Should a Productive Obsession Feel Easy?
Can you be passionate about something, obsessed with it, and still have to work hard at it?
By Eric Maisel
Is a productive obsession really a productive obsession if you have to work at it? Isn’t there some implication in the phrase that you love your productive obsession so much and are so passionate about it that it never feels like work, that it is never daunting, and that you are always smiling because you’re getting to bite into something delicious? Marti, a member of my productive obsession group, expressed this wonder in the following way:
Yesterday I went to a ‘trunk show’ at a local jewelry store. I had never heard of this jewelry designer but at the store I saw the photograph of her jewelry as featured in one of the major style magazines. As I looked at her creations, which were indeed beautiful, we talked. I asked her how she got into doing this. She gave that answer which often comes from people who are highly successful at a young age. She said, ‘Making jewelry has been my passion since I was a little girl. I love making jewelry. I can stay up doing it until midnight and I don’t notice the time going by because I love what I’m doing.
For me, writing is an obsession, but I don’t always love to do it. Therein lies the problem…
