As a society, our books, movies and our national sympathies seem to admire those individuals who are risk takers and live the adventurous life--those who risk all for fame and fortune. This makes for very interesting but not necessarily truthful storytelling.

For those people who succeed, risk is indeed a fascinating life choice, but not all risk takers succeed either financially or personally, and that leaves the rest of us with the necessity of trying to discover alternate choices about how we wish to conduct our lives.

One of these possible alternate choices is to choose a life dedicated to the pursuit of personal responsibility. This potential choice may perhaps in the long run be an even more satisfying life choice than many other possibilities

Our first commitment to personal responsibility must of course begin with a lifelong commitment to ourselves and our needs--our health needs, our education needs, caring about our appearance, caring about our personal environment and our happiness, so that we can ultimately enhance our self-esteem and become strong and secure individuals.

Next our ongoing commitment should be to the important others in our lives to help them to achieve their own potential so that they too will be able to live more fulfilled lives.

When we have made a determined effort to achieve our first two goals, then our next step is a dedicated, personal commitment to the society and the world in which we live to try to help make a better and safer environment for all, so that someday when we look back at the accomplishments of our lives, we can feel a sense of pride that because of our efforts we have succeeded in some small way to make the world a more human and humane home for all.

This life path choice is not entirely risk free. Life has no completely risk free options, but it is certainly a safer and more secure choice for a life well lived, because each succeeding step is given careful thought and each potential risk is assessed carefully, This life path choice can almost certainly lead to a happier life with better relationships and a more loving and certain future for ourselves, our loved ones and for the entire world.