Imagination
I think is the key to many people's problems.
Whenever we have a real problem, it is usually in the meaning of things.
But in their essence, things don't have any meaning.
It's us who make the meaning.
That means that if we don't like the meaning, the central path within our response-ability is to imagine an increasingly preferable one.
And I think people underestimate (or intuitively know) how short this path is and are therefore content with taking lots and lots of side-paths.
It is completely fine to occasionally think yourself into something that you'd like to be true, even if, after a few seconds of pondering over it, it seems infinitely unlikely and you find a simpler explanation.
It is also fine to occasionally imagine a future scenario that seems incredibly far away. After a while of thinking how improbable it seems it is true in some sense.