Prosperity Consciousness?

I recently read Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life by Larry Winget. This book is pretty much my perfect "self-help" type book (I think I'd do a review soon) and there's lots of great food for my brain.

But one comment he made really struck me. He mentioned "poverty consciousness" and "prosperity consciousness." These are terms I've never heard before, but that perfectly encapsulate something I've been wrestling with in regard to my own search for prosperity.

Are we prosperous because of external measures such as income, spending, debt? Or are we prosperous because we think we are. Certainly the first is accurate. You can't very well claim prosperity if the bills aren't getting paid. On the other hand, an appreciation of what you already have is a key component of prosperity. When you understand that you don't need a lot of stuff, you gain the twin benefits of both feeling prosperous with what you have right now as well as saving money by not buying the things you don't miss.

Winget points out that a prosperity consciousness not only makes you feel better about what you already have, but ends up actually getting you more. That is, focusing on how poor you are will tend to keep you poor while focusing on prosperity will help you be more prosperous. I'd like to point out that he also puts a heavy weight on action -- he makes no claim that simply thinking about what you want will bring it to you. Still, your focus is a critical component of taking the right action.

Here then is my challenge: How can I place the necessary attention on improving our prosperity without feeling poor in the process and thereby undermining our own goals?