I think that the most difficult thing to overcome, for the characters in Middle Earth, was their own personal preferences, or the love of self. Many of them gave up much of what might have been better for them personally or what they wanted to do in order to put the betterment of Middle Earth before themselves.
Many of them did the right thing because it was the right thing to do in order for future generations to survive...a favorite quote from LOTR sums it up for me:
Quote:
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It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.
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Frodo to Sam
Scripture says: greater love has no man than this, that one would lay down his life for another (can't remember the exact quote and my Bible isn't handy here at work!)