Need help with reality checks

So I'm very new at this. Like, found out about it two days ago new.

I'm focusing on performing reality checks a few times an hour. I do a few different ones, such as double taking at a clock, attempting to push my thumb through my palm, questioning how I got to my location, and counting my fingers.

I've read around and all the RC guides seem to be somewhat the same, so here's my issue....

I feel as if I'm performing an RC for the hell of it. When I attempt to push my thumb through my palm, I don't really expect I can do it. I always try to think "Next time I am dreaming, I will realize I am dreaming" after I perform an RC, but I don't feel as if I'm doing it right.

I guess what I mean is, I don't feel as if I have the right mindset? What do I do?

For those starting out I suppose it seems a little silly. But once you do your first reality check that confirms you are dreaming, suddenly it wont seem so silly. It is hard to imagine you can think you are awake, and yet be dreaming, but it is true. I would say to at least give intellectual consent to the fact that there is a slim chance you could be dreaming, and you are just confirming you are indeed awake. After you do LD for the first time, it will be easier to consider you may indeed be dreaming. But personally I think random RCs are not the best. Study your dreams and see what dream signs are common for you and RC when that or something similar occurs in real life. Also RC if something weird or outlandish occurs. Two nights ago I saw a giant bird in a dream...I thought "thats kinda weird" and did an RC and confirmed I was dreaming. Now, that obviously is not something that occurs in real life so you cant RC that for real life practice. But once I was trying to screw in a screw and kept dropping it maybe 8 times. I did an RC then thinking "thats weird". Well, that time I was awake but it prepares you for stuff like "wow, that talking dog is kinda weird" and then you will RC and see you are dreaming.

You need to change your mindset. I know that is easier said than done, and alas there really is no method that you can memorize, no trick that will get you to do it. What you need to be able to do is to tell yourself "This could be a dream." And you need to be able to believe it. Because if you do not believe that this could be a dream right now, you are not going to believe it in a dream either, and you will be wrong, but you will not be able to be convinced because you will not trust that this could be a dream.

It does not come natural to us to question reality. Our natural mindset is to always believe that whatever we experience is real. And that includes flying elephants when we encounter them. Our natural tendency not to question reality is so strong that we will look at those flying elephants and rationalize them: the circus must be in town, oh my gosh I am going to be famous if only I can get a photo of those flying elephants and get it authenticated then everyone will know that I am the first human to ever see a flying elephant, etc. Our mind will use whatever rationalization it can to hold on to the illusion that it is experiencing reality even if it is not. And if we are not willing to believe that this moment right now could be a dream, then how come we believe that the flying elephant is real? After all shouldn't it be much easier to believe that I am dreaming than to believe that elephants can fly? unfortunately, at the time when I encounter the flying elephants my mind may be impaired because it is asleep and thus not fully able to access all logic and reason. So the only way that this impaired mind will be capable of conceiving of the notion that the most logical explanation is that it is a dream is if that thought has occurred to me before in waking life because otherwise it will be a coin toss between what my impaired mind considers more likely: that elephants can fly or that I can be dreaming right now.

So your goal is to change your mindset to increase the odds that your mind will decide that this is a dream is a more likely explanation. How do you convince yourself of this? You know how you believe stuff and become convinced of something better than I do because you know yourself, so surely you can figure out a way to convince yourself.

Joanna raises a good point about the impaired brain. At the risk of providing too much information, let me just say that I had a couple of "accidents" after dreaming that I was using a toilet. I decided from then on to do a reality check every time I walk up to a toilet. One day, I went up to a toilet and decided to perform the reality check that involves reading some text, looking away, and then looking back to see if the words or font have changed. (In a dream, it's usually pretty hard for your brain to maintain font and text.) So before doing my "business," I looked around to see if there was anything to read. There was a sign that read, "Weight limit 1000 lbs." I looked away, looked back, and then read it again. It hadn't changed at all, so I thought I was good to go - no pun intended - and was just about to unzip. Then I stopped myself and said, "Wait a minute! Who puts a urinal in an elevator!" It was then that I woke up. It was very hard for me to overcome the dream logic that an elevator is quite a normal, private spot for the placement of a urinal.

Thanks very much for the help everyone!!

Treat reality checks as opportunities to practice your dream power. Before I look at a clock the second time, I try to change it ahead an hour and three minutes. I'm not checking to see if the time remained the same, I'm checking to see if the time changed. This is all a very subtle difference. I'm assuming I'm already in a dream when I perform a reality check, so therefore I should be able to change the time. Basically the difference between your RCs and my RCS is that your simply checking, but I'm doing and checking.

Right before I open my school backpack, I am expecting a bunny to be there because I want a bunny to there, NOT my depressing calculus book. While reading the ingredients of a Snickers, I'm looking for tomatoes or spinach on the label, NOT the usual peanuts and caramel. I never expect normality, I always expect abnormality.

ALWAYS ASSUME YOU'RE DREAMING.

Philosophic, I totally empathize with you. I'm fairly new to Ld living, but I have had my first two DILds in the last week or so after a solid month of RCs, reading, dream journal ing, etc. Before I had them I felt it was hard to say "I'm dreaming!" when I truly felt I was in waking life. Then, in my second DILD, before i became lucid, I was in a puzzling (but not flying elephant bizarre) situation (couldn't pick up some things I'd dropped), and I thought in the dream, "oh, this is one of those times you're supposed to check to see if you're dreaming..." and I was instantly lucid! I was shocked as I became lucid, I really didn't think I was dreaming beforehand. For me, it seems the magic word now is dreaming, I don't even need to RC (and haven't yet!, either time). So the important thing is to force yourself to do a serious (really try hard to convince yourself, don't make any assumptions) evaluation of reality, at random times and in response to situations that work for you (surprising, bizarre, startling, etc). Developing this habit will eventually seep into your dreams and you will become lucid. Again for me, it seemed less "fake" to question myself like "where an I? Why am I here? How did I get here? Why do I think I'm awake?". But now that I see the power of the word "dream(ing)" to get me lucid, I have no problem at all starting out with "I'm dreaming!". I say "I'm dreaming as much as I can during the day now, with feeling, and incorporate the "where? Why? How? " questions after that.
Once you make the first few Lucids you can analyze what scenarios, thoughts and words work for you