Minnesota Institute of Public Health

I heard a speaker recently describing a very important reality in our lives when our bodies, our friends, or other conditions are essentially warning us to change behavior. Sometimes we heed the warnings, sometimes we don’t.

Yes, I should ratchet down the junk food.

Yes, I should take a vacation.

Yes, I should stop and smell the roses.

Yes, I should pace myself.

Yes, I should chill out.

I’ll quit tomorrow.

It’s a hard battle when the pace of life, competitive pressures and technological advances essentially permit – no, encourage - us to work 24/7.

Some of the ignored warnings are just that – signals to tell us to change behavior that we hear, but choose to ignore. 

Perhaps obsession is one explanation for ignoring warnings. Growing up, the flagship book for me about obsession was Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of the white sperm whale who had earlier in life bitten his leg off became an obsession masqueraded as a quest for revenge. Said the obsessed and increasingly insane Captain Ahab in spite of his nervous crew’s warnings that he had replaced commercial whale catching with an obsession to catch one whale – Moby Dick – “I’ll chase him around Good Hope, around the Horn, and around the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.”

Talk about ignored warnings! Maybe that’s what obsession is – the inability to heed  or to care about sensible warnings.

I think a good life is a balanced life. No successful person is averse to rowing hard when it’s needed, but we do need to catch our breath once in a while, to succeed.

That’s usually what the healthy warnings are about. Best not to ignore them, don’t you think?

-JJ