what-if versus what-now thoughts

What percentage of our daily thoughts are what-if thoughts -- as opposed to what-now thoughts?

What if I go after that job? (And then you fantasize about yourself in that job, and this goes on and on ...).

What if I told that person off? (And then you imagine his/her response ... and a whole conversation ensues... all in your head).

What if so-and-so is out of my life; then what? (And then you figure out then what ... and it gets really elaborate).

What if I go buy that thing? (And then you count your pennies, imagine convincing your wife ... maybe you do need a higher-paying job ... yada yada).

What if ... what if ...?

Many of us are virtuosos at what-if thinking: we can play multiple what-if themes at one time. It's like a poor man's Mozart symphony or something.

All in our heads.

On the other hand, what-now thoughts are those dealing with actual matters on the table.

Here is a true confession: for as many academic papers as I work on ... it is the hardest thing to focus on what to say in the next paragraph of any of these papers.

It's a lot easier thinking what-if thoughts about how great a paper will be when it's published.

I'm imagining myself famous ... but I have no clue what-now to say after the opening paragraph ...

Logos2Go

James 4.13-17 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.