Traditionally, jinxes have been an acknowledged superstition of Timicism. As it says in the Book of Timicism 3.0:
Jinxes: If you want to insure that something will never happen, think and talk about it a lot. If there's something you really want, just spend all your time obsessing about it; it will surely never come true. Whatever scenario you act out in your head for any given situation, the reality will always be different. If you plan for something, it won't happen, or not like you planned it. This goes for positive and negative scenarios. If your overactive imagination plans for the worst-case scenario, it won't happen, either. Misfortune, just like fortune, sneaks up on you.
I've always had a superstitious imagination. If I imagined something good happening (motivational gurus call this "visualization"), then I was convinced it would never happen. I would be jinxing it, and then I'd feel like a fool for ever thinking it was possible. And even if it did happen, it would never look like it did in my imagination, so it would be a disappointment.
My solution to this was to try as hard as I could to NOT think about possibilities. If there was something I really wanted (which almost always involved getting with a girl I was crushing on) I would do everything I could to NOT visualize it. Because if I visualized it, I believed I guaranteed its failure.
The Timicist position was to keep your expectations low and you won't get disappointed. That way, you're not crushed when the thing you really want doesn't happen.
I was trying to tell a friend about this recently, and she didn't understand my reasoning. Why not visualize good things? What's the worst that will happen if they don't come true? Why keep yourself from thinking good thoughts? And at least you have the good feelings that come with the visualization, even if it never comes true.
Per usual, I was defiant and kept trying to argue my position. But she planted the seed of an idea in me, and after much thinking, I realized she had a point. Why was I so afraid to imagine good things? Has this strategy actually kept me from getting disappointed?
The thing is, the "jinx" superstition doesn't even hold up to analysis. I can think of two significant times in my life where I imagined something wonderful happening, and it DID happen. And it didn't lead to a disappointment once it turned into reality. It was actually the opposite: the fantasy enhanced the reality. Because the reality is never exactly like the fantasy, so it's amazing and wonderful to see how it plays out in real life. Real things are 100 times better than fantasies, merely by the fact that they're real. Fantasies can't touch them.
It doesn't make sense to say visualizing things jinxes them, except when they don't.
So I'm officially revising theTimicist position on jinxes. Go ahead and let your imagination run wild. Even if you're a fool for getting ahead of yourself, it's better to be a fool with happy fantasies than a one who lets fear of a superstition rule his life.
Luxuriate in all the possibilities. When something you might have "jinxed" does indeed happen, it will be way better and more surprising than anything you can fantasize about.
Of course, as with everything, balance is key. Don't spend your whole life in fantasy, and don't make huge decisions based on empty hope, but also don't let fear prevent you from thinking of all the wonderful possibilities life offers.
