Laziness

You want to do a million things, but don’t want to get off the couch? I know the feeling. I know how pathetic you feel afterwards when the unfinished tasks piles up in front of you. Laziness means resisting taking action on what you are supposed to do when you should do them. A lazy person usually has no self-discipline and is unorganized. If his life is already in a mess, it will get worse if he maintains the laid-back attitude. A lazy person is work-shy. He evades responsibilities and procrastinates. He usually represents work or completing a task as something tedious, unnecessary or boring. He is more interested in idling, watching television or playing games. He doesn’t care about his health and shows no concern about being a burden to people. The cause for laziness may vary. Some people were spoilt when they were young. They had everything taken care for them. Health issues can also make a person lethargic and sluggish. Having no sense of purpose in life is one of the other main reasons for being lazy. However, some people aren’t lazy. Fear and uncertainty make them procrastinate and are seen as lazy. You want more from your life, but when you feel lazy to act, nothing seems to work. Even thinking about your goals or dreams may not motivate you to stop being lazy. You were not born lazy. But you picked up lazy habits on the way. It’s a relief to learn that because now you have a choice to change. If you can overcome laziness by substituting those old habits with better habits.

1.TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE LAZY
You cannot solve a problem unless you know what causes it. There can be different reasons for feeling lazy. Maybe it’s a boring or tedious task, maybe you have fears holding you back, or you feel lethargic and don’t have the energy to do it. Let’s look at each scenario.

A) THE TASK IS BORING
Life requires us to do many tasks that are boring, repetitive and uncreative. Like household chores, studying, data entry work for your job etc. But you can’t possibly live in a house that has been uncleaned for weeks, or you can’t eat healthy homemade food if you don’t cook and always grab a burger on the way back to home. You fail in your exams if you don’t study (and you know the consequences). If you convince yourself and understand your “why”, you can push yourself.

B) FEARS THAT HOLD YOU BACK
Sometimes you choose not to do a task because you have inhibitions holding you back.

C) YOU ARE TIRED
You want to take action but you feel tired to move even a muscle. Maybe it’s because you have some underlying health problems.
This happens to me often, and I started including more nutritious food in my diet and cut out eating junk.
–>Make exercise a part of your daily life. Exercise makes your body release chemicals called ‘endorphin’. They boost your mood and give you positive energy. When you are brimming with energy, it’s less likely to feel lazy.

2.SET GOALS
Unless you have specific goals, you don’t know what you are working for, and where you are going. Goals give you direction. Decide what you want to achieve in each area of your life. When you don’t know what to do in life and you are just going with the flow taking each day as it comes, it’s difficult to overcome laziness. Let each day of your life have a purpose.

How to set goals?
I use this technique used by the great Tony Robbins.
So, here’s the exercise. Take a piece of paper and start writing. -What kind of person do you want to be or what do you want to achieve in 10 years or in 5 years (If you don’t want to think that long). You can write your goals in every area of your life like career, relationships, travel or business.
Now think backwards.
To accomplish each goal in 5 years, what do you need to accomplish by four years, three years, two years and one year from now? And what should you accomplish in six months from now? Break your big goal into mini goals like this, and reach back all the way till today. Yes, TODAY.
Now you know what to do today, instead of lazing around. I believe when you have goals that won’t let you sleep, it is easy to stop being lazy.

3.ESTABLISH A ROUTINE
Now that you have set goals, plan your ideal day. What activities/tasks would fill your day so that they align with the goals you set? Write down all the important activities that should be done in a day. Allocate time for each. And when the time comes, do it even if you feel like doing it or not. Yes, that’s another key to overcoming laziness. Show up every day, even if you want to or not. When you overcome the initial resistance, it is much easier to carry on.

I don’t always feel like writing. But when the time comes, I open my laptop and start typing. After I overcome the initial resistance, I find it’s easier to keep writing. With boring tasks, I tell myself, “I don’t want to do this, but it will help me to accomplish so and so”. It works! You can apply this to almost everything you want to do. When I started doing something new, I decide to focus on habits. Because what I have come to know after years of experience, is that you achieve success and overcome laziness and procrastination by forming better habits. If u want to develop any personal development traits, U focus on making it a habit. Because when it’s a habit, you are more consistent. Consistency is what leads to success.

4.BREAK BIG TASKS INTO SMALL ONES
–>Sometimes, the enormity of the tasks make you feel overwhelmed and you end up not starting at all.
–>Break your big tasks into small actionable parts. When I want to clean my wardrobe, I do it one drawer a day. It takes only 15-20 minutes a day and I don’t feel as lazy as I would feel if I had to clean the entire wardrobe in a day.
Apply this to all your Himalayan tasks.

5.PLAN FOR THE DAYS YOUR PLANS FAIL
It is said that “how you start your morning determines your day”. Isn’t it true? Think about the days you started by doing productive things, and you felt good the whole day and actively crossed off the items on your list. But what if you started the day by getting up late? Or you decided to act lazy when you should have finished your tasks. Don’t beat yourself up. It can be easy to determine such days are wasted and think “I will start tomorrow.” Don’t do that. Start from where you are.
–>When your plans don’t go well, instead of feeling guilty and pessimistic, still go with your plan. I go with mini habits on such days.
–>If I wanted to do a workout in the morning and didn’t do it, I do a mini version of it in the evening or at least do a warm up. The idea is to stick to your plan (even in small ways) and do not give into laziness, no matter what.
–>After a while, your subconscious mind gets that it is important for you, and sticking to your routine becomes easier.

6.USE LAZINESS AS A REWARD
Overcoming laziness doesn’t have to be difficult when you let yourself be lazy once in a while. Tell yourself, you can laze around when you have done your work. There is no better feeling like relaxing by doing nothing or indulging in any of your favorite self-care activities.
If distractions like the TV, social media, Netflix or other media are the reasons you are lazy, you can reward yourself with these after doing some productive work. “I will reward myself with two episodes of Game of Thrones once I am done with __”, is a good decision to make.

Remember to always choose “Selective laziness over a destructive one”.