What have you been obsessed with in your life?
And, further, which of those obsessions have led to something you can look back on and say, “Yeah, that was worth it”?
For me, it has been a relatively small number of things that I’ve been obsessed with.
I started to list them decade by decade in this article, but realized that wasn’t the point.
It’s the second part of the question that mattered.
Which of them were worth it, or had some kind of fulfilling payoff?
For me, it was this smaller list of obsessions:
Music (listening, playing, performing)
Love and Attraction
Going on Adventures
Careers and Personality Fit
Personal Finance
Real Estate (particularly interesting architecture and aesthetics)
Entrepreneurship and Employee-Owned Businesses
Time Management and Goal Setting
Philosophy and Psychology, particularly Romantic Era, esoteric, and, to some extent, spiritual forms
Lifestyle Design
Each of these obsessions led to significant events, experiences, and outcomes in my life.
Typically positive, but not always.
There have been many other obsessions, too, such as toy action figures, model trains and airplanes/tanks, and video games.
But did they matter?
Yes, in that they point to what captured my attention.
No, in the sense that the psychological payoff was mostly about distraction … with the exception of the creativity involved in building dioramas with models.
Yesterday, I wrote about getting stuck in a rut because I had too many options and wasn’t deciding or prioritizing among them.
When I look out over the horizon, there are still many possibilities open to me.
However, now that I am older, I find that fewer of them are as attractive to me than they used to be.
Now, I think there are probably only four big options I am deciding between.
This is good, I think, because there is wisdom, judgment, and discernment involved in these assessments.
Also, I get more persnickety about how they will impact my life satisfaction and day-to-day lived experiences.
This is probably less desirable because it keeps me stuck in my head, imagining what it would be like if I pursued a particular option.
And that leads to hesitation.
However, what is even clearer to me is that I have lost, or do not currently have, an “obsession” with the options I am still considering.
What do I mean?
I mean that I am not “possessed” by the four options I keep kicking around, at least not like I have been in the past with the obsessions listed above.
When I was possessed by an obsession, nothing else mattered, or at least I always had time, energy, and enthusiasm to bring to the focus.
I seem to be lacking that relentless drive now, and I am not sure why.
The four options are all worthy, but they Currently lack the spark of passion I had for my previous obsessions.
Take music, for example.
I started my journey with an obsession with listening to music. I spent a lot of time doing this as a child.
Then I got interested in making music and had many failed attempts at learning to play an instrument.
Luckily, I had enough confidence to make an ass out of myself singing, and sometimes I sounded pretty good.
Eventually, I developed the discipline to actually practice every day and really start to develop some skills on guitar, even if rudimentary compared to a virtuoso’s abilities.
Then I became obsessed with writing and recording scratch demos of original songs.
This obsession consumed my free time, attention, and energy like a wildfire burning through a dry field of grass.
I’m still obsessing about music.
Or at least it’s still there, lurking in the background and not going to let me be until I figure out just what the heck I am doing with it next.
So, no answers today, but I wanted to share this important distinction.
And here is the distinction.
There seems to be a strong and positive correlation between life satisfaction and fulfillment and becoming possessed by an obsession.
At least that has been the case with my life so far.
Thus, as I finish packing up and loading my car this morning, I have something to consider on my long road trip back to my test apartment.
Oh, there you go…
That is a case in point.
I was passionately obsessed enough to find, rent, and actually test luxury apartment living.
Thus, it happened.
Hmm.
okay, That might be the clue I was looking for to ignite the next possession.