Lessons In Magical Thinking From The Pandemic
By: Kelly Roberts
Tags: Self Improvement, Covid 19, Growth, Personal Development, Productivity

Lessons In Magical Thinking From The Pandemic

Magical thinking may feel good, but it’s unproductive.

Magical thinking is interlaced throughout many conversations in modern society. Disney movies fill young imaginations with notions that dreams do come true by rubbing a magical lamp or discovering the existence of a fairy godmother wielding a magic wand. Tales of Santa Claus sliding down the chimney to deliver toys fill youngsters with the hope that merely writing down a list of desires will have them fulfilled.

These flights of fantasy linger long after we have outgrown our childish beliefs. In times of stress, even the least religious among us will pray for a miracle to alter the course of our lives. Thousands of people flock to self-help gurus who promote the idea that anything is possible through the Law of Attraction and positive thinking.

Even legitimate companies promote miracle solutions as a means to sell their goods and services. Staples invented the “Easy Button” to convey the idea that buying office supplies from them was exciting and magical. If only all of life’s problems could be solved with the push of a button.

We engage in magical thinking every time we wish things were different than they are and fail to act on reality instead of our desires. Wanting different circumstances isn’t bad. The longing for change is a healthy way to overcome adverse situations and to discover personal goals.

Problems arise when we fail to make the connection between the outcomes we desire and the work necessary to achieve those outcomes.

Faith without works is useless

No one is immune to magical thinking. The 45th President of the United States seems especially prone to steer the country using magical thinking instead of practical policy. From the early days of his campaign, he said that he would build a beautiful wall along the southern U.S. border and that Mexico would pay for it.

Mexico has paid nothing toward the small segment of the ineffective, incomplete, and over-budget wall built so far. It was pure fantasy to believe that another sovereign nation would offer to pay billions of dollars for a wall along our border. Naturally, American taxpayers are paying for the wall, in part, by funds diverted from other defense projects.

Repeating over and over again at rallies that Mexico would pay to build a wall made a nice election slogan, but nothing more. Slogans, manifestations, and dream boards are useless without a detailed plan for achieving those goals. Failure to plan and then to execute that plan will fail virtually every time.

The futility of magical thinking

Unfortunately, the President’s magical thinking is not only costing taxpayers billions of dollars; it is also costing them their lives. To date, 225,000 people have died — many unnecessarily — due to the COVID-19 outbreak and its handling by this Administration.

In January of 2020, Trump claimed about the virus: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

In February, Trump insisted: “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” The next day, Trump doubled down on his magical thinking and proclaimed: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

In hindsight, it is clear the President and his Administration did not have (and do not have) the virus under control.

In late October, as cases of daily infections of the virus break new records, Trump refuses to disengage from his magical thinking mindset and messaging. He now assures the public, “It will go away. [… W]e’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away.”

There is such a thing as keeping a positive outlook. You can even believe in the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction. I believe in all of them, but it does not work to hold that mindset without taking actions designed to create the desired outcome.

Positive thinking did not shield the President and his family from contracting the disease after Trump held a super-spreader event at the White House. Magical thought failed to prevent the virus from ravaging the staff at the White House.

Wearing masks and remaining socially distant stops the spread of the virus. The virus doesn’t care what you think about it or even how you talk about it.

Believing you can bend the world to your will by thoughts and proclamations is expecting to get something for nothing. It is wishing upon a shooting star without doing the work required to achieve your desired results.

Hidden wishful thinking

It’s easy to tell when we are wishing for results instead of working to produce them. But sometimes magical thinking is hidden behind our actions. When we have unrealistic expectations from the steps we take, we are still practicing magical thinking.

Success requires hard work, but working hard does not always translate into success. Believing that we deserve to be rewarded with our desired outcome simply because we have exerted effort is magical thinking. A combination of the correct actions usually taken over a prolonged period of time is required to obtain our desired results.

The wrong effort (no matter how strenuously taken) will never produce the desired results. Conversely, the correct actions taken over too short of a period will also fail to yield the outcome we seek.

We witnessed this form of magical thinking in action shortly after states and municipalities issued broad stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the virus. That was the correct action to take, as it had worked in other countries that practiced it. But before our new infection rates decreased to safe levels, Trump began to demand that the U.S. open up again, and many Republican governors obliged.

Instead of taking the correct actions long enough for them to be effective, the President wanted immediate results. He gave up and pivoted back to pretending like the pandemic is “magically” going away.

The U.S. has suffered the worst of both worlds by giving up on isolation too quickly. We suffered emotionally and economically by shutting down the economy, and because we re-opened too fast, we now lead the world in deaths and cases. We are now stuck with economic hardship and the virus, while other countries have returned to a far more typical lifestyle.

By expecting unrealistic results, we end up exerting the effort without reaping the benefits. That’s a lose-lose proposition that prolongs the efforts required to succeed and discourages us from taking future action.

Trump has also derided and scorned social distancing and the use of masks to stop the spread of the virus. The pandemic is inconvenient for Mr. Trump and his desire to be re-elected. He complains that it is unfair that the virus happened — this is yet more magical thinking.

Eliminating magical thinking

We study history to understand how we got to this point and to learn from past mistakes to alter our future behavior. Although we are still in the midst of the pandemic, we can learn from the history to date and incorporate those lessons into our lives today.

To stop the spread of the virus, the steps are simple. In general, the CDC recommends that you do the following:

Wash your hands frequently. Socially distance. Wear a mask. Cover coughs and sneezes. Clean and disinfect daily. Monitor your health daily for symptoms.

Looking for and eliminating magical thinking from your life is equally straight-forward.

Think about your life goals and build a list of practical actions that will produce the result you seek. Your plan does not have to be complicated. It can be a simple as the CDC’s list above to control COVID-19.

Then follow your steps daily while ruthlessly catching and eliminating any magical thinking about your goals and progress. It’s okay to dream, as long as you know that dreams rarely come true without your intervention.

Wishing or hoping that your circumstances will change without your intervention is unproductive. Just as the virus does not care about your thoughts or wishes, neither do your circumstances. Your circumstances do not listen to your wishes; they only respond to your actions.

It’s not that your thoughts do not matter. Your thoughts about your circumstances are essential because they impact you and the actions you take. Positive thinking allows you to continue pursuing your dreams when things get tough and you experience the urge to quit.

Stay positive, but stay grounded in action.