What should you expect to accomplish in a month of productive obsessing? Not everything; but something real. You should expect to feel yourself move from wish-and-worry to thoughtful action. You should move beyond trying to choose a worthy obsession to choosing one and committing to it. You should experience the felt sense that there is something beautiful and magical about attending to real work. Will you get to the top of your mountain in a month’s time? Probably not. But it is excellent to have a mountaintop as a goal and to expect to rise to such heights.
Let’s say that you love to hike in the mountains but rarely go hiking. You start the productive obsession program and set as your grand goal climbing a famous peak. It wouldn’t surprise anyone, yourself included, if you failed to achieve your lofty goal in a single month, given that you haven’t been hiking for years. But what if setting the goal at that lofty height provided exactly the spark to get you hiking again? Is it a success or a failure if you do not make it to the top of Mount Everest by the end of the month but do go hiking three times a week in your own neighborhood? That would be three weekly hikes more than you were enjoying before you began the program. How can that not be considered a success?
You do not need to clear your calendar in order to begin: you couldn’t clear your calendar even if you wanted to. You do not need to quit your day job, wait for your nine-year-old to begin college, or get the buy-in of your busy mate. You do not need to clean cobwebs out of the corners of the basement or buy a productive obsession outfit. There are some things you will want to do, but in essence there is nothing to do but to begin. Your brain is waiting and it is the only tool necessary.
Should you start on the first of the month? Should you skip this month, since it includes your two-week vacation to London? Should you wait until June, when you stop teaching? Be sensible, be reasonable, but also be adamant. If it is sensible to skip this month, then skip it; but begin on the first of next month. If it feels right to start on the first of the month rather than mid-month, then wait until the first: but when the first arrives and you begin to waver, do not accept your sudden intuition that you ought to start on the second. Be sensible, be reasonable, but err on the side of starting.
Begin to look forward to your coming brainstorm. Begin to smile at the thought of it. Began to engage in a bit of organization in anticipation of clearing the decks. Begin to wean yourself from this or that distracting activity. Get ready. Soon you will begin a fine month of productive obsessing. I hope that you are eager!
Real work that we do in the service of our goals and dreams requires endurance. Our work may bring us joy and deep satisfaction but on many days it will bring us headaches, doubts, and difficulties. We must demand of ourselves that we endure all that. Maintaining meaning is not a variety of fun, it is work, the work that an existentially aware individual engages in as she manifests her principles, acts as a moral instrument, and makes use of her brain cells. Hard work of this sort requires our staying power!
To learn more about the ideas presented in this blog post, please see two of Dr. Maisel’s titles, Redesign Your Mind: The Breakthrough Program for Real Cognitive Change and Brainstorm: Harnessing the Power of Productive Obsessions
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