Different people call it different things. Some call it: “The thing that you cannot help but do.” Others call it your vocation, drive or calling. Malcolm Gladwell, the journalist, described it as the activity that you are willing to spend at least ’10,000 hours’ practicing. Whether you are a musician, athlete or whatever, these 10,000 hours that give you the chance of fulfilling your talent. So let’s explore how you can pursue your obsession.

1) You can focus on your obsession.

There are normally four steps towards following a ‘healthy obsession’. Some people stay with the first two steps. Others go on to do superb work that helps other people and builds a better world.

* Passion.

Do something where you are following your passion.

* Performance.

Do something where you can keep learning about the activity, do great work and achieve peak performance.

* People.

Do something where you can help other people.

* Planet.

Do something where you can help to build a better planet.

Alfred Wainwright, for example, translated his obsession into beautiful books that chronicled walks in the Lake District. Maria Montessori translated her passion for helping children into a pioneering form of education. Wangari Mathi translated her caring for the planet into a national tree planting campaign in Kenya.

So what is your obsession? You may, for example, be captivated by drawing, gardening, fixing engines, solving certain types of problems or whatever. How can you pursue this theme in your own way? The key is to follow your positive energy – the things you find fascinating. Sometimes this leads to other avenues.

Looking at my own life, my early passion was travelling around the UK watching football, but then it changed in my late teens. Being idealistic, I wanted to ‘help people’. This took the form of searching for a job in social work. After finding that role, the theme switched slightly to ‘encouraging people’.

Why this obsession? Partly it was history. My parents were great encouragers – as were several teachers. A key turning point came, however, when I asked people the question: “What has helped you to grow most in your life?” The answer was often: “I had somebody who encouraged me.” So I began researching everything about encouragement. This eventually led to the concentration on strengths. Why? Building on people’s strengths – where they delivered ‘As’ - proved the most effective way of helping them to grow. (Plus providing tools they could use to manage the consequences of their ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’.) Since then I have been fortunate to use many vehicles – such as running a therapeutic community, teaching, coaching a football team, mentoring and writing. The underlying theme, however, has been trying to share ideas that encourage people.

Let’s return to your passion. Try tackling the following exercise. First, describe a personal or professional obsession you would like to pursue in the future. Second, describe the pluses and minuses of pursuing this activity. Third, describe how you can build on the pluses and minimise the minuses. Try completing the following sentences.

The personal or professional
obsession I want to focus on is:

*

The pluses and minuses of
focusing on this obsession would be:

Pluses:

*

Minuses:

*

The specific things I can do to build on
the pluses and minimise the minuses are:

*

*

*

2) You can follow your obsession.

“Something just seemed to take over when I built my online business,” said one person. “I am not sure whether it was the desire to run my own firm, the love of technology or the joy of creating something new. During the day I was working full-time in another company, but from 7.00 pm till midnight I was at the computer, running my own business. Reflecting back, I probably loved inventing a model that was later adopted by others in the industry.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Sometimes our obsession contains elements of play. Other times it can be deadly serious – such as being dedicated to fighting for justice. Nevertheless, there is little distinction between our life and obsession. They are inextricably linked. Passion provides the stimulation that gives meaning to each day.

Looking back on your own life, when have you followed an obsession? You may have renovated a house, raised money for charity, enabled your child to overcome learning difficulties or whatever. What did you do right to pursue this path? How did you organise your time, settle on your priorities and do superb work? Try tackling the exercise on this theme. Describe the specific things you can do to follow your obsession in the future.

The specific things I can do to follow my obsession are:

*

*

*

3) You can fulfil your obsession.

How do you know when you have reached the end of your obsession? Sometimes it continues forever. This is particularly true, for example, if your passion revolves around a life theme – such as creating beauty, solving specific types of problems or helping people. Sometimes it ends after completing a specific project – such as publishing a book or launching a web site. Sometimes it is replaced by another activity – such as finding your energy is switching to other interests.

Looking at your own specific activity, how can you see it through? How will you know when you have reached the goal? Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to follow my obsession are:

*

*

*

Finally let’s return to one of the themes mentioned at the beginning of this article. Looking at your chosen activity, how highly does it rate on each of the Four Ps – Passion, Performance, People and Planet? If appropriate, would you like to improve the ratings? (This isn’t always necessary, of course, but it can be a useful framework to use when helping others to pursue their obsession.) Try tackling the following exercise.

People who do great work are often extremists. They throw themselves completely into following their chosen path and this produces both pluses and minuses. Staying healthy calls for building on the pluses and minimising the minuses. The same rule applies when following your obsession. Pursuing this path can then encourage both yourself and other people.

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