Why is it so hard to do the right thing?

A couple of these posts appear to miss the spirit of your question. I believe what you're asking is "given how I define right/wrong, ethical/unethical, good/bad, why does it always seem so hard to do the 'right' thing?" I've asked similar questions many times--why is it that so much good-tasting food is bad for you and so much food that is good for you tastes like s*$%? Why is it that consuming more calories (the easier path than consuming less) doesn't help you lose weight? Essentially, the answer to both of our questions is human nature combined with odds and probabilities. What most people want is to live a life in which they are happy while not having to put too much burden and stress on themselves. Then consider that given how a person defines right/wrong, there are likely only one or two answers that will actually get him to that "right" outcome. So what are the odds that how he wants to live his life aligns with the very few paths that reality provides him to get to those outcomes? The answer is, occasionally they will intersect (you define public nudity as wrong, and you like wearing clothes; perfect), but much of the time they will not (you define vegetarianism as right, but meat is so goddamn tasty and filling). And in those instances in which they do not intersect, it takes effort to pursue those "right" paths, so we perceive it as burdensome or "hard." The graphic I've provided below probably doesn't help clarify anything, but it was fun putting it together. (Note: The farther away the "right thing" is, the harder we will perceive it to be. Also, what makes people happy and what is burdensome is different for each of us given our genetics, upbringing, and present circumstances. These differences are represented by the different slopes of each person's "Happy/Easy Path.") So if you're the red person, it just so happens that the "right" answer, as it relates to vegetarianism, is pretty far away from your Happy/Easy Path. So doing the "right" thing will be hard. And why did there turn out to be this divergence between you and reality? Well, because the odds of your path always (or even frequently) aligning with reality will be well below 100%.

Well, there's the obvious question of ethics and morality, but judging from your example, you don't want another spiel about right vs. wrong. Besides, philosophers have already argued ethics and morality for centuries. See (John Locke, Nietzsche, Descartes, Immanuel Kant, etc). Then there's the question of behaviours. Psychology would posit that you have been conditioned to believe that eating meat is the way of life. You have lived with few complications thus far, so you must be doing something right? No harm, foul. But morally, you believe your actions to be wrong? You're at a crossroads and thus you experience cognitive dissonance. Do you break your habits and out of your comfort zone? That's up to you. Now it's a question of willpower, dedication, motivation, and right back to your own morals. Why is it hard? Because the right answer isn't always clear. It's not always in binary terms and this complicated world we live in likes to keep us on our toes. Edit: I've already eluded to this. We are creatures of habit. We are comfortable with the way things are now so why change them? Have you ever tried to break out of your comfort zone?

Being vegetarian is against your design/evolved situation whichever you prefer, that may be why it's hard.

Nothing in life is the "right" thing. However, the harder it is to do something, generally the more reluctant we are to do it (depending on various circumstances). As using your vegetarian example, I can completely nullify and refute most vegetarians or vegans or whatever have you. I understand that eating meat is "unnecessary", I understand that it can be seen as "harmful or uncaring". And really, it is. Why do I care that some animal off 2000 miles away is being killed instantaneously to serve as energy for our survival? I mean, if I had any sort of control or power over the operation of animal butchering, I would make sure to have due diligence in establishing clean orderly procedures to limit the suffering that the animals may go through. However, I don't care enough to simply give up meats. The world works like this: Some succeed, some fail, some fight, some run. In order for someone to gain, down the line - someone has to lose. This is the way the world works. You cannot find that any one party can mutually benefit without someone or something else that may have drawbacks. The most ironic thing about most vegetarians or "pro-life, pro-environment" or whatever have you, is that they actually don't care. Sure, you say that you're such a better person and you try when you can or whatever excuse you may throw out there to claim a higher moral ground. Most people don't even realize that if we were to stop eating meat at this very moment, billions of dollars would go into funding a safe ecosystem for all the animals currently living on a farm (butcher shop, etc). - Many would die off due to several generations of being conditioned to live in the environment that we raised them in. They wouldn't be able to survive the wildlife if we didn't provide the means to do so. We would be fueling tons of money that could help US towards helping out an animal who can't figure out ass hair from grass. How... productive is this? The second most ironic thing is that most people are unaware that we are using animals in other ways so that we can benefit. Some methods are discontinued but things like animal testing still exist - however most test labs are SUPPOSED to abide by orderly conduct. This means animal testing is done at the minimum level (as little as possible). Yet.. you still find people using medication, steroids (not just muscle roids), vaccines, all this made possible due to other animals that we consider less important than human life. Yeah that's the sad truth. There is no right thing, and most people actually don't care. They just fuel themselves with the thought of caring to avoid reality that we actually don't.

Because sometimes, it's inconvenient, difficult, counter-productive and/or self defeating.  Everybody wants a positive outcome and if that means rounding the edges a bit, most people will fall into that trap.  As you say, it's hard to do what's right but often, we can take solace at having done so even if we didn't get the outcome we really wanted.  That's often called being responsible.

Because what you think is right, may not be what I think is right.Because what we both think is right, may still be wrong for a lot of other people.Because even if we all agree, we may not have the ability to do it.Because even if we do it, the dangers and cost of doing it far outweigh the upside.And because when we do it anyway, what is right now, may not be right for later.

A "healthy" human mind operates under a simple principle - choose pleasure. Many a times doing the right thing causes discomfort instead of pleasure. Ergo, you will naturally feel inclined not to do the right thing. What separates one person from the next is the ability to overcome this natural urge day in and day out. -------Filler stuff to make the minimum length requirement for an answer...... Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other You drive and I'll man the guns. --------End of bad joke....................................................................................

It's not hard to do the right thing. It only takes a decision to develop positive patterns of behavior. One simple act at a time. Know why and take pleasure in the surprise reaction of others as it is rare. But there is the effect of attracting others to you as they generally like to see right thing habits. They like to see examples of doing the right thing.It's both a learning and a refining process. Understand you will not have a lot of competition.