Faith and Commitment

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.

Structured Behavior

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness might suggest each of us can do anything legal, anytime. There is a great deal of truth in that; however, constant unplanned, reactionary behavior doesn’t work for any of us.

We discover primarily imposed structures from birth to leaving high school. Eventually, our human nature causes us to cry freedom and have a bias toward self centered and immediate gratification type behavior. In today’s world it has become more of the attitude and temptation than ever before.

It is very challenging to embrace the reality that choosing our own structured behavior is the highest expression of freedom we humans can attain. We will have discovered defining our daily routines and ongoing habits, combined with providing a balance of opportunities over time for spontaneous actions and pleasures, is the true definition of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Actions, Behavior, and Character

Thoughts lead to our actions.

Our actions become our behavior

Our repeated behavior become our habits.

Our habits become our character.

Our character defines who we are on this earth.

We will have discovered that what we do becomes who we are.

Behavior Quote

A OneRoad Traveled Roadsign

Mens’s natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.

         Confucius

Changing Habits

If we repeatedly perform selfish acts, we become a selfish person.

If we repeatedly play the lottery, slot machines, and/or the horses, we become a gambler.

If we repeatedly fail to tell the truth, we become a liar.

If we repeately steal things from others, we become a thief.

If we repeatedly inject heroin into our body, we become a heroin addict.

We will have discovered to choose our habits wisely. Changing long term habits is as difficult to do as anything in life.