One can understand the motive behind our tendency to construct hypothetical scenarios in our thought. When we are constructing hypothetical scenarios we are trying to predict the future so that we can achieve a particular result we take to be good for us.
Hypothetical thought therefore is an understandable and often necessary endeavor. We must realize though that hypothetical thought has consequences.
The danger of hypothetical thought can be illustrated by understanding the two mutually enabling conditions that underpin it, fear and a focus on outcomes. The first and most obvious condition which sits behind our tendency to construct realities in our thought is a focus on outcomes. When we are fixated on achieving a particular result it is only natural for us to construct possible scenarios to predict the future so that we can control the outcome, i.e. to engage in hypothetical thought.
The problem with this endeavor however is that it creates fear. When we are fixated on achieving a result and construct possibilities in our mind to control the outcome, it is inevitable that we envision scenarios in which we fail to achieve the desired result. Given the power of our hypothetical thought we will be able to construct innumerable possibilities, many or perhaps most of them are failures or even catastrophic. The only possible response to these negative possibilities is fear.
Fear and results focus are mutually enabling. When we are fearful we will tend to focus on and try to control the outcome and hence engage in hypothetical thinking. When we are focused on controlling the outcome we will envision the possibility of failure which will cause fear. We see then that both fear and trying to control outcomes sucks us out of reality into the realm of the hypothetical where there is no contentment, only the recognition of possibilities, many of which involve failure.
It is clear then that we should endeavor to avoid trying to control outcomes. This means then that we must endeavor as much as possible to focus solely on process and to forgo control over the outcome, i.e. to give attention to the moment that we are in and the thing we are currently occupied with doing.
The ability to focus on process requires trust. In fact trust and the focus on process are mutually enabling. In order to focus on process we must forgo control over outcomes. To do so requires trust. We must trust that everything is going to turn out best for us in order to be able to set aside our fixation on the result we are trying to achieve and give attention to the process of getting there.
In the event that we do manage to focus solely on process, and the process in fact results in what is good for us, then we will more readily trust. So we see that trust and focus on process are mutually enabling. Focus on process requires trust but it also enables it.
When we are focused on process we are no longer engaged in hypothetical thinking. We are no longer constructing false realities which detach us from our current experience. We have a responsibility to ourselves to spend as much time as possible living our lives rather than constructing lives and worlds in our thought. To do this we require trust.