Borges taught me that when undertaking any difficult task, it is best to imagine myself as having already have done it. I think he referred to it as imposing the future upon oneself. "Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures."

If the path is not fixed, a person can become lost among the forks, strolling down paths of a time not quite their own. This is not a literal thing, except as it occurs in a mind. The absent-minded, dreamers, artists, and the mad are resisting the Now. It is untenable; the Now demands much.

I think about good ideas and bad ideas and how, at first, they can indistinguishable. When the chosen course reaches its resolution, then we can sit back and say "Well that was a bad idea."

Supposedly making an attempt is always a good idea.

Sleep will find me soon. That is the proper time to explore the other forks. See what could have happened. Dreams are not prophetic. People have believed them so on occasions when the paths do not seem to differ. But they always differ, although it is not apparent. Every dream is of the way the Now didn't happen.

Difficult tasks lie ahead. So I will sleep and dream and prepare myself as best I can. I will push away fear because fear is not useful. I'm always afraid of the wrong thing anyway.