Geeeze mate, I think you've nailed it there...some spot on advice I reckon.
Have you ever heard the old saying "I'll believe it when I see it?"
Well try phrasing that the other way round, like "I'll see it when I believe it."
Positive thinking and a confident approach are important to many aspects of life & play and work...not to mention sports & hobbies etc etc.
You'll have a greater chance of fishing success by thinking in terms of "when" you are going to catch your next fish as opposed to "if" you're going to catch one.
OK, now back to the jointed rapala thread:
A while back I was on a 4 day PNG fishing trip with a mate and he had one jointed Rapala lure in his tackle box in amongst about a hundred stiffies. He decided to give it a try and he began to have regular hook-ups (both on barra & bass) when the stiffs couldn't show the goods.
We had a couple of rods each on the go and my mate kept that jointed rapala on over the whole weekend until eventually a fish got the better of him and the jointed rapala went to meet its maker in the depths of a Fly River tributary.
All he talked about the whole of the next day was that jointed rapala and the fact that he couldn't remember where he got it from and didn't know the name of that particular model. But he was definately going to get a replacement...so in other words, yes they do work. His model would have been around 14cm.