7 Obsessions That Will Change Your Life for the Better

Too often, we have unhealthy obsessions. We’re obsessed with celebrities, TV shows, a person in our daily lives, extreme wealth, or chocolate.

Potentially worse are obsessions with social media which can be all-consuming. Checking your social media feed every few minutes can really hamper your productivity and happiness.

The time wasted on these types of obsessions can be extreme. And not only are you wasting time, but many obsessions can be mentally, physically, or financially unhealthy.

However, not all obsessions are unhealthy. There are things you can be obsessed about that will actually make your life better!

If you’re going to be obsessed about something, choose wisely.

Consider these options:

1. Your health. What is more worthy of your concentrated attention than your health? Your diet, sleep, exercise, and medical care deserve your focus. Imagine if these four things were among your top priorities every day.
2. Learning and reading. There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy obsession around learning and reading. Both can add to your knowledge and enhance your life. When you know more, you can make better decisions. It makes you a more interesting conversation partner at parties, too.
   
3. Improvement. Perfection isn’t a worthwhile obsession but focusing on improvement is a great idea. Imagine if you improved just a little each week in your finances, health, relationships, work, and your hobbies. How amazing would your life be in the future? It boggles the mind to even consider it.
4. Your family. As long as you’re not micromanaging the lives of everyone in your family and driving them crazy, your family can be a healthy obsession. Most people wish their families were closer.
5. Mastering a skill that enhances your income. Many people like to downplay the importance of money, but those are usually the people that either have a lot of it or have none at all. Money matters. Money can solve a lot of life’s challenges. There’s nothing wrong with becoming an expert at something lucrative.
6. Mastering a skill that enhances your life. It might be mastering one-on-one communication skills, decision making, emotional intelligence, or equanimity. What skill could you learn that would greatly enhance the quality of your life?
7. An obsession that enhances your social life in a healthy way. Maybe you love to bowl on Friday nights, or ballroom dance, or play horseshoes. This type of obsession can be fun and can add greatly to your social life.

How do you know when an obsession is unhealthy? There are a few things to look for:

• It negatively affects other parts of your life.
• It impacts the quality or the amount of sleep you get.
• You spend too much time thinking about it when you should be focused on something else.
• It negatively impacts your health.
• You’re getting yourself into legal peril, such as stalking.

Even positive obsessions can be taken too far, so be sure to keep it healthy. For example, it’s possible to spend too much time thinking about or performing exercise. Or you can put so much attention on your family that you drive them all crazy.

Choose your obsessions wisely, because the right choice can have a very positive impact on your life. The wrong obsession can waste your time or worse.