Please be a parody, please be a parody, PLEASE be a parody...

[Freeky]

Really? Oh.

Freeky,
Doesn't get this psychology crap.

As far as I can tell, the advice in the OP boils down to, "Good things will happen to you if you expect them to."

I'm thinking better advice would be something along the lines of, "Everything's gonna go to shit unless you get off your ass and do something about it."

Yeah.

[Disco Pickle]

OK, let's put it another way.  Conferences and seminars and books with these kind of advice are very common.  My dad recently had to buy two particular books espousing a similar philosophy to this, as part of his move to the lower end of upper management.

Now, ask yourselves how many of the people who attend these conferences, read these books and attend these seminars end up truly rich?  As far as I can see, the only people getting rich are the people selling this kind of "service".

I'll play devil's advocate a bit here.  While you're right that a small percentage of these people end up rich, I have to call foul on the implication that that's the sole purpose of that sort of book.  Dale Carnegie's books had and continue to have use in helping salesmen be better salesmen and managers be better managers of the people who work under them, but to say that books like "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" doesn't answer an obvious need in society for adults to continue learning better ways to manage their life (and for many, books like this are their first lessons if their parents were just not ever involved) is disingenuous IMO.

I'd even go as far to suggest that in an age where face to face social interaction is increasingly less frequent in newer generations, that books and courses like these will be even more valuable.

wanting to be successful at life and crisis management will give you a good foundation to allow people to become rich if that's their goal, but you can want to be a successful (whatever that means to you) human without wanting to be rich, and ideas like these can help people who otherwise have no teachers.

[LMNO]

Really? Oh.

Freeky,
Doesn't get this psychology crap.

As far as I can tell, the advice in the OP boils down to, "Good things will happen to you if you expect them to."

I'm thinking better advice would be something along the lines of, "Everything's gonna go to shit unless you get off your ass and do something about it."

Yeah.

Having lived both sides of it however, the first one makes you feel a lot better, on average.

[Freeky]

But see, I DO agree with a lot of this, in terms of the "chase your dreams" aspect. Tightened up, a few things subtracted, and a few things added in, it could easily say "Hey, you can accomplish things, but it's going to take hard fucking work and a lot of determination." Or is that the same thing?

[Freeky]

Really? Oh.

Freeky,
Doesn't get this psychology crap.

As far as I can tell, the advice in the OP boils down to, "Good things will happen to you if you expect them to."

I'm thinking better advice would be something along the lines of, "Everything's gonna go to shit unless you get off your ass and do something about it."

Yeah.

Having lived both sides of it however, the first one makes you feel a lot better, on average.

Yeah, I can see that easily. The pessimism is more realistic, though.

[LMNO]

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't feel like pessimism.

"Going to Shit" is a natural state.  Pessimism to me would be "Everything's gonna go to shit, no matter what you do about it."

[Freeky]

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't feel like pessimism.

"Going to Shit" is a natural state.  Pessimism to me would be "Everything's gonna go to shit, no matter what you do about it."

I guess that's true. It's still realistic (and depressing).

[LMNO]

It's SCIENCE! 
     \








No, really.  It's science.  Entropy, and all that.

[AFK]

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't feel like pessimism.

"Going to Shit" is a natural state.  Pessimism to me would be "Everything's gonna go to shit, no matter what you do about it."

I guess that's true. It's still realistic (and depressing).

I think of it more as empowerment.  This nicely dovetails into BIP and TFY,S

Even if the world is going to shit around you, you can at least try to build a forcefield for you and your family, and maybe, just maybe make it big enough to encompass a good chunk of your world. 

We can't kill The Machine, but maybe if we can change a cog here and there, we can at least make a slight shift in its navigation.  Or at the very least, make the part of The Machine we live in a little more lubricated for smoother and safer action. 

[Disco Pickle]

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't feel like pessimism.

"Going to Shit" is a natural state.  Pessimism to me would be "Everything's gonna go to shit, no matter what you do about it."

I guess that's true. It's still realistic (and depressing).

I think of it more as empowerment.  This nicely dovetails into BIP and TFY,S

Even if the world is going to shit around you, you can at least try to build a forcefield for you and your family, and maybe, just maybe make it big enough to encompass a good chunk of your world. 

We can't kill The Machine, but maybe if we can change a cog here and there, we can at least make a slight shift in its navigation.  Or at the very least, make the part of The Machine we live in a little more lubricated for smoother and safer action.