What Would We Be Without Wishful Thinking?

Jeff Tweedy asks this question in one of my favorite Wilco songs, Wishful Thinking. Everyone thinks, everyone wishes. Think about it. How much of life is purely thinking about something you don't have? How much time do people spend thinking wishfully about a person, a job, or certain traits or events? Being thin. Getting married. Having a baby. Attaining your dream job. Your dream home or apartment. A certain possession.

There's nothing wrong with wishing for something. Thinking about your goals in a positive way is actually proven to be one of the most effective ways to help them manifest. The ideal situation is supposedly to actually enjoy thinking about the things that you want, even if you don't have them that.The key is that when you emerge from that fantasy, to be okay with the fact that it isn't real. Yet. If you get stuck on the fact that you don't yet have the things you want, this will become your status quo, and it's literally impossible for those things to come to you.

This phenomenon has been observed and explored by many spiritual leaders and philosophers. Everyone has a different way of saying it, but anyone can observe this happening if they try. The person who has been overweight forever, who wants to be thin more than anything else but just can't seem to make it happen, either does not believe deep down that they can or will lose weight, or cannot stop focusing on the reality: that they are still fat. When this is the case, when you give the present that much power and attention, it's impossible for something new and different to replace that perceived reality.

People overestimate the importance of perception. What you see is not what you have to get. Strategic thinking and creative action can be an amazingly powerful combination for transforming your life. This is surprisingly easier done than said. It requires minimal effort; in fact, any action or thought that feels like work is one that should be immediately dismissed. Life, the new "happiness" school of thought tells us, is not supposed to feel like work. Proponents of this philosophy advocate such pleasant axioms as:

-Being selfish is the best thing you can do for anyone else (because unless you are happy, you have little to offer other people)
-Doing and thinking what feels good should be everyone's number one priority
-Anything that feels bad is bad

While this recipe seems oddly simple, and in some ways it is, it won't work unless you understand the subtext. It does not mean that if you are at work, and you feel unhappy, you should quit. Rather, you should change your way of thinking. Says Eckhart Tolle, a leading spiritual teacher and author of A New Earth, "You are present when what you are doing is not primarily a means to an end - money, prestige, winning - but fulfilling in itself, when there is joy and aliveness in what you do. And of course, you cannot be present unless you become friendly with the present moment. That is the basis for effective action uncontaminated by negativity."

The point seems to be staying positive. Eckhart tells us that this isn't as hard as it sometimes seems when you realize that all you have to deal with and stay positive about is this one moment. Once you have that down, it doesn't seem so unrealistic to imagine a future filled with sunshine and rainbows.