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Jonathan_Graehl comments on Rational feelings: a crucial disambiguation - Less Wrong
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This is a misunderstanding of an important function of positive feelings, which is to motivate positive action, in anticipation of a result. Many outcomes can only be achieved by having the feeling in advance, that you can only expect "grounding" for afterwards.
In particular, if "times are tough", the worst thing you can possibly do is feel bad about it, since that is creating a positive feedback loop of negative expectation.
Feelings are intended to prepare current behavior in expectation of future outcomes; if you feel bad, your brain thinks you need to prepare for a negative outcome, and vice versa. The catch is that (at least at human-scale intelligence), these expectations have a significant self-fulfilling aspect.
My "good future prospects" definitely covers your "anticipation of a result".
Good point; I just was using a slightly different meaning of "anticipation" than the one implied by the context of, "grounded in reality - caused by perceiving ... good future prospects".
In that sense of "anticipation", the mental activity is passive -- perceiving that something good is already going to happen, by projecting from current circumstances.
In the sense I meant, the activity is active -- you intentionally create a sense of anticipation for something that has no "grounding in reality" and is not "caused by perceiving". (Indeed, in the ideal case, it is entirely ungrounded in current perceptual reality, so as to be based solely upon one's intentions.)