I have committed myself to writing about the three core Marine values–honor, courage and commitment. I have written about honor and courage, now I am going to write about commitment.
My Virtues Guide does not have a section on commitment, but it does devote several pages to the virtue of purposefulness. Certainly anyone wanting to display the value known as commitment would need to develop the virtue known as purposefulness.
Today I will post one quote on purposefulness. Friday I will post more quotes about the same virtue. Here is the quote that I have chosen for today:
“So long as the thoughts of an individual are scattered he will achieve no results, but if his thinking be concentrated on a single point wonderful will be the fruits thereof.”
The above quote is one of many made by a Persian religious leader who once visited the United States. His visit is the subject of a blog. Those who might want to read more quotes, from the writings of the same gentleman, should go to http://journals.aol.com/suecheh/a-century-of-thoughts
The writer of that blog once lived under the same roof as a former Marine. She has written an online article about that same former Marine. Those who care to read that artilce should enter the article title, “Hop to It, Jazz Lovers,” in a search engine.
A commitment should not prevent anyone from having various interests. Someone with a strong commitment does not allow those interests to receive greater attention than the object of his or her commitment. The Marine mentioned in the article for “jazz lovers” had a commitment, but he also loved music.
Sometimes, when he found that he was struggling to sataisfy a commitment, he used music to take a break and to gain the strength to contine with that commitment. He never forgot about his commitment.
