This Is What Happens When You Let Yourself Get Obsessed

watch how fast your life changes.

Do you remember those days when you were so invested into a tv series that you spent hours watching them and how all you could think about all day was the plot of the story, how one character behaved or a tragedy that happened?

What of that hobby you fell in love with that you just couldn’t take your mind off of, that even when you were not doing it your mind was still thinking of it?

You probably have had that experience when the days feel like you’re in the flow state, every minute feels exciting and all you could think about is the activity you’re buried in.

That's an obsession. Well, a washed down version of it.

I am known for being extremely obsessed (at least the way I view myself) — because whenever my mind locks in on something, it is incredibly difficult for me to take my mind off it, unless I don’t see a need for it anymore.

I rarely quit things because I always find a way to make it useful. Now, though I may not put equal amounts of time into everything, long term you’ll still see me doing it. I have this weird ability like, say for example I have a TV series to watch because the storyline is interesting — I’d just sit and take many hours to watch it, no breaks other than bathroom and food, and weirdly, I still continue during the breaks. I keep at it until I’m done with it. Nothing breaks my focus except if my body shuts down because it’s tired for the day.

And back then, I’d typically fall asleep while my phone kept playing till the next day.

My mum would call this obsessive because when I’m in this state, she knows I don’t create time for anything. I don’t do nearly as much now — at least the episodes I watch these days range from 12–25 episodes at 23 minutes each, and I finish them in one sitting. Back then, I remember having a series that was over 700 episodes, and it became my life's duty to complete them. We listen, we don’t judge 😂

This has translated into my work slowly over the years, and I believe if I can spend 18 hours watching a series, I can definitely work on my goals until my body shuts down for the day. This has kept me in this world where all I do is focus and ignore everything else. I’ve never had the time to party or make friends (usually it happens by default)

Let’s not touch my love life 😢, because sadly I love my goals more than any charm a lady has (for now👀). Not because I want to stay single forever, but because I feel like some things are a function of time — and if not done now, they’ll slip from my grip. Everything else can come after. The friends, the parties, the relationship — they can all come after.

This is obsession.

I want to touch on how being obsessed over things can help you create your dream life faster.

That’s what we want to discuss today. Make sure you read to the end.

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I'm not sure why obsession is often seen as a bad thing.

Yes — if directed the wrong way, it can absolutely cause problems. But if we truly understood how powerful this tool is, we’d start using it intentionally. We’d bend our circumstances to our will. And get the things we want out of life by controlling our actions.

The idea here is to get obsessed over the right things.

You've heard the phrase, “everything happens for a reason.” And most people, when they hear that, assume that the “reason” is something outside their control. That life is just a series of random or divine events they’re meant to accept.

They call it “fate”.

So when you go through something painful, your friends, parents, or loved ones try to comfort you: "Don’t worry, it’s all happening for a reason.” "Maybe God is protecting you from something.”

I used to accept that. But over time, I’ve outgrown that sentiment — and honestly, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Because if it's true that everything happens for a reason… Then why can't I be the reason for the things happening in my life? Why does the “reason” always have to be something external or “spiritual”?

If I’m the reason, then maybe what happens to me doesn’t have to be so painful because i know it’s parts in the chain of causality towards my goals. And maybe I can take control.

In the last 90 days, I’ve experienced things that honestly weren’t in my favour.

Like literally getting my hands fried. Almost burning down my room because of a fuel leakage. And nearly getting hit by a moving vehicle — just because I was staring at my phone while on the road. Honestly that was a close call (Yh… what a stupid way it would’ve been to get unalived.)

And I couldn’t stop thinking about how easily people would have said, “everything happens for a reason,” like it was some divine mystery out of our hands.

But in reality, I played a role in the causality. I made the choices. I created the conditions. I caused the outcome.

Yes, it happened for a reason. And that reason… was me.

Let’s go back to secondary school for a bit.

Remember, Newton’s Third law of motion?

It states:

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

• This means that If object A exerts a force on object B, object B exerts an equal force back on A in the opposite direction.

Example: When you push against a wall, the wall pushes back with equal force. Even though you don’t realise it. Even better, if you punch a wall, you’ll feel an equal amount of pain of the force you exert.

This is important because though on the surface it looks like a law of physics but if you make an abstraction you can see that you can apply it to life itself. Not that it was the law of physics first but it’s a naturally occurence in reality. A fundamental law of nature.

You know… you get what you give. You get equal dividends of the effort you put in. You know… Karma and that stuff. This teaches us something that you don’t really hear a lot.

“Causality”

It’s not some fancy word. It sounds fancy but you can easily note that it sounds like “cause”.

Causality means "cause and effect." If something happens (an effect), there must be a reason why it happened (the cause).

And our lives is basically like this complex chain and loop of cause and effect — in that one cause leads to an effect which becomes a cause to another and on like that. Understanding this fundamental principle of nature will help you get what you want out of life.

A quick example: Let’s say I am the devil and I want to control your life, I’d simply use cause and effect. Since I understand that nothing happens until something is verbed, I would take a look at the chain of actions that it’ll take to lead to my desired vision for your life and then do my thing. And to make sure those actions continue, I’ll install beliefs into your subconscious through repeated exposure because I know you become a reflection of what you consume. And I just wait. And things will happen. And you’ll be in my palms.

This is one of the reasons I am very careful of what I put into my mind and I try to be practical and rely on the things that can happen within the boundaries of physics. This way, I don’t just accept any random belief my parents tell me. I repeat to myself: I am not a robot, I’m human — and I choose the things I believe.

I said all this because all things being equal, if you keep taking the right actions, you will bend reality to your will. Provided there are no external disturbances.

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Obsession is a tool you can use to tilt the causality pool in your favor because you’re increasing the likelihood of an event occurring by taking massive action and while others clock off, your mind is still running even while you’re asleep.

Remember that math assignment you just couldn’t crack? But after you left it and came back, you were able to solve it. What changed?

When you're actively thinking about a problem, especially something complex like math, you're using what's called the “working memory”.

It’s something like your RAM in your phone. It's your conscious mind, the thing you're using to process this newsletter as you read. But the working memory has its limits.

Sometimes it gets overloaded and fatigued.

When you stop consciously thinking about the problem — like when you take a walk, sleep, shower, or just rest — another part of your brain kicks in: the Default Mode Network (DMN).

This part is active when you're resting, daydreaming, sleeping. And what it does is crazy — it makes subconscious connections between everything you’ve been exposed to. Like it’s rendering data in the background.

Just to let you know your subconscious just has more bandwidth than your conscious mind. That’s why sometimes the answer feels like it “came out of nowhere.” But really, it was rendering in the background the whole time.

Here’s how it goes:

• You obsess over a problem (math, business, a life decision).

• You hit a wall — your conscious mind is exhausted.

• You step away, sleep, do something else.

• And then out of nowhere, the answer appears.

Though it feels divine, like an angel brought you the answers. It’s not, it happens more than you think.

Obsession tells your brain: “This is important. Prioritize this.”

And because your brain is constantly flooded with tasks, choices, stimuli — obsession works like a filter. Like a highlighter. It tags certain goals or problems as high priority. And once tagged, your brain throws more energy, focus, and subconscious horsepower behind it.

So yeah, obsession might look crazy on the outside. But on the inside, it’s the most powerful tool you’ve got.

So if making money becomes your obsession, you’ll start to see money-making opportunities everywhere. Almost like life is recommending your next quest — just like the social media algorithm, your mind starts filtering everything based on what you’re obsessed with. And you become blind to everything else like a teenager to their first love.

That’s why people like that don’t have “work-life balance” — they’re too obsessed. They’ve tuned out the everything else.

Now I’m not saying if you’re not obsessed you won’t make progress — nah, you will still make progress — but compared to someone who is obsessed? You just can’t match up.

Not to say you should compare yourself with anyone in the first place. Do you!

What I’m trying to hit home here is that — your life slowly becomes a reflection of the people you compare yourself to. Whether you admit it or not, the dream life you’re chasing was probably first triggered by someone else’s.

And if you don’t think so, it’s probably because that person was from way back — and you don’t even remember who gave you that belief.

That’s just human behavior. We imitate. We copy and paste, mostly subconsciously.

So just be aware of who and where you take inspiration from. Because you're becoming it.

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Personally, I think in your 20s and 30s — especially your 20s, you should obsess over something. Because it’s too easy to get lost in that stage.

Have a vision. Lock in. Obsess over it.

Your brain’s cognitive abilities are at their peak. Don’t worry about losing friends right now. There’s always a friend at every stage you level up to. And if the current ones can’t go with you — then solo level.

Be obsessed with your life. You’ll be happy you did.

Life’s too short to pull your punches. Be on the offense.

That’s it for this week’s letter.

Thanks for reading,

All in a day’s work.