Positive Delusions: Do We Need Them to Reach Our Full Potential?

positive delusion

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Les Brown


No matter what you believe about yourself and your capabilities, at least part of it is probably full of crap.

Our beliefs are very flexible and subject to change on a whim. And our perception of ourselves is often just an exaggeration of what’s currently unfolding in our lives…

When something bad happens to us (like failing an exam), we might begin to believe, “I’m an idiot.” And when something good happens to us (like acing an exam), we might begin to believe, “I’m a genius.”

But if our beliefs about ourselves are so flexible and subject to change, how accurate are they?

In many ways, our beliefs are inherently delusional. We rarely have perfect information or perfect knowledge about ourselves or reality as a whole – so our minds help “fill in the blanks” and “make up a story” about ourselves that makes sense to us.

While these stories we tell ourselves are often “make believe,” they still have very real world consequences in our lives.