Voluntary obsessions

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Question: Can you force yourselves to obsess about something that may not necessarily interest you at all?
For example, forcing yourself to obsess over a subject in school to achieve better grades or scores.
Another example could be obsessing over a subject in regards to work or your career.
Has this worked for anyone? Also will this plan backfire, or has it backfired for anyone?

nope.
not me.
Although sometimes I have become interested in things I have previously found uninteresting, its never been a result of force. (I'm way too stubborn for that lol)

Forcing, no. That wouldn't work. I can raise my interest in a particular area with time, though. An example is learning a foreign language, in my case English. I hope I will be able to use it in my career or in my life somehow.

I have a very hard time forcing myself to do that.

I've never been able to force myself to have an obsession. It's something that just happens, like falling in love.

I could really use my Runescape obsession back. I have 7 99s to go to be maxed yet lately I can barely even get myself to play. There was a time when I played 12+ hours a day.

To some extent maybe. But gaining control over yourself anyhow is constant work. Maybe it is possible to turn negative aspects of it to positive ones. The way I see it there are reasons why some things call you to obsess over them (same goes for falling in love). Spending some quality time on a subject might awaken the interest and turn it into *obsession*. Understanding reasons behind your current obsessions might be a key.

Earlier this year I tried to force myself to become obsessed with the cartoon Adventure Time. It wasn't for any particular reason - I just thought it was a cool show and wanted to have it as an obsession. But for some reason it just didn't stick. It was like trying to force myself to fall in love with someone who I had no chemistry with. I had every reason to like it, but it wasn't right for me.

Similarly, I find that I can't force myself to quit liking the obsessions I do have. Earlier this year I tried multiple times to force myself to quit obsessing over Johnny Depp and his movies, but it just didn't work. I can't stop thinking about them, and when I try to make myself stop, I start missing them terribly; like a feeling of emptiness comes over me that I can't shake.