I’m lazy. That’s right. And there’s nothing wrong with being lazy at all.
To give you context, here’s what I mean when I say I’m lazy.
If I could snap my fingers and have my dinner prepared for me in a flash, I’d do it without a doubt. That would save me a LOT of time.
If I could turn my laptop on by pressing a button on my smartphone (someone should invent that), then I’d gladly do it.
If I had to decide between shopping online and shopping offline in the supermarket, I’d do it online because it takes less time and less effort.
If I had to choose between shopping in the day time and shopping at night, I’d do it at night. Because there’s less people, less queue’s, less headache and less effort on my part.
Laziness only becomes a problem when you let your lazy tendencies interfere with your life and your priorities.
If laziness is doing exactly that to you, for example – playing video games all day and night, and having your girlfriend bring you food and water because you’re too lazy to do it yourself… (Hopefully it hasn’t gotten that bad for you) Here’s how you can motivate yourself to overcome it.
1. Put the repercussions into perspective.
I used to play video games throughout the day and throughout the night. Almost everyday. Sometimes everyday. Sometimes a few days a week.
Sometimes I’d wake up at 12-2PM in the afternoon. On rare occasions it was 4PM. On a lot of occasions I’d go to bed at 3-5AM after gaming so much playing Halo, etc.
When It became a habit I had no job at the time. I was looking, but I obviously wasn’t putting in enough work as you can probably tell.
I abused my time playing games, after all. Which in business talk, has a poor ROI over the long term.
Imagine how many books I could have read, how much money I could have made, or many important skills I could have developed in that time?
So what did I do about it? Eventually the repercussions were put into perspective. Not by choice either. Here’s what those repercussions looked like.
- Will my future be something to look forward to? Will it be exciting?
- If I keep this up how do I expect to live out my dreams, my goals, and what’s important to me?
- If I keep this up for the next 10 years, I’ll be in my 30’s and 40’s, with no life, no prospects, no career, followed by a miserable future.
- If I keep this up, will I be happy with where my life has taken me 10-20 years from now?
- Will I feel better about myself and how I’m spending my time?
I’m 26 today. For the past 3+ years I’ve been working on myself harder than I ever have in my life. And I haven’t bought a video game ever since.
My priorities and my future are too important for that procrastinating BS. I’ve changed as much as a cocoon changes after morphing into a butterfly.
What about you though? Whatever your situation is in regards to sheer laziness, write out a list of the repercussions of your actions. And put a time line on it. 5 years. 10 years. 20-30 years from now.
How does your life look that far into the future if you continue to do what you’re doing today? If you continue to waste your time on foolishness?
Will your future self be happy with the life he or she has created a decade or so from now?
You already know the answer. And If that’s not motivating enough, I have another solution for you.
2. Commit to your purpose.
I know, I know. It probably sounds corny and is an overused word. But when I say purpose I’m not talking about the “find your life’s purpose, you’ll know it when you see it” BS. It’s a lot simpler than that.
At some point along my journey I realized what was important to me, what mattered, what I care about, what I want my life to look like 100%, and what my reasons were.
And that’s really all it takes to go from being lazy one day, and being so driven the next day that you can’t believe you were ever lazy in the first place.
Ask yourself:
- What do I want my life to look like?
- What are my reasons?
- Who benefits other than myself?
- Why am I doing it?
- Who am I doing this for?
- What’s important to me?
- What is it I care about doing?
- What is it I want out of my life?
- What fulfills me?
- What is it I want to accomplish?
And then write down ALL your answers. Be as detailed as possible. Make it clear. Read over it, and then get to work.
The reason this is a great solution to solving your problems with laziness and procrastination, is because it matters. It’s compelling. It pulls on your heart strings. And it means a LOT to you.
Yes It will take practice and commitment to completely rid yourself of the habit, but these two solutions I’ve laid out will be enough to get you started.
And along your journey if you do ever come to a point where you’re procrastinating, or wanting to be lazy, simply ask these questions again.
Look at your questions again. Look over your answers. Then your focus will switch to what’s important to you. And your actions will speak for themselves.
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