What process do people go through as they attempt to arrive at their productive obsession? As a creativity coach, I work with creative and performing artists. Over the next series of posts, let me share with you how creatives choose and frame their productive obsessions. The following reports come from working artists:
Stephanie explained: “I have been writing or storytelling my whole life and I have always wanted to make a living as a writer. But I always let things hold me back. I let having a day job sidetrack me; I let fear sidetrack me. I procrastinate wildly; and yet the more I am not writing, the more I become unhappy with everything. I can’t let go of the desire to write; but I need to let go of the unproductive obsessing I do about writing—the worry about not being good enough, the worry that I won’t be able to make a living of any sort, the worry that I won’t be able to think of anything wonderful to write about. I get more and more stressed out, and I write less and less, and it becomes a particularly nasty downward spiral. Now it’s time to break out of the negative cycle and build a positive one, even if pushing past my worries is scary. I have good stories to tell, and I have things to teach people about their own creativity and breaking blocks once I break through mine. My productive obsession: To plan and complete a novel and get it ready to submit to agents.”
Belle wrote: “I normally draw in my studio two to three hours a day, Monday through Thursday. Basically, this is ‘scheduled creativity,’ and it works for me—up to a point. Any other time I think about my artwork, which is many times a day every day of the week, I might make a note to myself so I don’t forget, but I don’t actually go and draw what I am thinking about. I want to see what it feels like to use that creative energy the moment it arises. By doing this I’ll be testing out another way of using my creativity. I’m very curious about how this change in my way of working will affect both my drawings and me. I am planning to continue my scheduled studio time while also testing out this ‘instant art’ method. My productive obsession: For the whole month, every time I think of drawing something, I will immediately go to my easel and draw for a minimum of ten minutes.”
Andrew explained: “I have spent many days obsessing over my obsession. Grand ideas have never frightened me. Completing grand ideas or staying focused long enough to complete them is more the problem. In the end, it came down to five choices: a new large-scale musical on a historical subject, a smaller non-fiction musical, a new information website, my first novel, and a book about my family history. All of these ideas are compelling for me and I feel confident that each will get done in time. The new non-fiction musical is an old idea but won out because it has given me such trouble for so long. It won’t go away, though nearly nothing has been done on it. The difficulty has been trying to find an approach that is honest. I need a fresh approach for the material and I want to expand the art form. It is the musical biography of a mid-20th century figure. Biographies told as musical theatre are challenging, particularly if the piece is original and not based on a film or book. Creating a sound that encapsulates a lifetime has also been difficult. My productive obsession: I throw down the gauntlet! I will obsess this piece into being.”
This post is part of an ongoing series of Redesign Your Mind posts on the art of productive obsessions. Please enjoy the whole series for a complete picture of how to use “redesign your mind” techniques to create and cultivate productive obsessions.
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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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Shutterstock
