6 Ideas for When You're Obsessed with Yourself

"But when I'm the center of my world, my world becomes very small- because I'm the only person in it."  Carolyn Mahaney

How many people do you know who consider themselves first? I have to point the finger at me because I always at least think of myself first even if that's not played out in my actions.  It's easy to try to blame our self-centeredness on selfies and social media but really it's just our nasty human nature. We don't need to be prompted to consider ourselves and how we feel and how situations will affect us. It does take supernatural power to consider how our words and actions impact others and change those words and actions when we need to. It's not enough to know unless we act. 

Sometimes we find ourselves stuck at a point where we are consumed with ourselves. Here are a few ideas to try to shake loose from yourself. 

1. Ask, "What will honor God in this situation?" instead of "What will they think about me?" Often when we need to make decisions or act in the moment our first thought is how we will look. Our first interest should be to find and do what honors God.  If I can ask "How can I honor God with my mothering?" instead of "What will make everyone think I'm a great mom?" when I'm responding to my kids it might change my life (and their lives too!). 

2.  Be interested, not interesting. Stop talking about yourself and listen. Be interested in the other person's life,  burdens, and joys. Stop trying to make yourself interesting. You'll make friends faster and be able to help more people.

3. Speak of Jesus often. We aren't anything special on our own so why try to act like it? Jesus is the special. Jesus is the main factor in our marriages, our families, our homes, our accomplishments. The more we talk about Him the less we want to talk about ourselves. 

4. Speak truth to yourself. Consistently reframe every mental discussion.  "No, I'm not working out so that others will think I'm skinny. I'm working out because this is the only body I have and I want to take care of it."  "No, I'm not training my child to obey so that others are impressed by my obedient children; I'm teaching my child to obey so that God can bless his life." Find the proper motivation for your work and remind yourself of it often. 

5. Focus on the work in front of you. If you are pursuing the work, you will have much less time to wonder what others think of you. Do the work and let the chips (and the impressions) fall where they may. God can take care of your reputation. 

6. Lay off social media for a while. Live your life without the public pictures and status updates. You'll also be living without the likes and comments and that's good for you. That's not why you do your work anyway, right? You can't wait for public approval. Live before God and let that be enough. 

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. C.S. Lewis

What do you do when you find you're a little obsessed with yourself?