GETTING STARTED

In Brainstorm we suggest that you choose your obsessions, rather than letting them choose you, and that you move yourself closer to achieving your goals by learning how to productively obsess. You create worthy obsessions that you chew on, struggle with, and love, and these serial productive obsessions become the central tool you use to manifest your potential and realize your dreams.

Rather than thinking about a million things, which amounts to thinking about nothing, and maintaining only a low-level interest in and enthusiasm about life, you announce to your brain that you have a fine use for it and that you intend to move it to a higher gear. It is an engine meant to perform in that higher gear and, having been waiting for your invitation, it will respond beautifully.

Most of our obsessions are not of our own choosing and do not serve us. They arise because we are anxious creatures and our unproductive thoughts cycle repeatedly to the beat of that anxiety. We obsess about things that we want to happen, like winning the lottery, and about things that we don’t want to happen, like getting wrinkles. Our mind, which ought to be ours, is stolen away by anxiety thieves.

These are unproductive obsessions—they do not serve us. They waste our precious time, occupy our finite neurons, and pressure us to behave compulsively in ways that amount to further self-disservice. Anxiety fuels these obsessions and the effort to relieve our anxiety leads us to pointless, questionable, or dangerous behaviors intended to quiet our nerves and banish the anxiety. Anxiety throws us a party of problems, with unproductive obsessions the guests of honor.

Productive obsessions are different. They are the way that an individual makes meaning and the way that civilization progresses. Scientific obsessions lead to vaccines, artistic obsessions lead to symphonies, humanitarian obsessions lead to freedom and justice. Productive obsessions are our lifeblood, both for the individual and for all of humanity. We should not fear them because they put us under unwonted pressure, give a compulsive edge to our behaviors, or in other ways discomfort us. Rather, we should learn how to encourage them and manage them.

See for yourself. A productive obsession is nothing else but a passionately held idea that serves your meaning-making efforts. See if the upside of making personal meaning by productively obsessing doesn’t outweigh the downside of pressuring yourself. Expect to feel challenged; also expect to feel rewarded. We want you to learn firsthand what productively obsessing feels like, what you can accomplish, and what tremendous benefits accrue to you.
To learn more, please consult Brainstorm.