Your Daily Affirmation with Dilbert

[monk222]

♠
“The idea behind affirmations is that you simply write down your goals 15 times a day and somehow, as if by magic, coincidences start to build until you achieve your objective against all odds.”

-- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog

Every once in a while, I come across one of these arguments that seductively argue we make our own reality, one variation or another on the power of positive thinking. Mr. Adams gives us another one, and he gives some discussion on possible explanations, including reasonable ones such as whether it makes people more watchful for opportunities.

Monk cannot resist wondering a little when he comes upon these. Could it really just be a matter of positive thinking and just not being so negative and fatalistic? Is he holding himself back merely by the chains and whips of his own defeatist thinking?

He is able to shake off these notions, repenting that he should have some susceptibility to flimflam. Affirmation techniques might help some unsure, diffident types realize their potential, but others would need full-fledged miracles, or a pact with the Devil. I cannot imagine that thinking, writing, and believing "I am going to become a world famous author and bang dreamgirl strippers at will" will make it so. Or is that the problem?

xXx

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Positive thinking is fine if you use it realistically. If you focus on your goals, you do stand a better chance of achieving them because you keep reminding yourself of what you're trying to achieve; however, you also won't achieve them by doing nothing but focus on them.

You know me. I'm a great fan of NLP, which is pretty much the ultimate positive thinking technique. It's a useful tool, but I don't let myself think it's the answer to everything, and therefore I can use it without fear. :-)

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Of course, you would prefer a rather sophisticated approach. I was looking that up, and the Wikipedia shows its popular enough that apparently NLP is up for abuse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

The good side is probably still rather mathematical, and I think I'll stick to good ol' escapist daydreaming.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Scott Adams sort of reminds me of you sometimes, as in this post:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/in_over_my_head.html