So D.J. Kirkbride mentioned the book The Secret. And he went on to say “It’s like the power of positive thinking…” to which I replied:

If you repeat things long enough you can fool yourself. So if you think “I want to work out” long enough until you convince yourself that you actually do want to work out, it might work. “I want to fly by spinning my four foot cock like a helicopter blade” will simply take longer, is all.

So there you go. The power of positive thinking explained.