This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

There's so much in our popular culture about the power of positive thinking.

We're often told to follow our hearts, to dream big.

You can have, do, or be anything you want.

Whatever belief you hold in your subconscious mind will become your reality, bottom line.

Value yourself and believe in yourself.

Because believing that the dots will connect down the road

will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.

But now, research a Gabrielle Eddie and says, maybe we should all dream a little smaller.

Positive fantasies and daydreams as pleasurable they are, they have a problem

when it comes to fulfilling our wishes and attaining our gold.

Gabrielle is a professor at New York University, an author of the book

rethinking positive thinking inside the new science of motivation.

She's from Germany and she said growing up, no one told her to shoot for the stars.

I was raised in Europe and the idea of big dreams, big hopes was if a doll more implicit than explicit.

When she came to the United States though, Gabrielle noticed a real cultural difference.

When I came to America, it was wonderful because people always said, yes, do it.

That's possible.

This is a good idea. Why don't you do it?

Whereas back in Europe people were more cautious and said, are you sure you want to do this?

Are you sure this is possible?

So I was really happy to come to America because people were just encouraging whatever idea you had.

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