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.

Truly loving oneself connects with a number of attitudes about self. Three very important examples are: 

Self Confidence - confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.

Self Respect - due respect for oneself, one’s character, and one’s conduct.

Self Control – restraint exercised over one’s own impulses, emotions, or desires.

Feeling the right way about oneself does not require appoval from others. We find we may be tempted to equate being lovable with the sense of being loved by others. Rather, we will have discovered we must develop the attitude within that we are worthy of respect and love, even with our imperfections and our critics.

Self Image – The conception that one has of oneself, including an assessment of qualities and personal worth. (This definition is clearly neutral) 

Self Worth – Pride in oneself; self-respect. (Self-worth can be a confusing term. Watch out for pride)

Our perception of self can get out of control on our journey. Out of control self-image becomes self-centeredness. Self-centeredness is usually based on a denial and cover-up of low attitudes about self.

Self-Esteem is a word that has gained much attention in recent years and has confused many. Low self-esteem and high self-esteem are presented as an “either/or” - low is bad and high is good. That is the basis of the confusion. Healthy self-esteem is a better description of one who has the best attitudes about self.

Pride in oneself is an attitude that can become out of control. Too much pride in oneself leads to a “better than everyone else” attitude. We will have discovered on our joyful pursuit of happines excessive pride can lead to lethal attitudes about self and is the First of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Attitude is our inner thinking, feeling, or disposition about people, places, things, and circumstances. Attitude is one of the crucial fuels for thoughts, actions, behavior, and ultimately, character. We will have discovered having predominately bad attitudes does not lead to a joyful pursuit of happiness.

Life is very difficult. If we depend on our environment to give us good attitudes, we will not succeed. We must strive for a lifetime of hard work developing and growing good attitudes Some of the very best attitudes to pursue are:

• loving
• humble
• forgiving
• caring
• respectful
• helpful
• patient
• grateful
• responsible
• compassionate
• peacemaking

We will discover developing good attitudes is a very holistic pursuit. Sometimes, we will find we can simply change our thinking and feelings. Many, many times we will find that approach just does not work. We may need to look at ourselves and our surroundings. Our hearts may tell us to look at what we put into our bodies, our level and type of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual activity, the nature of our relationships. By staying with it, we will have discovered our ability to discover the best first, second, and next steps on our journey to good attitudes.

It takes perseverance, another great attitude that deserves our focus.

We will have discovered a “Yes” attitude toward the future leads to a joyful pursuit of happiness.

For those endeavors that feel attainable, we say yes. Yes, I have goals I know I can reach, and I am willing to act upon. believe in, and commit to whatever it takes to attain them. For those that seem beyond our reach, we say yes. Yes this appears to be beyond my reach, but I am willing to take the risk, enthusiastically pursue it, and to learn from the experience regardless of the outcome.

During our joyful pursuit of happiness we will have discovered there are three vehicles to help us on our journey:

• Timely Action
• Consistent Behavior
• Purposeful Character

Each of the writings under the Journey heading to the right are our discoveries about action, behavior, and character.