Be Obsessed.

Go the extra mile, you’re obsessed. Throw your heart and soul into something, you’re obsessed. Accept nothing other than the relentless pursuit of excellence, you’re obsessed.

Ask any great for their secret for success and they’ll tell you they were completely obsessed with their mission. Not a minute passed where their passion wasn’t near the forefront of their brain.

These days the masses will attempt to brainwash you into associating obsession with the negative. It’s easy to mask failure with the ‘I had a life’ mantra; where you excuse not trying hard enough with having a good time and ‘trying your hand’ at everything. The key word in the sentence was the ‘masses’ – greatness isn’t for the masses, it’s for a select few, those who are obsessed.

What’s so admirable about anyone who masters (or gets as close to) their passion/field, is you instantly know this is someone who has put thousands of hours into something and not just aimless hours, dedicated and diligent hours with the aim of learning everything and anything they can, and improving as much as possible. In addition there are the lows, the moments where they hit a roadblock and it seems like improvement is a thing of the past……..

Instead of quitting they hang in. They seek help, they try new approaches, they may even fall out of love with things for a while only to come back knowing this time it’s even more real and the passion burns brighter than ever before. They can’t accept half measures and their love for the journey keeps them pushing.

Anytime they’re asked whether it’s a natural talent that played a part, they laugh and reassure: Nothing came easy, it was a struggle and I feared many times I’d never make it………

And let’s face it, it’s easy to label someone as gifted and naturally better than you, that stops you from ever having to come face to face with the horrendous regret of not working hard enough, not wanting it enough, not believing enough.

But as soon as you accept this world is more of a level playing field than you ever thought possible, you then know it’s down to who works 1) smarter. 2) Harder and 3) with enthusiasm in spite of failures.

How are you supposed to dedicate thousands of hours to something with enthusiasm without obsession? You have to love the pursuit or you simply won’t do it.

Another barrier is the voices of the nay-sayers or the ‘obsession slayers’. These are the folk who want you to remain as you are, they don’t think you’re worthy of greatness and they don’t respect your dreams.

You need to let those comments and insinuations run over you like water off a duck’s back, because you can see it paying off. You know you’re brave enough to risk the time investment. You don’t see it as a risk, you see it as an enjoyable game you’re going to win and if you lose once, you’ll try and win the second. If you still lose, you know you’ll win eventually and when you do, the victory will be sweeter than any lifetime of mediocrity, and because you’re the obsessive driven type, you’ll still want more…….

Only this time people might think twice about telling you to get a life and do something else.