One Word we all need to focus on more

That Word: Prosperity.

Now…. There are a bunch of different definitions of this word.

How would you define prosperity?

How would you explain someone who is living a Prosperous life?

STOP. take a moment and really answer those questions. It will help tie everything together later in this article.

See... Many people relate prosperity to money or wealth.

And maybe that’s ok.

Today, we are going to look at the word from a MUCH MORE EMPOWERING perspective.

I was listening to a beautiful talk by John Maxwell, and he spoke for a moment about prosperity. And it literally brought me to tears.

He defined prosperity as this:

PROSPERITY = TO GO FORWARD WITH HOPE

My mind was blown. This phrase has been rolling around in my head non-stop for the last 24 hours.

This short definition quite possibly could be the most powerful 5 words I’ve ever heard.

Let’s break it down a bit.

Some definitions of HOPE:

? a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen

? to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true

? a feeling of desire and expectation that things will go well in the future

I think most of us have a bit of HOPE inside of us. Although…. If you check any random newspaper, most TV News stations, and half the Social Media feeds… it’s almost as if many of our environments want to destroy our HOPE every day.

Now let’s get to the first part of the phrase.

“TO GO FORWARD WITH”

Yep.

To me, this simply means I am going to TAKE ACTION on my HOPES.

WOAH.

How many of us are actually TAKING ACTION on our HOPES?

Let’s go back to one of the earlier questions.

How would you describe someone who is “Taking Action on their hopes?”

Probably a little bit different than your original definition of prosperity.

Let’s go deeper here.

“Taking action” is in the present. So EFFECTIVELY, we can be prosperous today. We can be prosperous in the moment. We ARE prosperous in EVERY STEP OF THE JOURNEY towards our HOPES.

And this is where the MASSIVE mindset shift happens.

A little bit of effort, compounded every day, will strengthen our “Prosperity” every single day.

See, prosperity is MUCH more of a FEELING than some sort of financial number.

Dictionary dot com defines prosperity as "a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition".

Ahh…. And now a definition of thriving: "GROW OR DEVELOP WELL OR VIGOROUSLY".

And, if you’ve been following my 80+ newsletters so far…. You probably have heard me say “We as leaders need to inspire growth and learning in the workplace, now more than ever.” about 80 times lol.

So this is where all the dots connect. And aligns with my FASST Career Growth Model.

We need to Find our Fire. We need to find our HOPE…. Aka that FUTURE state that we desire.

We need to be honest with ourselves of where our gaps are… because in that moment of truth is where we find the area’s where we can learn and grow.

We need to get our environment right. Cut out all the bullshit that tries to derail our hope. Surround ourselves with people, places, and inputs that lifts us up.

And when we optimize our time, it only takes around 25 to 60 minutes a day of FOCUSED ACTIONS to make massive impact and progress towards our HOPE.

And if we commit to growing a little bit every day, WE CAN LIVE PROSPEROUS EVERY DAY….. not just some superficial financial target or moment or goal in the future. We can live prosperous no matter what is going on in the world around us. – Dan Clapper

BOOM.

Lets Get into ACTION.

ACTION TIME:

1. What ACTION can you take today to head towards your HOPE?

2. How can you live PROSPEROUS every day?

3. If you have a team, how can you help inspire them to live PROSPEROUS every day?

Lots of feels in today's article, I'm so grateful you stuck around and read to the end. We are truly in a world where hope is dwindling. Self Confidence is dropping. We as leaders need to inspire growth and learning NOW more than ever. I promise to continue to provide fresh actionable content, week after week, on this very topic of professional growth. Thank you for subscribing... and feel free to share this message with a friend! My heart is full of gratitude. Thanks again!

Your Friend,

Dan