Wishful thinking is like a drug. It is a bubble you create around yourself, in which everything is fine and everything will turn out alright.
Wishful thinking is the easy way. It keeps you lifeless and inactive, in times when you should move and act.
Wishful thinking is different from being an optimist. An optimist looks at the evidence and reality of the situation. Even if the situation looks bad at times, the optimist envisions a positive outcome after all. This gives him the necessary power to act, not give up, and move towards this positive outcome, even though he is well aware of the severity of the situation.
The wishful thinker, on the other hand, cannot or does not want to see the reality of a given situation. Instead, the wishful thinker wittingly or unwittingly suppresses reality. This creates an optimism bias in which wishful thinkers expect positive outcomes despite such expectations having no basis in reality.
The optimist faces the hardness of reality and acts. The wishful thinker downplays or ignores reality and procrastinates. If he acts, he is prone to overlook important details, which can lead to a vicious circle of unintended consequences.
Ask yourself whether you are facing reality or fall into the fallacy of wishful thinking.
Look beyond the information you habitually consume. Examine sources which you may find uncomfortable to read. Read at what is sold to you as fake news or conspiracies. Search for information outside your country, and your language.
It is possible that everything you wish to be true is not.
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