Good stuff.
Versions of this come up a lot- positive thinking or 'the secret,' pretty much all the same flavor. Perhaps repeating myself but what the hell -- in my experience the ONLY thing that "works" is you. If you are willing to actually confront your current self, life, views, where you are hiding, what is *truly* motivating your surface level desires, all that good stuff, you will do it. If you can put seeing things as they are above clinging to fantasies, and growth / truth above pain avoidance, then you get there-- which of course is a shift of perception and relationship, not of actually getting anywhere different. Noone can say how long it will take or how arduous it will be or not - but the willingness must be genuine.
If you are coming from that place, even the most ridiculously stupid method you've ever heard of can 'work' - because it's just a smokescreen for you actually being present with yourself and utilizing your own inner resources. You will find some actual, 'legit' success stories from even the most batshit insane techniques you've ever heard of, because you can't see someone's inner experience. It's just a fallacy to say the technique worked or didn't work. The person worked and the technique happened to focus them. Take 5 of us from this forum and tell us to visualize something, and you could have entirely different universes going on inside even though all might say the same term: i visualized. One could escape into fantasy, one could actually trigger himself, one could do something and get very inspired and then go do some actual work.
Notice how you could use something like looking at your current 'story' as an actual form of self introspection, and could use what you think your ideal one would be as a way to probe into those desires-- are they things I genuinely want to create as a man in my vision for my life or are they just trivial things I think will feel some void or make me look cool, and if so what's underneath that. Like eldora has obviously found ways to take the idea of it and apply it to him successfully in some aspect. As far as I'm concerned this is the only way to apply anything, and there's no need to force it if it doesn't resonate with you in the first place.
Of course, it's easiest to sell, both to people for $, and to your own inner system which likes to move towards pleasure and away from pain (actual work) to turn it into some ridiculous manifestation technique. Say it out loud and it happens!! Just keep telling yourself you are the man and everyone loves you, bro! Don't worry about all the stuff that comes up when you get within 100 yards of that thought that you may actually need to deal with. As Rolan said - the resolution of which would be more likely to make you not feel the need to be telling yourself this in the first place.
This is completely taking all of your authority away from yourself and bestowing it onto a technique - saying it either works or doesn't work. Maybe you do it, and it psychs you up a little bit to go work on a project - cool, take that for what it is and use it, or don't.
Oh no Zogler, that's just a limiting belief.. if you say it enough times and learn to BELIEVE it then you WILL be a linebacker for the 49ers!!
The way these techniques are often presented give people a sense of control -- not healthy responsibility and acceptance of the nature of reality, but a sense of CONTROL: make *that* girl like you, make everyone like you, have unlimited $$ and chicks etc - this is the way.
This is why if you challenge some hardcore followers of this stuff they will react like a fundamentalist christian. Even if they have not had any actual results for years, don't you dare challenge this idea that this is going to make it all perfect one day.
It even can sound so logical when you start throwing in crap about your 'subconscious mind' and beliefs. Except you can deeply, truly believe at the core that a bear won't kill you, like that documentary - and it doesn't change the actual nature of the bear.
These techniques can also create a completely protected system. "Oh, you just have a limiting belief about this work. If you change your story to one that says it works, then it will work." - There are other more spiritually oriented approaches that have the same thing. You can't have a real conversation because "well that too is just a belief/story and you can change that."
The thing that makes it the most dangerous as that there IS some truth in it - it's just far from the full picture.
Believe it or not, back in the day when I first heard stuff, pretty much all Brent Smith talked about was letting go of all attachment, becoming so comfortable in your own skin and your own company that you literally don't care if anyone ever gives you any attention again. He would recommend books more in the spiritual vein that were about non-attachment and such. There were no catch phrases (except 'indifference' was used a lot), not this big thing around story as the key to life..
fascinating the directions things go in..