I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. Not because I have a lot of time to kill (I wish!), but more because I finally decided that if I wanted to be prosperous then perhaps it was time to think prosperous. So I’ve been reading books by Mark Victor Hansen and Jay Conrad Levinson to name a few. Both of them teach that you have to stop thinking negatively. Knowing that you can be prosperous and that you deserve it is the first step to success.

Now knowing and doing are two very different things. I can know that I want to be prosperous, but actually doing it is harder.

I know with me I had to change my thinking around if I wanted to attain any prosperity at all. So after a little soul searching I discovered that deep down I didn’t think I deserved to be prosperous. Wow! That was a revelation! I also discovered that I didn’t like money. I had the misguided thought that money was the root of all evil and would turn you into a Frankenstein consumed with greed if you had too much of it. Hmmm, sounds like a bad movie.

The good news is that eventually I decided that it was time to get rid of those nasty little thoughts and change my ideas on the subject. How did I do it? I started visualizing my perfect life. I daydreamed about my books being successful, I visualized my company being successful, I saw myself speaking to large groups of people and I imagined that all my bills were paid with money left over in the bank. Then I wrote down goals to get me there. Miraculously at some point along the way my entire paradigm changed and the old thoughts slipped away forever.

What I’ve learned from this is that fear is a life-changing thought that can propel you into a direction that you don’t want to go. It’s like a runaway train that you are incapable of stopping and can’t jump off. It consumes you until you can’t think of anything else. In my case it was fear of both having money and not having it. It was crazy!! It was the fear of bankruptcy, fear of losing my house and the fear of losing everything I hold dear. On the other hand, it was also the unreasonable fear that actually having money would turn me into a horrible ego-filled greedy person. This irrational fear controlled my thoughts and my actions and propelled me onto a path that was as far from prosperity that you could get. It was all I could think about and I worried about it constantly. In fact, it was my entire focus for years. I was indeed on a runaway train and I didn’t think there was any way to stop it, but there was, and with God’s help I eventually did jump off the train and I started walking down a new road. I am now embracing prosperity instead of rejecting it and know that not only will my goals and dreams come true, but I’ll now be able to pass it forward.

You too can jump off your train. You can change your life and reach your dream. Just have faith and you can do anything!!

In closing, please remember that prosperity doesn’t necessarily mean having as much money as possible. For me, prosperity is having the means to help as many people as possible, and still be able to pay my bills. Prosperity means being able to give it away.

What is the true meaning of prosperity? Having the means to be able to pass it forward and help someone else attain their dream.

About the Author: Katharine Giovanni, the world’s leading international concierge training expert, has been training concierge for over a decade. She is Triangle Concierge’s senior trainer and speaker, and is the author of their best-selling books Going Above and Beyond and The Concierge Manual. Katharine has traveled around the country teaching workshops to groups, individuals and corporations. She has appeared in dozens of newspaper articles, magazines, radio and TV shows around the country including ABC News Nightline, CBS News, ABC News, Delta Airlines Sky Radio, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times and Conde Naste to name a few. Raised in New York City, Katharine has a B.A. from Lake Forest College and currently lives in North Carolina with her husband Ron and two children. Katharine is a member of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached through her websites at www.triangleconcierge.com or www.katharinegiovanni.com