Deluded

I delude myself quite a lot.

This is only an issue for me and not anyone else because I don't let anyone know about these things that I'm thinking.

And its only an issue because I'm forever disappointed when my dream of a brighter future turns out to be a delusion.

I think it's because I'm childlike in my thinking.

Can delusional thinking be because of a childlike approach to the world?

Years ago when my kids were small I caught them digging a hole in the garden. When I asked them what the ###$ they were doing digging up the grass, they told me, with great enthusiasm, that they were digging to Australia.

As is usual with kids, they had a basic notion of how the world was made, but without the experience and understanding to realise at the outset what the logistics entailed.

I told them to carry on, but warned them that if they started to see water in the hole, it meant that they'd missed and hit the sea. It was enough for them to stop but with a level of accomplishment. So we made the hole bigger, lined it and turned it into a fish pond.

There is a grown up and useful version of these types of delusion, called visualisation. If you can take your delusion and structure it better to be realistic, it can help focus the mind to accomplish something by influencing your sub-conscious behaviour.