What Motivates a Mormon to "Do Good"?

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the last of the "Five Good Emperors" of Rome, and he died precisely sixteen and half centuries before Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church. He was affectionately known as "Marcus The Wise", and he wrote of one of the inherent flaws that plague the LDS Church in modern times. He spoke of three kinds of men:

"One kind of man, when he does a good turn to someone, is forward also to set down the favour to his account. Another is not forward to do this, but still within himself he thinks as though he were a creditor and is conscious of what he has done. A third is in a sense not even conscious of what he has done, but he is like a vine which has borne grapes, and asks nothing more when once it has borne its appropriate fruit. A horse runs, a hound tracks, bees make honey, and [the third] man does good, but doesn't know that he has done it and passes on to a second act, like a vine to bear once more its grapes in due season. You ought then to be one of these who in a way are not aware of what they do."

I was raised "keeping score" for myself, and by training me to do this, the LDS Church also taught me to subconsciously "keep score" for every member of the church around me. As an Elder's Quorum President I was keenly aware of who showed up to help people move and assist others in the quorum in doing tasks that could not be done on their own. The needs of others are front and center in the Mormon Church, but so is the "score keeping".

I think at the root of this trend is the notion that Mormon have to "earn their way" into the Celestial Kingdom. Just getting into "heaven" is not enough for a true-blue Mormon (TBM) because families are only eternal if you make it to the top-third of the Celestial Kingdom, so the self-evaluation is critical. If you sin (a minus), you have to counteract that with a good deed (a plus).

Just doing good because it is a part of human nature is very rare in a Mormon congregation. The Ward PEC (priesthood executive committee) is always keeping score. I know because for fully half of my adult life I was a member of a ward or branch PEC in more than six congregations from Edmonton (AB) to Yellowknife (NT) to Greater Vancouver (BC). I know there a "good Mormons" (like my son), but they are the exception rather than the rule.