What do you obsess about? Obsession isn’t just a pastiche of a fragrance ad, with sandy-haired windswept models gazing dreamily along a beach.

We members of plankind all seem to gravitate towards obsessing about one thing or another and this fortnight, this Philosopher-In-Residence is minded to explore what the typical obsession hooks are, and how to strike a balance between caring about something proportionately.

Tummy Trouble

The UK experiences some of the lowest body image self-perceptions anywhere on the planet and first and foremost, a healthy nutritional approach is the best way to bolster your physical and mental body image (which of course we can help you with, but this is philosophical discourse, NOT a sales pitch).

Our top MMAP tip if you want to assess if you obsess too much about your weight or your waistline is to monitor what you monitor.

How often do you jump on the scales each day or week? What response does this trigger? How does that affect your day? Are you awarding yourself “cheat” snacks/meals/days/weekends – if so, how many? What pattern is this creating. If the answers to any of these feel like something you would objectively describe as too much, then it’s time to reduce obsessing.

Working It Out

Work obsessions can manifest in many ways – after all, it’s often where we spend a significant chunk of our week. Typical obsessions range from an office crush (remember offices?!), to re-reading and re-reading documents to try and make them perfect, and a whole smorgasbord of other things inbetween.

Here at Make Me A Plan our number one tip for keeping a check on your obsession levels when it comes to work is to actively ground yourself and remind yourself about what your main work goal is. You can write it down, save it on your phone, it can be the headline from your business plan – but make sure your work actions are contributing towards it. So if you want to get promoted, but you’re spending a large amount of time trying to make certain things perfect, try observing the behaviours of other successful people in your workplace or in the community. Do those people in the kind of roles that you aspire seem to worry in the same kind of way you do? Are you being effective or are you obsessing more about being present at work-related things than how they feed into that goal of yours?

Keeping Up Appearances

Joking about our appearances can be a part of banter. But does it also feed obsessive thoughts and behaviours about yourself?

There are some simple MMAP go-to tips on this one:

1. If you always look in a mirror when you go past it, count how many times in a day and set yourself a challenge to reduce this.

2. If you constantly worry about your outfit or how you’re going to be perceived by others when you leave the house, tell yourself you’ll only worry about that in the 15 minutes before leaving, and train your brain out of the habit of cycling obsessive worries.

3. Give yourself a reality check – if the way you feel about yourself is negative, and you wouldn’t want anyone else to feel like that, remind yourself that you have the power to change that habit – do you really want to spend your whole life hating yourself?

Next fortnight, I’ll be musing On Spontaneity. But you should definitely plan to log on and read it.

Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this topic you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning

PS If you want some other free tips for your business life, check out the Working Well blog – out fortnightly on Wednesdays, courtesy of Make Me A Plan’s Productivity Expert, Penny Le Kelly. Browse the latest edition here: https://www.makemeaplan.com/news/making-connections/