You are probably aware of the fact that most anyone who suddenly comes into great wealth just as suddenly loses it. Studies of lottery winners have shown time and again that not only do lottery winners squander their money or lose it one way or another, they often end up being in a worse situation than before their sudden wealth.

The reasons given for this vary, but the one that makes the most sense is: the lottery winner cannot effectively cope with the sudden change in his or her identity, of who they perceive themselves to be. In other words, your ability to deal with and keep the abundance seems to be linked to your ability to grow in your identity, in who you perceive yourself to be, in your level of growth and maturity.

So if having (and keeping) abundance is dependent on personal growth (and you cannot have growth without first taking personal responsibility for your issues), it makes complete sense that if you want to attract more abundance into your life, you'd take complete responsibility for your personal and life issues. It would be a good idea to grow and learn and grow some more, sooner rather than later. (Besides, intuitively it makes sense that personal growth would be a major factor for attracting abundance into your life in the first place.)

So which resources can help you take complete responsibility for your life? What can help you grow fast, but in a least painful way? (Fast personal growth can be very painful, but it doesn't have to be that way.)

I know of a couple resources that can help you take the ultimate level of responsibility for your life. One is a book by Robert Schwartz titled Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth? In his book, Robert recounts the huge levels of personal growth experienced by ten individuals as they embrace responsibility for some highly challenging life circumstances. One dramatic example shows a woman who came to the understanding that she actually chose to experience a bomb explosion up close because living through that experience helped her grow in a way that her soul most wanted to grow. (I know this is an extreme example and the other examples in Schwartz's book are not this extreme. I also know that this worldview may be hard to believe from the point of view of the human personality self that isn't conscious of prebirth agreements. But actually, that's why they work in the first place.)

I have read Schwartz's book after meeting him at a book fair early last year and it resonated with my own experience of profound growth through navigating a crisis. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

A few weeks ago (around the end of January of 2009), I heard Colin Tipping speak on a "Self Care Mastery" teleseminar. Colin said that you can't really appreciate Oneness until you have experienced the opposite of Oneness, and that we are here helping each other experience the different forms of separation so that we can appreciate Oneness.

I will now propose a corollary: "You cannot really appreciate Abundance until you have experienced the opposite of Abundance. We are helping each other experience different forms of separation and lack so that we will appreciate Abundance."

So if you have had your fill of experiences of separation and lack, you may want to consider taking ultimate responsibility for your life and grow as much as you can possibly grow, as much as your higher self is challenging you to grow right now. Your growth will help you attract abundance into your life (and it will help you keep it). Using already available resources will help make this process easier.