I know there are ups and downs in normal life. My lusting and acting out behaviours were my faulty attempt to heighten the ups and avoid the downs. Lust doesn't work for me anymore, because I always surrender it to God. So some of the downs in life today can be quite painful for me - someone who didn't learn how to deal with life on life's terms when those lessons should have been learned. 

Resentment and always-thinking-I'm-right (arrogance) seem to be the biggest causes of disturbance in my life today. I guess there has been less progress in the removal of these two character defects than I hoped. I may have got better at keeping my mouth shut when I am being resentful and arrogant but the disturbance in my mind, heart and soul is definitely still there. 

I find myself wishing that I had the same "toxic" and "hot stove" reaction to these defects as I now have toward lust. But unlike lust, recognition that I am even being resentful and arrogant comes on very slowly - after they have already begun to disturb me. 

Apparently these defects have still not caused enough pain for me to really want to be rid of them. If the pattern is the same as with lust, I may eventually reach the point where I am so sick of those defects that I despair, fully surrender them, and let God do for me what I can't do for myself.