“Just fake it till you make it” are perhaps the most damaging motivational words ever spoken, yet positive-mental-attitude gurus continue to urge their students to adhere to this childish philosophy.

In real life, you cannot acquire a positive mental attitude simply by standing in front of a mirror and reciting self-energizing slogans, force-feeding your mind with positive thoughts, or heartily shaking people’s hands and loudly exclaiming, “Great!” when someone asks you how things are going.

There’s no question that a positive mental attitude is important to a person’s success, but a true positive mental attitude can be attained only through hard work and preparation. You develop a positive mental attitude by being good at your craft, by understanding the realities of what it takes to succeed, and by having the self-discipline to base your actions on those realities.

If anyone tries to tell you that a positive mental attitude is possible simply by feeding your mind positive thoughts, make sure you don’t buy whatever self-help course he’s selling, because it won’t work. What will work is making yourself a more valuable person, and that costs nothing.