My prosperity partner wrote an article "Defining Prosperity for Myself", and now I am writing the opposing view "Defining Prosperity - Is That Really Prosperity or Just Plain Lazy"…I'll put a link at the end of this article so you can read the first article.

In the article she writes "I have learned over the past year that prosperity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I have a goal of having a five million dollar net worth invested with a 10 % return that gives me a passive income of $500,000 a year. Someone that I know has a dream of having a net worth exceeding $400 million dollars. Is her goal to have more prosperity than I intend to have? That is a trick question to which the answer is no. Her goal is definitely to have more money than I intend to have but remember that money does not equate prosperity." Of course I take massive pride in the fact that I am the someone she knows who has the goal of a net worth exceeding $400 million dollars!

The article goes on to say "I am not close to my extended family, but my immediate family is my second priority. When my children are happy, healthy and bursting with joy, I know that I am being prosperous. Every day that my husband and I still love and adore each other is another day of prosperous living for me. Some of my friends are like family to me and their involvement in my life makes me feel prosperous beyond measure. I know that I am loved and I believe that love is the ultimate treasure. When you are truly loved, you are the richest person on earth."

Man that was a mouthful - So now I ask you is that truly prosperity or just plain lazy! Since when does being prosperous involve how others feel and interact with you? So does that mean one isn't prosperous if all the friends left and the children are unhappy and your spouse decided to not have 2am conversations with you and NO ONE loved you? That is her measure of prosperity isn't it? So you remove all those things and the prosperity is now gone right!

The world is filled with creative energy and while I'm all for the concept that everyone is entitled to whatever they want, and that we should allow each person to want whatever makes them happy... I'm also for the concept that most people in society don't aim very high because they are afraid of failure. Now to have enough creative energy to create or attract 5 million dollars - anyone can do that. But how much creative energy does it take to attract or create 400 million?

We grow up in an environment where we set the bar really low on what we can or will achieve - JUST IN CASE if we don't make it we won't feel so bad. Most people in society want nothing more than a 9-5 and to retire with a 401k.

You know I've been saying for years I want to be on the Forbes 400 richest Americans list and in all that time that I say this I have never heard anyone say 'REALLY? ME TOO!'

Now could that be that's just way too far up on the tree for most people to reach for, and the apples on the lower branches are easier to get to (apples on the lower branches are also rotten and touched a lot by a multitude of people not wanting to climb higher). We grow up hearing how love is true wealth - Who fed us this diet of foolishness, and the person who fed us this diet - are they truly prosperous?

Don't get it twisted, people - Stop finding excuses to cover up your not wanting to reach for the sky. Go ahead and say it: 'I'm too lazy to actually want a huge boatload of money and I don't really believe I can have it anyway - because for me to want a huge boatload of money would entail me actually trying at something and maybe I'll fall flat on my face.'

So I ask is it truly prosperity or just plain lazy?!