Something I find fascinating is that everybody - every last one of us - wants the best that life has to offer. Yet only a very small percentage of us will ever achieve anything better than mediocrity. Everybody wants a greater sense of financial security. Everybody wants to provide their loved ones with a good life. Everybody wants the peace of mind which comes from knowing that money will never be an issue or concern. Sadly, however, the reality is the overwhelming majority of us will never get there.

What makes this dichotomy more interesting is that the divide between the haves and have-nots has nothing to do with a person's race. It has nothing to do with a person's sex. It has nothing to do with where someone was born, who their parents are, whether or not they finished their schooling, what field of endeavor they choose to pursue or how high their IQ is. Going all the way back to the time of cavemen, there has always been and always will be that much smaller percentage of people who are successful at whatever they choose to pursue.

But why? Why are there so many smart, sincere, hard working, well meaning people in the world who will experience little more than financial struggle all of their lives? What are the small number of people amongst us doing to live in financial abundance that the rest of us are not doing? As you contemplate this question you may come up with dozens of good answers. And, I'm not going not tell you that any one answer is better than any other. However, there is one good answer to this question that I'd like to focus on throughout the remainder of this article. And here it is: the most successful amongst us take full, unconditional, personal responsibility for their own lives. It's crucial that you completely understand the importance of this concept to get the most from this article.

For starters, those who fail to take full responsibility for their own lives are living in victim mode. If you blame your lousy job or your dumb boss as your reason for being mired in mediocrity, you're playing the role of a victim. If you're blaming the lousy economy for your circumstances then you're playing the role of a victim. If you ever find yourself complaining about anything at all, you guessed it, you're in victim mode. And, there simply is no such thing as a successful victim. If a victim ever did happen to somehow stumble upon success, that success would certainly be short lived.

Taking responsibility also means doing something - taking some kind of action - to help move yourself forward toward your goal. For example, let's say you have a vision board. On your board you have a picture of a sexy speed boat that you dream of owning. You stare at the picture of that boat every day. You meditate about owning the boat. In your meditation you see yourself in the captain's seat cruising the ocean blue on a gorgeous, sunny day. Based on what you know on the law of attraction - through your vision board and meditation - you are magnetically drawing that dream boat into your reality. All you need to do to make the boast your possession is to visualize having it and it will be so. Right? Wrong!

The reality is that nothing on your vision board will materialize unless you take some sort of action towards actually acquiring it. You see, anyone who thinks the law of attraction alone will bring them everything they want in life is sorely mistaken. The law of attraction alone, when not combined with meaningful action, is worthless. Taking action also means taking responsibility.

Taking responsibility for your life means using your leisure time to read a good book instead of watching another useless television program. Taking responsibility means consistently engaging in some type of salubrious activity. It means learning something new that will add to your value in the eyes of your employer or your clients. Taking full, unconditional, personal responsibility for your own life is very empowering. When you come to the realization that your fate lies in your own hands, you'll be giving yourself permission to accomplish any goal you set your sites on.

Taking responsibility for yourself also demonstrates that you understand that nobody else will make "it" happen for you. You have to make "it" happen for yourself. Now here's the real kicker - people, subconsciously, want to be in victimhood. As crazy as this may sound, most people are comfortable playing the role of a victim. They may not realize it or will disagree vehemently with this idea. However, if they were to take a hard, honest look at themselves they would see that they somehow would feel threatened by success because success would take them outside of their comfort zone. And that is where the real problem lies - people, by their very nature, want to stay with what they are most comfortable with.

Finally, taking responsibility for your own life means that even though you may not be able to control everything you experience in life, you do have complete, unconditional control over how you react to that which you experience. Wow, how empowering that is.

In order to take responsibility for your life, take a good look at the areas you feel could use improvement. Start with just one area and begin to work at changing it for the better. Find a book, a web site or an article that can help you with the area you wish to improve upon. I don't care what area you wish to change for yourself, there is a resource out there which can help you do it. I can recall a time when I was in the bookstore and I happened to notice a book on how to properly get a sun tan. At that very moment I realized that if there existed a book on how to sun tan then there has to be a book on any, and I mean ANY, topic known to mankind.

Folks, your life is in your own hands - make the most of it. Once it's gone, it's gone for good. Make sure that when you look back on your life one day you'll see successes and disappointments but not regrets. Disappointments will mean that you tried; you gave it your all but came up short. Regrets will mean that you didn't even try at all. Please, don't let that be you.