Obsessions

There are particular subjects that I tend to obsess over for a few weeks at a time before I shift gears and obsess over the next thing.

During those few weeks or so, my brain is on fire.  My intentions on doing the thing I'm obsessing over consumes me - I listen to podcasts about it, read articles about it, see what Google has to say about it, deviate meticulous plans and prepare myself mentally for it.

Recently it's been about minimalism.  So I got rid of bags and bags full of clothes.  Then it was all about going on a sugar detox - again, I researched, made plans, and reduced (not eliminated) sugar from my diet for fifteen out of the thirty days that I intended to.

Whatever the endeavor, it seems to be all about improving myself in some way.  A worthy way to spend my energy, I must say.  There's nothing wrong with wanting to clear the clutter from my life or to get healthier - these are wonderful things to obsess over, right?

Obsessing can often have a negative connotation though. Typically, it's not healthy to obsess over one thing.  After all, life is all about balance.  For example, obsessing over my health (orthorexia) could have adverse effects if I try so hard to be perfect that I actually worsen my health due to stressing out over it.  Or if my obsession becomes more important than the people around me.

But I actually want to talk about obsession as a good thing.  As a matter of fact, I believe we can go deeper, further, with our obsessions - that's where true change can happen.

You see, once these endeavors got hard or I failed, I switched it up and found something else new and exciting, something else I can be hopeful for, to look forward to.  The old thing got hard.  The new thing however, really gives me that hit of dopamine my brain craves so much.  It's still a pretty, little pipe dream.

There's something about failure that I think we're all still afraid of.  No one wants to feel like a failure so as soon as we fail at something, we tend to gravitate toward something that we can't fail at - something abstract like a dream or an idea.

Maybe when things get hard, we can find excitement in our pursuit to overcome the challenge.  When we fail, it just means that we can find new ways of getting where we need to go.

Next time you're tempted to jump ship on something you've spent so much of your time and mental energy pursing, ask yourself what got you excited about it in the first place.

Rekindle the obsession and drudge through the hard parts.  It's okay if you discover later that you're no longer passionate about it, but just give it a chance so that you're not beating yourself up later in life, regretting why you never went for it.  

Let's take our obsessions to the next level and finally discover what's on the other side of that road block.