Brainstorm

Begin to look forward to your coming brainstorm. Begin to smile at the thought of it. Began to organize a bit in anticipation of clearing the decks. Begin to wean yourself from this or that distracting activity. Get ready. Soon you will begin a fine month of productive obsessing. I hope you are eager!

Most people harbor the hope that “when things change” or “when things improve” they will do a better job of productively obsessing and paying attention to their brainstorms. It is much smarter not to wait for that mythical time to arrive.

The person next to you may think that the epitome of brain powering is a sharp game of bridge or a rousing afternoon with a crossword puzzle. You will discover that real brain power is holding a rich idea over time as you productively obsess your novel into existence,

Each of us has that do-nothing, watch-a-little-more-television place in our heart and that think-intensely and work-well place, but the latter is harder to engage. The life of your productive obsession depends on your constant recommitment to your ideals, intentions, and efforts.

It is vital that a person who has decided to turn the seeds of interest into full-fledged productive obsessions learn to distinguish between those things that merely interest him and those things that really interest him. If he can’t make some sensible distinctions, he may try to build brainstorms in places of insufficient interest. If, say, his “l

he realized that he’d put the cart before the horse: the legal contract work was piling up, making him miserable, and it made no sense to try to turn his brain over to a beautiful pie-in-the-sky project when this pressing work required his immediate attention. So he lowered the bar to eye level. What was going on? Why had the contract work become s

Certain productive obsessions are bound to thread their way through your life, appearing here as a theme in the novel you write, there as the destination for a family vacation, and somewhere else as membership in a group or as an impulsive purchase.

if their obsession takes them no further than wringing their hands and spinning their wheels, it is not productive. Their obsession, as excellent as it might be if they genuinely embraced it, is as negative as any other unproductive obsession while it remains a fantasy shrouded in worry.

When, by contrast, you announce that you intend to productively obsess about the challenge at hand, your brain is alerted to the fact that you intend to operate differently. Your neurons stand at attention, and thinking commences.