Do The Wise Waste Time Thinking?

I was sitting in my chair earlier just thinking and a thought entered my head, "I should be down throwing some laundry in the washer." And then another thought, "I should be working on the next workbook." I started to think about how just sitting and thinking was wasting so much time that I could honestly use for more useful and more productive things. I almost got up and started getting busy. But, I stayed right where I was seated and grabbed my laptop to blog this thinking time.

Because that's what I'm doing right now. I am thinking.

I wonder: Do we not spend enough time thinking about things before deciding our next course of action when we have a decision in direction to take?

Do we not spend enough time thinking about our attitudes when we have suffered a loss or been hurt by someone or something?

Do we not spend enough time thinking about how we can change the course of our lives?

Do we spend time wishing and hoping and praying for what we want without time to think about how we can get it if we'd just realistically "try" to grasp it? (Newsflash: most of the time what we have asked for is right in front of us if we'd just be brave enough to grasp it.)

Do we spend too little time thinking about our futures and how to take the blessings we have right now and make sure they are bigger, better, and more precious to us in the future?

Ok, so I could go on and on. And so I sit here and think about how if I get up and move on to those tasks before I've allowed myself ample time to sit, reflect, ponder, and just think about what is going on in my life right now and how this stuff before me "fits" into my future and whether or not it really means anything to me at all, I realized that what I need to do is keep sitting here.

I am not done processing the information in my head. I need time to think about it all: facts, people, conversations, emails, and all of the stuff surrounding this one thing. I need to think about the past and how this came to fruition. I need to think about the present and what it means to me now and how I should treat it. And then I need to think about the future, and make sure it's something I either want to continue to grow because it has value to me, or whether it's something that wasn't that meaningful from the get-go. In order to figure this out, I need time to process it all and hopefully engage in some discussions over my thoughts once I'm finished thinking.

The circumstances of what I'm talking about aren't important for this blog. But, what is important is the fact that while I sat here and thought about how the thinking was keeping me from doing anything productive, I realized that for today and today only, it is exactly what I need to do.

It is wise for a man (or woman) to take the time to think things through to be certain of his/her plans. But, is it a fool who becomes certain of his desires and never does anything to obtain them if they are good for him? Wise thinking requires thought followed by action. Otherwise, nothing in life would ever change and that would defeat the point of trying to change it. Just something to think about.

Thinking isn't always wasting time, but thinking all the time can be.

It depends on what you do with the outcome.