A lot of this stuff goes back to Norman Vincent Peale and the positive thinking movement. I believe it's a good thing to be positive, visualize positive outcomes, and then work for those outcomes systematically. Also, I think it's a good thing to keep other positive people in our lives.

The philosophy can be carried to an extreme when a person starts to blame herself for not "doing it right." For example, a study was done of cancer patients who believed they ought to be able to cure themselves and then, when there was no remission, blamed themselves for not thinking right and doing it right. This is not at all useful.

Some psychologists and philosophers say this is the point where we start to use magical thinking, the notion that all we have to do is think a thing, a visualize it, and it's going to happen.

In sum, dominic, don't beat yourself up for not doing it right. After all, that's just more negative thinking.

I hope all this makes sense and that I haven't stepped on any virtual toes.