors go to DanielleLaPorte.com every month for her daily #Truthbombs and what’s been called “the best place online for kickass spirituality.” A speaker, a poet, a painter, and a former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, Entrepreneur Magazine calls Danielle, “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” Her charities of choice are Eve Ensler’s VDay: a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and charity: water, setting out to bring safe drinking water to everyone in the world. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her favourite philosopher, her son. You can find her @daniellelaporte and just about everywhere on social media.