Three years into the worst recession that the United States has seen since the great Depression, you’re probably looking for a bit of prosperity. Heck, you’re probably looking for a lot of prosperity. And you’re in luck. One of your neighbors here in Verona has a plan.
The The Prosperity Plan is life coach Laura Berman Fortgang‘s fifth book and I have to admit that, when I saw it, I was worried. Her previous tomes had been aimed at career improvement or a quest for spirituality. But The Prosperity Plan carried a subtitle that sounded way too much like those crackpot schemes that used to flood my e-mail in-box until I got a really good spam blocker: “Ten Steps To Beating The Odds And Creating Extraordinary Wealth And Happiness”.
Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to have extraordinary wealth (and happiness). I wouldn’t send them packing if they arrived on my doorstep. But prosperity in just 10 steps? In this mess of an economy?
But Fortgang contends that it’s precisely this mess of an economy that will make such a revolution possible. Our old ways of achieving financial success are gone. They messed up our lives, messed up our planet and gave us a false sense of security that was blown away in a few short weeks on Wall Street. “If everything we’ve done before doesn’t work,” she says, “we have to do something different. You have to beat the odds with a belief in yourself.”
That, as she acknowledges, is not an easy thing to do, even in good times. To believe in yourself may mean believing that you can do things that other people don’t think you can. “When everyone is telling you you’re crazy, you’re probably on the right track,” says Fortgang. “You’re kicking up their fears.” Believing in yourself means pushing away fear and worry. Fortgang keeps a “worry jar”: When she’s got one, she writes it down and puts it away in the jar. Done. Her point is, you can waste your energy on negatives or you can put it toward creating positives. She’d rather do the latter because that positive energy is what she believes will create prosperity. “All bets are off now,” Fortgang says. “Every line of business is calling for innovation. If you’re in a mindset of fear you won’t come up with those innovations.”
Does The Prosperity Plan work? I’ve been putting it to the test for the last month and so far, so good. It’s helped to confirm the opportunities I saw in this new media wonderland called MyVeronaNJ.com and to believe in several new possibilities for the business. It is fun to start and end the day reminding myself of all the things I have to be grateful for, one of the The Prosperity Plan’s requirements. Fortgang’s philosophies also helped tremendously last week when a consulting client of mine died unexpectedly: It was a tragedy for his family, to be sure, but I could take a deep breath and remind myself that I still had the skills and mindset that would move me forward. There’s no alternative, really.
“There is a connection between what you think you can do and what you can do,” says Fortgang. “That is the difference between achieving prosperity and not.”
Fortgang has created an intensive, 12-month coaching seminar around the book and will be starting a new session in a few weeks. All the details are on her Web site. In the meantime, this video will give you a feel for her new take on prosperity.
