Magnificent Obsessions ARE Achievable

I’ve embraced three magnificent obsessions during my life: to become a professional writer, to get to know  DeForest and Carolyn Kelley up close and personal, and to have lots of hands-on experiences with animals of as many different species as possible.

 

Those were my top three magnificent obsessions. There have been others:

• To work in Hollywood
• To learn to speak in public without looking like a deer caught in headlights
• To accept and embrace my essence (my maleness)
• To re-parent myself so I’d be stronger emotionally and psychologically (lose the baggage that comes with being an adult child of an alcoholic and a middle child)
• To be politically active and fight for marginalized citizens

 

This evening I was wondering if there is anything else I can do to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of  DeForest Kelley’s birth (January 20, 2020) other than put out the final two volumes of Kelley Phone Tag: The Rest of the Story.

 

I thought about (perhaps) publishing the letters that I wrote to the Kelleys (and their responses) and calling the book Snail Mail Trail or Trail of Cheers..

 

I’ve always known that my letters to the Kelleys were the secret sauce that led them to knowing, liking and trusting me; that I always made them as upbeat, funny and poignant as possible; and that I saved copies of many of them when I knew they’d be real hits.

 

So, I started looking through my journals to see if there were any copies of letters in them.  Although I haven’t finished the task yet (I have literally hundreds of journals), I did find some gems.

 

But the thing I noticed most while going through the journals (and the reason I’m writing this post now) was my  magnificent obsession with the top three subjects I listed above.

 

I mean, I was obsessed/possessed by the drive to manifest these three goals in my life. Not in so many words, but the passionate love that I had–still have for two of them and the others I listed above, since the Kelleys are gone now–just pop out on the pages as if they were written in neon.

 

The other subjects I tackled are mere reporting of the day’s happenings, but whenever I tackled any of the three topics I cared most about (my magnificent obsessions), I would write sololiques that lasted ten or more pages!  It’s almost embarrassing to read them now!  I want to tell my younger self, “Fer gosh sakes, get a life!”

 

But in being obsessed, I got the life I wanted, so it all worked out for me!

 

How freaking wild is that?!!!

 

So, now I’m wondering if there really is something to this Law of Attraction business!

 

I always considered the Law of Attraction the lazy man’s method: just imagine what you want in all its aspects, and it shall magically appear!

 

Of course, none of the books on the LOA suggest passive-but-passionate longing, but that seems to be the takeaway of the readers I know who have bought into it, and they’re still waiting, staring at their Vision Boards, wondering why it’s taking so long!

 

The only difference between my method (magnificent obsession) and the Law of Attraction is that I took proactive steps toward my goals (obsessively, habitually). I didn’t just daydream: I pursued down every available avenue every opportunity to achieve writing mastery, to get to know the Kelleys better, and to find ways to work with animals, tame and captive wild.         

 

The Law of Attraction only works when you put elbow grease behind your magnificent obsession!!!

 

You don’t become a good writer by wishing and hoping.  You have to write obsessively, compulsively, even when nobody’s reading what you’re writing.  You have to read good books and articles and subscribe to The Writer magazine. It takes years!!!

 

You can’t find a good friend (celebrity or otherwise) without being a good friend. It takes years!

 

You  can’t work with animals unless you look for ways to do exactly that. It takes years!

 

There is very little you can get in life that’s worth getting unless you reach for it persistently in ways that work.

 

And you won’t do that until you feel certain you can give as much (or more!) than you can glean from the opportunity, or you’ll feel unworthy of the prize and won’t even try for it!!!

 

I didn’t want to become a writer to become famous. (Writing is show business for shy people.)

 

I didn’t want to  get to know De and Carolyn because De was famous. (I wanted to get to know them better because De was a role model from afar and I knew I needed some mentoring and nonjudgmental encouragement to heal my broken places and become a better person.)

 

I wanted to work with animals of all kinds because I have an affinity for them and needed to experience them up close and personal to see if they’d feel the same way about me. Happily, they do!

 

As it turns out, you get out of life what you’re willing to put into it. And sometimes you’ll get surprised out of your socks by the results.

 

I sure have!

 

 

 

 

 

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Go for it!

Obsess magnificently!