Do you think you could change your life by changing the way you think?

I always wonder if I was a little bit smarter, wiser, and charismatic that…

Absolutely!
Attitude is everything!

After duty in a couple of The Middle East’s worst shitholes (Trump’s insult notwithstanding) I had symptoms of PTSD. Had some social problems, drank too much, tendency to violence.

I talked to a shrink for a few hours and found out how my thinking was a problem.

Worked on it, did positive stuff, stayed focused and now I am happier than the proverbial pig in shit.

I am not talking about self delusion. That’s a disease.

It is simply a matter of being as objective as possible, and not being a victim of excessive subjectivity.

Yes! How you frame things is extremely important.

It depends. Sometimes people have to witness or experience a revelation that emotionally moves them to change their beliefs.

Here’s an example of something like that that dramatically changed my best friend’s boyfriend’s ideas about being a vegetarian. Me and my best friend had been vegetarians long before she met him and started dating. He knew what it meant, and what it entailed. One day (this is now about 15 years ago) they were driving on a freeway in Los Angeles and witnessed a terrible traffic accident in which a truck full of live ducks was being transported to a slaughter house. A lot of the cages got hit by cars, and many of the animals were killed in the road, right in front of him. He became a vegetarian that day, and has been ever since. It was the emotional tragedy of the experience, that made him put his factual ideas about how animals are treated, with his visceral emotional response.

In other situations, people can change their own thinking by be willing to engage in the old adage “fake it till you make it.”

Imagine someone who goes to the doctor, and finds out that they have high cholesterol, they know they are overweight, but the doctor tells them that they are borderline obese, and because of that they are also pre-diabetic. The doctor suggests cutting out meat, and cheese, and highly processed foods, and refined sugar. So the patient starts a vegetarian or vegan diet, and ends up losing some weight, and feeling better. When the patient goes to the doctor again, the test numbers look much improved. The patient decides he wants to continue being a vegetarian.

These two situations are different, although the result (in this case, becoming a vegetarian) are different, but the motivation came from very different places, and because of very different experiences.

Yes, and it has.

Yes.
“Watch your thoughts, they become words;
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

As we say in the rooms, one can take actions to get you to right thinking, but you cannot think your way to right actions.

The change comes from doing, not thinking.

Sure, you can do anything if you just put your mind to it.

Simply through the power of your mind you can change a glass that is half empty into one that is half full.

I did it years ago.

A couple of years ago my son,who was in his later 20s, said something about a glass being half empty.
I said, “You do know that makes you a pessimist, you know.”
He said, “Not if you don’t like what’s in it!”