Habit, discipline or obsession? Lent 2022: Day 44

As well as keeping a daily log of my exercise and diet, I've also been maintaining a pandemic spreadsheet for over two years ago. At 10:30 each day, I check the Polish health ministry's Twitter account, and enter the number of new cases and deaths into the spreadsheet. This has become a daily ritual; I have come to associate the entering of the data into the spreadsheet as a form of protection against the pandemic. As I do so, I am mindful of the fact that to date I have been spared its effects. Updating the spreadsheet, I express conscious gratitude for continued good health, and in the knowledge that misfortune lurks everywhere, often triggered by complacency, I am mindful of the need to take precautions. Even with the pandemic in decline.

Is this why I have not caught Covid yet? Or is it because I try to isolate as much as possible, continuing to wear a mask in shops and on public transport? Or a bit of both? 

Daily ritual can become an obsessive behaviour; my day would be incomplete without ensuring that my two spreadsheets are up to date. I have inherited this behaviour from my father, who kept spreadsheets (and paper records) of his stocks and shares, and his blood pressure almost up to his death. He stopped the spreadsheets when he started losing track of the formulas and input data - this was around his 96th birthday, though the blood pressure was noted right up to three days before his final admission to hospital.

If this may sound like a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome - perhaps it is, given that Asperger's is a spectrum condition. Certainly it's not debilitating, but it does make me wonder to what extent other daily rituals, which the neurotypical might class as 'focused self-discipline' rather than as 'obsessive' can also be generally considered as a positive trait. A daily exercise regime, for example?

We humans value determination as the most positive trait in our fellows. 'Winning against all odds' is a standard trope of most dramas, novels and films. The triumph of the underdog. Today, the world watches and cheers on the determined Ukrainians as they hold back the Russian invaders. Determination means not giving in, holding one's corner come what may.

Successful scientists and entrepreneurs show determination too. Focused finding on a solution to a problem, they work obsessively at resolving it, for the forward progress of knowledge, for the convenience of consumers. Obsessively? Or single-mindedly? Focus? Or restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests? This is where the notion of 'high-functioning' comes in...

We admire the determined - we don't like lazy slobs and quitters. Self-discipline - which means primarily setting and meeting one's own targets and deadlines rather than those imposed upon us, is the key to most successful people's success. Yet how much of that can be classed as obsession? Where does the border lie between good habits and obsessions? Or is it all in the point of view of the observer?

My "self-discipline, determination and good habits" are your "obsessive-compulsive behaviour issues" - where does one draw the line? Obviously, we turn things to our advantage, but this is an important question.

We are all so different to one another; hence my premise that everyone's way to God (assuming of course that they seek God) is different. We judge - but who are we to judge?

This time two years ago:
World's largest plane over Jeziorki
[destroyed by Russian forces, Hostomel, Ukraine, 27 February 2022]

This time three years ago:
Managing luck

This time four years ago:
Blossoms and pylons

This five years ago:
Weather bad, mood SAD

This time eight years ago:
Bicycle shake-down day

This time ten years ago:
40 years on - Roxy Music's first two albums

This time 11 years ago:
Twenty years, ten months, six days
[The Polish Third Republic has now lasted 12 years longer than the Second Republic. Long may it flourish!]

This time 14 years ago:
Swans still in Jeziorki