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.

Laura Berman Fortgang

On Monday, March 15, Verona-based life coach and best-selling author Laura Berman Fortgang will kick off a monthly workshop series at Montclair’s Bangz Salon & Wellness Spa to help improve various areas of your life, including love, relationships, career and decision-making.

The first session will focus on communication skills that can bring more love and understanding to relationships. On Monday, April 12, the focus shifts to decision making, and Fortgang will help participants learn how to make that easier and how to recognize good and bad decisions. On May 17, Fortgang will talk about how to create the circumstances in our lives that make great opportunities possible. The final session on June 14 will focus on what is required to be competitive in today’s job market and how to figure out next steps in a career.

Each seminar is open to the public and will be held at Bangz, which is located at 23 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and each workshop will be from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The fee is $10 per person, per seminar. Space is limited so a reservation is recommended. More information can be found at Bangz’ Web site or by calling (973) 746-8426.

And for those of you who read our December story on Fortgang and her last book, The Little Book on Meaning: Why We Crave It, How We Create It, this update: It did not win one of the Books for a Better Life Awards, sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, at the group’s awards ceremony on Monday, February 22. Fortgang seems undaunted.

Laura Berman Fortgang

It’s not every day that one of your neighbors is competing with the Dalai Lama.

But that’s exactly what’s happening: A book written by Laura Berman Fortgang, a life coach who has lived in Verona since 1995, has been chosen from among 500 other books on spirituality to be one of five finalists for the Books for a Better Life Awards, sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In addition to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the other authors are Pema Chodron, Harold Kushner and Thomas Moore.

The Little Book on Meaning: Why We Crave It, How We Create It started out as something of a joke. Fortgang was having lunch with friends a few years back when they began to talk about what they would do in retirement. When it was Fortgang’s turn she blurted out, “become a minister.” No one was more surprised than she. “I was raised Jewish,” says Fortgang. “The words ‘Jewish’ and ‘minister’ don’t go together.”

The lunch-time quip took on a life of its own. Fortgang tried to see its meaning as an analogy for her work helping executives through career crises. She tried quelling it by getting a quickie ordination over the Internet. “That worked so well that I was called on to speak for my publisher’s minister in a sermon,” quips Fortgang, the author of three other best-selling career books.

Finally, Fortgang enrolled in the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, a New York City-based school that studies 14 major religious traditions. She commuted in for two years of courses while raising three children and running her business, InterCoach Inc. In 2006, she was ordained an interfaith minister and finally, she found the reason for her off-hand remark so many years earlier.

“My publisher had been asking me for a new book the whole time I was in school,” relates Fortgang. “Then it hit me: My clients were longing for meaning. Even before the crash, they were telling me, ‘I have everything, why am I not happy?’ They were looking at career changes and they couldn’t find meaning. They were looking everywhere and couldn’t find it.”

Fortgang believes that meaning comes from connections, and she has rededicated her work to helping her clients reconnect with what they truly want out of life. “I no longer believe in career crises,” says Fortgang, “even though that is what my clients come to me for. I believe every career crisis is really a spiritual crisis. You have gotten off track from who you are and what you want.”

Despite her ordination, Fortgang has no plans for a clergy career–at least not full-time. “I haven’t changed my shingle from coach to minister,” she says. “But there are no bones about my philosophy now.”

Fortgang recently spoke with MSNBC about how moms can find meaning in the holidays despite tough times. Here’s that interview:

The Books for a Better Life Awards will be announced February 22.