Healthy Obsessions Can Help You Succeed

Persistence comes with a healthy dose of obsession.

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When passion meets inspiration, an obsession is born. — Anonymous

I have never met a successful person who is not obsessed with the project that they are working on. This person’s eyes are filled with a kind of unrelenting passion that most people can only hope to obtain in a lifetime. When you speak to this person, they go on about this path that’s leading them down the rabbit hole. They are unwilling to stay in the hole for their life’s sake, but inevitably, at a tipping point, they choose the rabbit hole.

Their life may suffer but their sacrifice is voluntary. They know that they are blessed. They are blessed with the ability, the need, and the resources to go down the rabbit hole to see what’s on the other side.

Often, on the other side, it is a life that they could not have imagined.

When people see success, they see the glitz, the glamour, and the polished glory.

Most people don’t see the endless waiting, the nights spent chasing, the bland days of repetition, and the strongest relationships that break.

Most people don’t see the frustration, the humiliation, the giving up, and the giving in, when faced with impossibilities.

Most people don’t see the odds that are piled so high, overcoming these odds will take a lifetime.

People who go down the rabbit hole despite everything function less on persistence, they function on the power of healthy obsession to defy the odds.

What is a healthy obsession?

The biggest differentiating factor of a healthy obsession versus an unhealthy obsession is outcome. If you are repeating the same tasks with the same result, it is an act of insanity. However, if you are repeating the same tasks in different situations and see different results, then it is good testing.

A healthy obsession contains the element of ever-changing results.

Often, when the results differ so slightly, to most people they seem the same. This is when everyone questions your sanity.

But you, down the rabbit hole, you can see the progress in the dim light. You know that somehow you are moving in the right direction.

This is when you are working at the intersection of your passion and inspiration. You stop caring about other people’s worries. You stop caring about how other people perceive you.

You are simply focused on examining every facet of your rabbit hole.

How do you recognize that you have a healthy obsession?

When your mother calls you to go to dinner, would you rather work on your project? This is how you recognize if you have a healthy obsession. Even at dinner with your mother, you will talk about your obsession. It becomes a part of you. You will discuss it with friends. You will want to solicit ideas. You will want to invent new opportunities to follow through on your healthy obsession.

You stop caring about people who don’t support your healthy obsession.

You stop wondering whether you will be liked.

You stop seeking an end to the project.

Your healthy obsessions not only bleeds into your life. Your healthy obsessions will take over their life.

By pushing against this takeover of your life, you are simply postponing the inevitable.

Life is easier if you go with the tide.

Do you have regrets about a marriage that’s broken because you chose to pursue a healthy obsession?

Do you have regrets about how you raised your child because you chose to pursue a healthy obsession?

Do you have regrets about how isolated you are because you chose to pursue a healthy obsession?

In the big picture, when you look back 10 years from now, you will discover that all those broken dreams along the way simply add fuel to your fire.

You can follow through on your healthy obsessions simply because of all the sacrifices that you made along the way.

To pursue healthy obsessions mean sacrifices.

Success is not handed out for free. If it was, you will not appreciate the feeling of success. This success will not be long-lasting.

There’s a hunger on the road to success that demands a kind of sacrifice.

It is the sacrifice of your mind, your life, and your heart.

In certain instances, you may even lose a part of your soul following through on a healthy obsession.

That does not mean that the success you found is not worth celebrating.

It only means that the cost of your success was high. It only means that you should recognize your sacrifices so that you will appreciate your success.

The best healthy obsession is your life.

To balance out your healthy obsessions on your projects, the best healthy obsession outside of that is your life.

What are you doing every day to better your life in some way?

Are you resigned to acceptance?

Are you silently standing still?

When you are defying the odds in your life, you will move toward your goals every day. You may proceed very slowly. You may think that these small steps don’t matter.

But, when your healthy obsession with living the best life consumes you, it will eat your life.

It will demand the same kind of sacrifice that you made for your projects.

It will demand you to turn up the volume, drowning out the noise, and following your heart down the rabbit hole.

Are you ready to live your best life?

What is the plan? What are your next steps? Who are you taking with you?