Commitment

In working on my book on Values, I have become aware of how difficult it can be to adhere to values that are ostensibly close to my heart.  One of them is commitment.  If I'm writing about commitment, and believe commitment to be a lofty ideal, why do I find it difficult? Perhaps because it is so easy.  This might sound contradictory, but hear me out: Success can sometimes be a deceitful friend, in that it can lull you to think of yourself as strong without having to prove it to yourself again and again.  So if you've been successful in losing 20 pounds before, you might now sleep on your laurels, so to speak, content in the knowledge that you can do it.  But clearly without continued commitment, those 20 pounds are very likely to creep right back.

This is the dichotomy: the simplicity of commitment, and the required stick-to-itiveness that it commands.