As someone who has answered over a hundred metaphysical questions on Quora.com, they sometimes ask me to answer new questions. This one just came in:

Why do good intentions not always lead to good outcomes, and what does this say about the real nature of karma?

I posted my answer as this:

With karma, intention is everything.

Karma is a creation first and a reaction second. The process is automatic, so there is no invisible judge passing opinions upon your actions.

Every action you create adds its energy to your karmic pattern, which is an aura of magnetic attraction around your body. It attracts energy and circumstances similar to those you have accumulated through your creations.

If a person were to do good deeds simply in order to appear good to others, this manipulative intention would attract manipulative energy from others. With karma, intention is everything.

Even if a person's intentions are good, the outcome of their creation can still sometimes cause undesired problems. This is the way of life. We are here to make decisions and take creative action so that we can learn from the results, gain wisdom, and evolve.

Because everyone is unique, your decisions and actions add to the ultimate goal of the universe, which is to experience itself from an infinite variety of perspectives. The more uniquely creative your action, the more beneficial it is to this overall mission of the conscious universe.

Sometimes you may pause to reflect on whether to respond differently to the consensus of popular thought, knowing that courage will be required in some way, so consider this.

The primary reason for physical human life on planet Earth is to gain courage and, with it, freedom from fear. Once the first lesson is learned, the soul is free to move on to the next level of experience, that of embracing and understanding unconditional love.