Actions, Attitudes, Motives, and Methods

I recently watched a video about anti-heroes, and and the video essayist attempted to identify heroes, villains, and anti-heroes by dividing them into quadrants based on the axes of actions by attitudes and motives by methods. It got complicated pretty quickly, and I'm sure I didn't catch all of it, but the general jist with which I walked away from the video was: the more of those things are heroic, the more heroic one is.

Good people generally have good attitudes most of the time, but if a person isn't performing good actions, it really doesn't matter how good their attitudes are. And even if their actions are objectively good somehow, it's still important for them to make sure that their motives are good and that their methods are at least acceptable.

It's a lot to keep track of, but thankfully, as long as we're trying to be good, a lot of this happens subconsciously. We'll naturally want to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reason, with the right attitude, so long as we're continually striving to do what's right. But even so, deliberate effort can help. I know that I've occasionally struggled with one or more of these four elements, but now that I've identified them, perhaps I'll be able to identify which one I most need to work on next. Organic growth is possible, but deliberate development is better.

I usually try to make sure that my actions are good, but now I'll try to make sure that my attitude, motives, and methods are good, too.