There’s a balance to all things, and the point of obsession means that a person is more ‘obsessed’ about a particular topic or subject than what the standard norms or normalities imply. Obsession isn’t a bad thing if there’s positive direction and progress, but too much can be a deadly poison.
Too much desire implants the idea of separation in the subconscious. The ideas of not having enough or lack in the desired subject or topic. Whether it’s an item, a person, or thing.
Too many actions to move closer actually drives things apart. Almost as if magnetically repelling.
As if stating your state or circumstance isn’t inclusive to the desired thing that is being obsessed over.
For instance, If you like someone, try spending your time cheek to cheek with them 24 hours of the day, and you’ll drive them mad. This would end up pushing them further apart, perhaps even to the point of separation.
Obsession with one task, training, or work or study, drives you further from the goal of what you’re attempting to accomplish. Because when we become obsessed, we focus on a single step in some subjective attempt to master it while forgetting that there are many steps and it’s a journey that we’re on.
Obsessed over a single destination after having reached it, if we become too obsessed than it means that we won’t be moving forward. Which, may be a good thing if you prefer the destination as your dream home or lifestyle. (but of course, chaos likes changing things, and eventually you’ll be pushed out of it regardless of your own desires).
Obsessed with training to train or studying to study, means that there may not be time for a balanced approach of application. If all you do is study law, but spend no time in the court room directly or indirectly, then the fruits of your labor may never ripen. Similarly, if all you do is study medicine but never practice it, you live in the world of theories and thoughts.
All study and no application, means that a doctor is but a student that doesn’t save any lives.
A researcher must produce new research, or else they’re only aiding themselves.
A Chef focused on only cutting Onions like a master may forget to cook the meal (especially without a team).
Those inspired by the muse must create art, or they won’t be an artist. By definition an artist is one who makes art, and art is something made by an artist.
Mere consumption without application or production is just that. Consumption. Obsession.
Reading books on how to live life is not the same as actually living life.
The goal of any enlightenment is to keep going, to continue doing the chopping of the wood and carrying of the water, perhaps with a broader mindset or perspective that is inclusive of a greater understanding. We still chop wood and carry water, but perhaps we use better axes and buckets, or perhaps a better attitude or mindset.
When someone cares so much about their health that they try anything, like a health nut, they’ll find many things that help, and this fuels their obsession to deconstruct their life and lifestyle until they try all sorts of habits, eventually they may stumble upon some slow poison that kills them.
It’s the dose that makes the poison, self medication is often over medication, moderation to obsession, something dull and small becomes a beast that enwraps and engulfs a person.
Similarly when someone discovers a logotherapy and deconstructs their shadow and subconscious until it’s but an iota of specks and pieces, they become disconnected in the world. They may even accidentally delete their idea of their self or consciousness. Don’t ask me how I know.
If all we read are books on swimming, that helps us no closer to achieving it if we never touch the water.
If all we have are thoughts, we end up living in a false reality fueled and constructed by our thoughts, ignoring the present moment and pure experience.
You can lock yourself in a library and read thousands of books, but you will only acquire knowledge and not the application of. Lacking in wisdom from the experience of running experiments.
If all you do is spend time on the internet or rely on Artificial intelligence fueled by human input, then you forget the grand scale of the universe. All of the data that exists outside of the internet, or the books not yet transcribed. You’d be missing out on very pertinent data points in the world.
Obsession is such a monster.
Ambition is the impetus to drive one into obsession. The motivation factor that motives our motion towards action. The focus is but another word for obsession. When we tunnel our view and obsess over one particular thing, we have a unique view, but it’s the application that can be deadly as well.
If all we focus on are results and numbers, then the data represents something. But our interpretation of the data doesn’t accurately reflect the complexity of the system itself. The map is not the territory.
Often business analysists will try to use numbers to justify things. What gets measured gets managed. But they tend to get so obsessed with the numbers that they forget the important factors in their role or job. Often making corporate changes that do more harm than good. Amputation of a limb over a scratch. Pinching pennies while losing millions.
A person obsessed with work may end up forgoing the goal of their work, which may be for money. And thusly a person obsessed with money may forget what their goal of money was, which may be comfort, stability, family, or some other grander purpose.
Sometimes those obsessed with work and are hard workers, often don’t receive the beneficial pay raises or salary. For a majority of people, if they didn’t receive money, would they still work?
The stories and lies that we tell ourselves shape the views and motivations of our desires.
We do things for reasons.
Yet reasons can be fabricated just the same.
Epilogue,
I heard the quote that ‘Obsession creates distance’ as a proverb and thought it rather charming. The more desire for something, the further it could potentially push us away. For me I interpret the proverb more as ‘Obsession leads to separation’, how something pulls us further away from our goal. How pursuing side quests can help aide us in the main quest, yet when all we do is the side quest, we never touch our main quest. Ode to my days playing GTA or Skyrim.
On the flip side, the delusional are the ones that shape reality, and the non-delusional ones are the ones that maintain reality. So obsession is such a double edge sword. As above, it is a medicine and can be a fatal poison.
Do yourself a favor, and every once in a while, question your own motives and obsessions. Do they serve you still? Or perhaps you need a change in direction, focus, or perspective? It’s the feedback that may make the difference in accomplishing your goals, so always cue in to the feedback.
Afterall,
Words Mean Things
Words Mean Things 
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