kat... *grin*..."your bit about "I think" reminds me of a phrase my old sales manager came up with when asking us for our sales projections..."

Yep... I worked briefly in a software company where we were asked annually to 'project' what we would 'accomplish' in the next year. It was a given that the 'benchmarks' and 'targets' were little more than psychological carrot hanging in front of us donkeys....but no one ever admitted this out loud.
I see the point in "positive thinking", but I found I simply could not work in a business where artificial goals were constantly created, like 'the Emperor's new clothes' and treated as reasonable plans, when EVERYONE knew that almost all target goals slipped.

Unfortunately, in business, politics....and religion... much of the structure seems to depend on self-deception in order to have the will to struggle on in the face of the obvious impracticability of much of it. (Like the mortgage crisis happened in business)