Think of the valuable ethics: both the ones you strive to pursue and those you wish to see in others. Which ones stand out to you the most? Which do you think is most important?

There are many grade A components to the successful human being. And by successful, I do not mean "making the most money" or "having many material things"; I mean it in the aspect of how meaningful and full of happiness and aspirations a life can be. Honesty, optimism, humility: these are all crucial. However there is one major aspect of a man or woman which can differentiate the followers from the leaders; the par from the phenomenal:

Loyalty.

Relationships, work environments, sports, society, nature, even the loyalty to your daily actions has an impact on the quality of your day.

There's a reason dogs are referred to as 'A (wo)man's best friend': loyalty. Dogs remain loyal to their owners. Every time you walk in the door, the tails start wagging and the excitement, as if you had been gone for years, engages. They listen to you and are obedient (most of the time) and stand by your hip through the adventures, even if the adventure is making scrambled eggs and toast at seven in the morning.

Loyalty in relationships is probably the most popular topic when discussing this human quality. On a friendship level, having your friends' backs through whatever, whenever, builds trust. Being there for them and with them during any form of adversity, hardship, excitement, or awesome time would mean more than buying fancy things or just hanging out when it's convenient for you.

In dating relationships, multiply the importance of loyalty by ten million. Trust being one of, if not the most, key factors in a relationship, all stems from being loyal to your partner. A successful relationship has a level of trust where there is very limited to no worry in most situations, because you and your significant other trust one another tremendously.

Work environments usually cannot be successful without loyalty from entry level employees to supervisors to administrators and vice versa. Showing up to work each day on time is a brand of loyalty. In return as a leader, keeping your employees positively motivated is a way to represent loyalty to the workers. A positive work environment is more often than not a successful work environment.

Sports is almost a given, going back to the relationship aspect of loyalty. No matter if it's a team sport or "individual", there still needs to be the strong existence of loyalty for success to occur. Loyalty to teammates, loyalty to coaches, loyalty to program administrators, loyalty to fans or supporters; the more loyalty given will eventually result in loyalty returned.

Loyalty in nature and society has a global impact. Think in terms of preserving the environment for example. If you are loyal to the practice of keeping the environment clean and safe, you prolong the wellness of the earth. You work for cleanliness, the world doesn't blow up. Pretty extreme reference, but you get the point.

An individual's daily actions should all have even the slightest bit of loyalty within them. As previously stated, the more loyalty given, the more loyalty will eventually be returned. Whether it's a trade such as carpentry where much time and effort is needed and you may have to start over on many projects before finally getting the perfect build completed; or it's a sport where you must continually practice and practice until you get the skill performed correctly: taking pride in your craft, whatever it may be, and remaining loyal to it will breed your successes. Although it sometimes may be hard, and things may not be going the way you planned, it is important to stay the course. There should never be an end to loyalty, it should always be constantly revolving each day, but if there were to be an end result, it would be satisfaction.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a quote reiterated by Eric Thomas:

"Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour or a day, or even a year. But eventually, it will subside. And something else take its place. If I quit, however, it will last forever."

^A reminder to stay loyal and keep pushing forward, whatever the obstacle may be.