The Allure of Wishful Thinking
A lesson from Elon Musk that applies to life.
When going down the internet rabbit hole one day, I stumbled across a video of Elon Musk (you know, the eccentric dude who sends people to the moon and makes pretty cars) discussing wishful thinking.
One of the biggest mistakes people generally make, and I’m guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You know, like you want something to be true, even if it isn’t true. You ignore the real truth, because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid.
It pierced my heart. Running with wishful thinking has been my life’s MO. To my defense, reading stories like Cinderella which predicate on the belief that “a wish is a dream your heart makes” fueled this idea. Someone at Disney taught me to wish upon a star, dammit.
When I get a loose eyelash, I still make a wish on it. I don’t think it’s provided any measurable success and yet, I continue to do it.
Wishful thinking is like the thrill of a lottery ticket. During a window of time (whether it’s one day or one lifetime), rational thinking is replaced with a beat of a heart and a hope that something important will happen. Whether it’s plausible or not is irrelevant.
