We will have discovered on our joyful pursuit of happiness our heartfelt, strong belief in someone or something is best combined with our strong commitment to personal action.

The definitions of commitment in Websters Online Dictionary that are intended within the OneRoad Traveled writings are:

1. The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose.
2. The act of binding yourself to a course of action.

Commitment is sincere, not half-hearted. Commitment is steadfast and binding, not just a willingness to start. Commitment is made by personal choice, not by yielding to pressure from others. Commitment is continuing action, not just a feeling.

Commitment is surrounded by dedication, resolve, perseverance, and purpose.

Those of us living in a democracy are able to exercise freedom of choice. Along with this freedom comes a need to be willing to make responsible choices. When we become no longer willing to accept personal responsibility for our life journey we are creating building blocks for a freedom that has no bounds. This type of freedom does not carry a concern for potential consequences for other individuals, communities, and the country as a whole.

As individuals in a society we have duties that are obvious and clear but are often taken for granted. We have a duty to be the best we can be in the role of:

• student
• family member
• resident of a community
• citizen
• member of organizations

We must recognize these to be the highest of responsibilities. We must recognize individual responsibility means we are accountable for our own actions; past, present, and future. At the same time, we must know life brings countless outside forces that limit our options for action. Life is not always fair. Life is difficult.

We will have discovered on our joyful pursuit of happiness freedom of choice is best exercised by making and maintaining a commitment to taking full personal responsibility for our own OneRoad Traveled.

There are multiple definitions of both faith and commitment. One meaning of each follows and are the meanings intended for the discussion:

Commitment – The state of being bound emotionally and/or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons.

Faith – Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.

Choices we make can be a single action, repeated actions leading to our behaviors, or a character trait to develop. We make choices just for today, and choices that last weeks, years, perhaps a lifetime. When we do not complete a course of action, turn an idea into reality, stay married, maintain a long-term friendship, keep a promise, or continue a healthy habit; we give reasons specific to the situation.

We humans tend toward being out of balance on this. Many of us tend toward justifying our every choice, action, and behavior. Many of us do the opposite. We tell ourselves we have been mostly wrong in our life with our actions and our relationships.

We will have discovered on our joyful pursuit of happiness, the truth is we either lost our faith or became no longer committed, or both. Sometimes it is the best path to take; sometimes it is not. We must be fine with that. Learning and growing from these experiences and building our integrity is the high road.

We easily see bad attitudes when they are displayed in words or actions. Here are a few:

• negative
• critical
• defiant
• impatient
• uncooperative
• apathetic
• presumptive
• rebellious
• arrogant
• self-centered
• rude
• hateful
• unforgiving
• resentful
• confrontational
• hopeless

These are bad attitudes we see in others through words and action. It is more difficult to see these in ourselves, but we all have bad attitudes come into our thoughts. When we express these thoughts in words and action, we tend to deny, blame, or rationalize.

These are bad attitudes leading to a miserable pursuit of unhappiness. We will have discovered it is best to make conscious, heartfelt, and constructive choices when we experience bad attitudes.