Faith Of The Mind

To control your mind to positive and beneficial purposes is to have ultimate faith in your mind and its genuine abilities. Not to control your mind is fear, and laziness. With that, I begin this article. Mastery is simply a full affirmation of control and productive discipline. Without control and productive discipline from the beginning, nothing is possible. A good or great life is disciplined in itself and is controlled from within. Bad lives are simply devoid of this quality.

Letting the "heart lead you wherever" is the most destructive thing you can do, for genuine intuition involves both the heart and the mind. Indeed, the biggest loss in life is to close your inner eyes or stop thinking, because if you let someone else do it for you in this way, it will be done wrong to you in some way, whether there are good or bad intentions involved. What I am saying is, remember yourself and watch yourself, because nobody is really looking out for "number two", they are always looking out for "number one" or themselves and it does not matter how charitable they may seem. That may seem gross and sickening in a way, but, I am just telling the reality of all situations in life and existence. Laziness is not rewarded. Vigilance is always rewarded, within yourself and outside of yourself. After all, why do you think the "easy way" almost never works easily, while hard, concentrated effort almost always gets it genuinely, every time.

Faithfulness of the mind requires hard work, not being lazy, and realistic vigilance anyhow. The way to lose is to embrace fully the "get rich quick scheme" at full intensity anyhow.

Sure, this may sound patient, realistic and insufferable to some of you. But those who achieve their goals get to work on their definite major purpose. Those who do not achieve anything are lazy, but have made a decision also to do nothing. Everything comes to those with a definite purpose, persistent work and honestly wanted goals.

So, when I call this article "Faith of the Mind", you now have an idea of what I mean without too much effrontery or pretense. I mean, you must have a purpose to what you are doing, a definite purpose. Without a purpose and genuine work ethic, nothing can be achieved. There are so many seeming failures because people are trying to achieve the purposes of other people and not their own. Have you noticed something about success? Success is people achieving their own purposes in reality and the purposes of nobody else. That kind of success is what a genuinely faithful mind, heart and everything else come down to anyhow. Realistically, I will not mince any words: All of this is what we make it.

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7 Tips to Conquer Procrastination

Many of us have put off something that needs to be done. Procrastination is seen in many different ways, such as laziness, having a faulty sense of time, or simply wishing to avoid an unpleasant situation. In many cases, they try to avoid stress related situations, but the actual delay in taking action can in fact lead to more distress in the long-term.

Procrastination can result in general poor performance, health problems and increased stress. Those that procrastinate the most are likely to live with greater stressful regret and have more sleep related issues. Also, they are likely to have more self-critical thoughts that further increase the likelihood of putting off tasks.

However, there are a variety of practical solutions that can help to conquer procrastination, from breaking up projects into smaller tasks to make it feel less overwhelming to finding the most appropriate time to engage in a particular activity.

Here are a few useful tips to help conquer procrastination:

Know when to work

A lack of focus can be eliminated in many situations if able to establish when you work best. Try to identify the time of day you are the most creative or do your best thinking. You can see a significant increase in your focus and concentration if able to work during the most productive hours of your day.

Don't get involved in multitasking

Multitasking has the potential to diminish your productivity and is mentally exhausting. For this reason, a large-scale project should be broken down into several pieces that includes a start and end point, and has no interruptions in the flow of work. There is less risk of being interrupted when it gets close to completing a project.

Be more disciplined and develop routines

There are plenty of times when workloads can become unmanageable. An effective way to avoid missing timelines and procrastination is to be a lot more disciplined and develop specific routines. Proper time management is essential in many environments and increases the ability to meet deadlines.

Try to understand why you are procrastinating

Finding the root cause of what makes you procrastinate is certain to make you more productive in your day-to-day life. There are plenty of reasons which can range from a resistance to hard work, fear related issues, or even self-sabotage. If you are able to appreciate your reasons for procrastinating, that can become useful knowledge when looking to make changes and make your life more focused and productive.

Identify your most important priorities

Take a moment to list the most important professional and personal priorities in your life. Any day started without a plan can lead to a lot of time wasted doing little or unimportant task. In the worst case situation, you can easily spend the entire day on tasks that have little meaning or value to you.

Create a list of distractions that impact your daily life

A useful way to avoid procrastinating is to create a list of anything that is distracting to your daily life or stops you completing a project. Put these distractions on hold until the more important things are complete. Anything that may be causing a distraction can be used as a reward or inception to get something done in a timely fashion.

Use an accountability coach or buddy

Many people have difficulty focusing when they have so many priorities and tasks to complete. Or, there is the risk of freezing up when something arises that you would prefer not to do. A common fear is that a task won't turn out as desired or achieve the desired result. You may start to create excuses to avoid any distress which leads to being less productive. A great method to being productive is to have an accountability coach. They are great to share emails with and set out clear guidelines on future tasks and goals.

http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Tips-to-Conquer-Procrastination&id=9863104

2 Quick Ways to Overcome Laziness and Procrastination

Laziness can sometimes lead to creativity when you are taking a break from a problem you cannot solve. Some research suggest that lazy people are the most creative. It is not hard to believe this when you see some of the inventions such as the television remote control. Instead of getting up to switch off the TV you just flip the channels. Laziness and procrastination can be positive sometimes to recharge and distress, but can also cause dreams that are not realized. For every major accomplishment there is a first step. It takes getting up and seating on a laptop to write a business plan, it sometimes takes discipline to fill up forms to get funding for your business or improve your CV for the next c-suite position. All of these are actions taken with an intention to accomplish a goal. When we are lazy and procrastinating we fail to act and rationalize about why the present is not a good time to act.

We give ourselves excuses and postpone action using our internal dialog, "the rain is too loud I can't call right now", "the computer is too slow to accomplish work", "I am too tired"... or "I will do it tomorrow still"... and so on. When you get lazy and procrastinate this can sometimes set you back in terms of goal achievement. The sad thing is you won't always know it because you cannot tell when your inability to update your CV, or to write a business plan and apply for funding has led you to a lost opportunity. This article shares 2 quick ways to overcome laziness:

1. Have future focus instead of present focus

When we are lazy and procrastinating we are driven by present focus - the pleasure of seating in a couch watching TV instead of exercising can sometimes overcome your good intentions to keep fit. Sleeping instead of starting the day early is much easier to do for most of us. Pain and pleasure drives the actions that we take - the pain of taking action and getting up versus the pleasure of seating in the couch and watching television. We might feel more pleasure in relaxing and putting out action and associate more pain to getting up or leaving the couch. In the present focus we might even forget what is good for us in the long term.

In order to discipline yourself and overcome laziness and procrastination, awareness in terms of how pleasure and pain influence your actions is important. In order to overcome laziness. You need to replace present pleasure that you experience in whatever it is that you are doing by the anticipated future pleasure you will gain from acting immediately. Runners do this very well. When going for a run most runners hardly think about the long road that they will face. Instead they think about the feeling of accomplishment that they will experience after running. Accomplishments allow us to experience feelings of satisfaction, fulfilment and joy knowing that we have taken action. To overcome laziness the focus should be on the expected pleasurable feelings that we will receive from accomplishing a task. Used well, the expected feelings of accomplishment can easily replace perceived present pleasure from not acting.

I doubt if anyone would be encouraged to overcome laziness and go to the gym if they thought of all the hard work they would have to do at gym and the muscle pain. Instead those who go to gym think about the rewards after gym such as being physically fit and having positive body image. Gym fanatics overlook what most people see as pleasure when they do not exercise and replace present pleasure with future anticipated gain i.e. being physically fit, muscular, weight loss and so on.

You might ask yourself how to do this from a practical point of view? Here is how - Let's say that you are seating in a couch lazy to exercise enjoying the pleasure of the moment. To get yourself encouraged to exercise begin picturing anticipated future pleasure from exercising. See yourself having completed your exercise - this can be running, going to the gym or doing a few exercises in your own home. Experience before hand how happy you will feel about yourself knowing you stuck to your plan and completed your exercise routine. Picture yourself in the future having positive body image and feeling healthier. Feel the intensity of this positive feelings in your heart. As you experience the positive feelings get up immediately, wear your gym clothes and exercise. You will find that you have more power overcoming laziness when you visualize positive future results like this.

2. Always act immediately

Most of the time, laziness and procrastination manifests itself as a result of the internal debate we have with ourselves prior to taking action. Often before pushing ourselves to get up from bed we ask ourselves questions, "should I get up now?", "Maybe I should sleep 10 minutes more", "I am going to run late maybe I should wake up?", "How about calling in sick?" Depending on the day, you either defeat your thoughts and get up or you get defeated and sleep until late.

To overcome laziness and procrastination it is best that you act immediately on whatever it is that you want to do before the internal debate starts. This will help you change the pattern that laziness and procrastination causes. So always and always act immediately when you need to do something without allowing yourself to have an internal debate.

http://ezinearticles.com/?2-Quick-Ways-to-Overcome-Laziness-and-Procrastination&id=9455487

Bad Excuses (By Wilson Horrell)

I have bad knees, at least I did. That's why I didn't run. I also had a bad back, which is why I didn't lift weights. OK, maybe the bad back was more for the pain pills, but either way, it was a crappy excuse. I could tell people that I had bad knees from playing football... in high school... until I was seventeen. I thought it was a good excuse and maybe even made me sound cool. You know, maybe I could have people believe that I was some sort of gridiron god who sacrificed the use of his lower body for the glory of the game. There are a lot of us who want this, and cling tightly to it. We all have "bad knees". Either way, my excuses are garbage.

You know who has "bad knees"? Larry Csonka. Martina Navratilova. Jim Brown has "bad knees". Kirk Gibson has "bad knees". Those are people who can use the term "bad knees" as if it is a legitimate medical diagnosis. I will let them slide. They have "bad knees" because it would take a month for them to rattle off all of the legitimate medical problems which they have been diagnosed.

Yours truly? Well, his diagnosis is more along the lines of overall laziness, denial, delusion, and unwillingness to sacrifice some discomfort in order to become a little more physically fit in an effort to enhance the quality of his life.

The reality is that I truly believed myself to have bad knees and a bad back. Society reinforced this by accepting such lameness. People are more than willing to shake their head and give you a sympathetic pat on the back. Sure, my knees were sore after years of playing a contact sport, but that was not an excuse to not use them again for the rest of my life. Lots of people play contact sports, who suffer far worse injuries than I ever did... they just choose not to dwell on them for the next couple of decades.

Yes, it hurts when I run.

Would you like to know why?

Because physical activity is uncomfortable, and progress requires discomfort.

Yes, my back hurts when I squat, or deadlift.

Would you like to know why?

Because I have mobility issues in my hips, and I am unwilling to take the time to do the proper stretches and mobility work required to correct the issue. Stretching is not sexy, and I want to spend my time doing the grunting, meathead movements that appeal to me. But, to say that any part of my body is "bad", without having, at the very least, a long string of hard to pronounce words with a Latin origin, is an excuse, not a reason.

I hear this so often. We all do. We all know a dozen people with a "bad back" or "bad knees", but we know far less with a clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and physical therapy plan to help correct the issue. We have become so accustomed to surrender. We just accept these physical limitations as truth, and prepare to lay down and die.

Now, I am not saying that everyone, or anyone, should run, walk, bike, swim, or lift weights. What I am saying is that if your excuse for not doing any of these things is because you have a "bad ____" that "hurts when I ____", you are making a poor excuse.

Here are some perfectly acceptable reasons, which I don't view as excuses. They are honest and valid. They are based on opinion, and I have no problem accepting honest opinions, my problem is with delusional excuses... which I have many.

"I don't exercise because it sucks."

"I don't CrossFit because I think you are all the highest level of douchebags on the planet."

"I don't run because I have better things to do with my time than experience heavy breathing, raw nipples, chafed thighs, and overall discomfort for the sake of shaving off a few minutes from some 5k time."

"I don't swim because I am a land dwelling mammal, who has not the least desire to strap on an ugly water cap and goofy looking goggles."

"I don't bike because I don't want to cruise around in a pack of egotistical goobs that look like uncomfortable alien people."

I can accept all of these as valid reasons. My point is not that everyone should exercise. My point is that I played the same tape through my head, over and over, for a period of years, and eventually I whole-heartedly believed the bullcrap that I was manufacturing. People have real issues, with very real limitations. However, I think there are many, many more people who just want to believe what is most comfortable.

Yes, running can make your knees hurt when you get old.

You know what else will make your knees hurt?

Old age. Carrying 300lbs worth of cheetos in your tits and lovehandles.

Yes, lifting can be hard on your back.

You know what else can give you back trouble as you get older?

Old age. Laying on a couch or recliner during every moment that you are not hunched behind a computer screen. So will carrying around a few hundred pounds of assorted gas station chicken tenders, jalepenos poppers, roller foods, and ordering enough cheese-bread and pizza that you send your delivery boy a graduation gift.

If you sing tenor in a roof-raising choir and you have a chronic sore throat, you don't tell people that you have a "bad throat". If you're lead guitar in a badass rock band and you can't feel the tips of your fingers, you don't tell people that you have "bad fingers". If you are a passionate writer who becomes dizzy and can't see the screen, you don't tell folks that you have "bad eyes". If you are a horsepower addicted mechanic and you can't grip a wrench, you don't tell people you have "bad hands". Hell no, you don't. You get down to causes and conditions. You won't accept a vague, blanketed excuse. You become willing to visit every doctor, lawyer, and Indian chief you can find within a gas tank from where you live.

I don't trust me. I'm not asking you to, either. I'm grateful to have the self awareness and willingness to look at my bad reasoning and identify these as excuses. There are plenty of reason to not do things that I can accept, but if I am falling under the delusion of a poorly placed excuse, well... I have peeps for that. I have community. I have people who listen to my thoughts, my strategies, and my motives. These people are who I rely on to keep me grounded, honest, and in somewhat of a realistic state.

Give that something a try. Try that thing in spite of the limiting factor, which has been holding you back for all these years. Through years of life, hardship, and personal growth, that limiting factor might have reduced into a hiccup or dissolved entirely, because you are stronger person now. Take that chance.

Try that thing.

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Re-Thinking What You Know To Be True (By John P Hickey)

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity." - Gilda Radner

It was a lovely late summer day and I was doing some research for an article I was writing about education. I went to all my familiar source and read a lot of stuff that I fully agreed with and that all seemed to agree with each other. Then I came across a well known quote by General George S. Patton which said, "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." And it hit me like a bat to the head. That somebody was me.

Have you ever gotten so use to thinking in a certain way that you really stop thinking and just accept things as they are? This does not mean that the things you were thinking are wrong, that may be or they may not be, the point is whether or not you even bother to think about it anymore. In my case, I found that on some issues I have been either thinking as I have been directed to think or just not thinking at all.

Here is the good news, this discovery of mine started a process that would change everything for me. It got me to think. I am always amazed how God seems to move in our lives when we least expect it and many times, do not even notice we need it. The fact that I was so blindly willing to accept what I was told was shocking to me. For most of us, we trust and believe people we think are smarter than we are. We turn to the experts for guidance and advice. Nothing wrong with that by the way. What we also do, and this is the mistake, we allow them to think for us. Funny thing is that so many of them believe they should think for us and are expecting our blind obedience.

I am reminded of a statement made by Harper Lee, author of the classic book, To Kill A Mocking Bird. Lee said, "The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think." That goes for people, classes, programs and all sources of information. It is good to get all the knowledge you can from good reliable sources. However, a good source of knowledge will get you to think more than just tell you what to think.

Many years ago I served in the Salvation Army. I was a new Christian and had a desire to serve God by serving His people. I worked in a corps in Rutland, Vermont under an old Brigadier, Thelma Bassett. She had spent her whole life in the Salvation Army and was on in years when I met her. The Brigadier, as we called her, and I fought all the time. It seemed that whatever I said or believed she would question. This was most common when it came to matters of faith. Even if I knew she agreed with me, she would question it. At first it made me crazy, but as I grew and gained some maturity myself, I saw what she was doing. Brigadier got me to think. She taught me a lesson I have cherished to this day. Never believe something just because someone said you should. Know why you believe what you believe. Think!

There are two great misconceptions about re-thinking that cause people to back away from it. One is that others who are more educated, more successful, more powerful, older, richer or have more authority know what is best and therefore should not be questioned. The other is that you do not have the smarts, information or energy to figure these things out for yourself. Let's take a moment and look at these.

First we need to understand that just because someone says they know something or have a degree in a subject does not mean they do know it any better than you. There are a lot of fools with PhD's running around. Look at the mess this world is in. Believe me, it was not the thinking of the average person that got us here. Besides, many educated people only know what they were told. A degree does not mean you are capable of thinking.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti-education. I believe in getting as much education as you can and learning every day. However, I do agree with the host of the TV program, Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe, who said, "Not all knowledge comes from college." Your greatest education will come from outside the class room not in it. Taking a formal class is great and I encourage it, but taking a class does not let you off the hook from thinking.

Here is an easy action step that will pay off every time you use it. Question Everything! Do your own research and get the facts. Think and ask yourself rich, powerful questions that lead to rich and powerful answers. Read books, listen to others who have knowledge of the subject, put it together and think it through. You may very well come up with the same conclusion as you were taught. Wonderful! Then again, you may find something different. You may add to that knowledge you are taught and make a new discovery.

Think of it this way. Orville and Wilber Wright did not discover the laws of aerodynamics. Those laws were always there. What they did is study the knowledge that was available and by thinking and testing they expanded it. In the end, they achieved flight. Orville once said, "Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!" The laws that made that happen were always there, they just use their thinking to discover it. You can do that as well. If you study the life of Orville and Wilber Wright you will see they were ordinary people. Not great brains and highly educated. These were men with a dream - like you - who did not accept what they were told but used their thinking to make a difference. As Orville said, "If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance."

The same is true for others who thought "they knew best". History is filled with stories of people of power and position who told common, everyday men and women who had a dream that it could not be done. But these men and women did it anyway. They thought for themselves and figured it out. If it was not for those who re-think what others believe to be true, we would still be living in huts. I love the thinking of a man who did the impossible over and over again, Walt Disney, who said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

The other battle in the one fought from the inside. It is hard to fight the forces from without that tell you it can't be done or that they know the truth and you do not. It is harder to fight that battle with the person inside your head. The only talk that really can hurt you is self talk. The thinking that tells yourself you do not have what it takes to succeed or to figure things out. You start to believe that you cannot think on the level of others. You question your education, your finances, your ability, everything but question the thinking that gets you here.

Again, I encourage you to study the lives of great achievers. You will find them to be ordinary people who believed they could do extraordinary things. You can too. You have all the ability you need to fulfill your dreams and to accomplish your goals in life. You can - and must - make a difference. Author and speaker, Zig Ziglar put it this way, "You don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great."

Use what you have available to you right now and start to learn, grow and think. You have more resources at your fingertips today than Galileo, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Isaac Newton had in their life time - combined. Today we can search on line and find materials, studies, papers and books that others have never even dream were possible. It is sad that with the increase in available knowledge we have a decrease in usage.

Let me bring up one more self inflicted issue that is also very common and that is laziness. Many times people do not think for themselves simply because it is hard work. I will be honest and tell you it is very hard work to question and seek out answers. Thinking is not for the weak and unwilling. It takes years to make discoveries and many, many hours of hard work. However, the person who invests the time and energy to thinking through problems is rewarded with wonderful answers.

You hold the power to your knowledge. You are the one who will determine your destiny. Will you settle for what others tell you or will you make your own discoveries? Will you allow what you have learned to be a stepping stone to more learning or will you allow that stone to seal your tomb? The choice is yours. Choose wisely.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Re-Thinking-What-You-Know-To-Be-True&id=7979132

2 Quick Ways to Overcome Laziness and Procrastination

Laziness can sometimes lead to creativity when you are taking a break from a problem you cannot solve. Some research suggest that lazy people are the most creative. It is not hard to believe this when you see some of the inventions such as the television remote control. Instead of getting up to switch off the TV you just flip the channels. Laziness and procrastination can be positive sometimes to recharge and distress, but can also cause dreams that are not realized. For every major accomplishment there is a first step. It takes getting up and seating on a laptop to write a business plan, it sometimes takes discipline to fill up forms to get funding for your business or improve your CV for the next c-suite position. All of these are actions taken with an intention to accomplish a goal. When we are lazy and procrastinating we fail to act and rationalize about why the present is not a good time to act.

We give ourselves excuses and postpone action using our internal dialog, "the rain is too loud I can't call right now", "the computer is too slow to accomplish work", "I am too tired"... or "I will do it tomorrow still"... and so on. When you get lazy and procrastinate this can sometimes set you back in terms of goal achievement. The sad thing is you won't always know it because you cannot tell when your inability to update your CV, or to write a business plan and apply for funding has led you to a lost opportunity. This article shares 2 quick ways to overcome laziness:

1. Have future focus instead of present focus

When we are lazy and procrastinating we are driven by present focus - the pleasure of seating in a couch watching TV instead of exercising can sometimes overcome your good intentions to keep fit. Sleeping instead of starting the day early is much easier to do for most of us. Pain and pleasure drives the actions that we take - the pain of taking action and getting up versus the pleasure of seating in the couch and watching television. We might feel more pleasure in relaxing and putting out action and associate more pain to getting up or leaving the couch. In the present focus we might even forget what is good for us in the long term.

In order to discipline yourself and overcome laziness and procrastination, awareness in terms of how pleasure and pain influence your actions is important. In order to overcome laziness. You need to replace present pleasure that you experience in whatever it is that you are doing by the anticipated future pleasure you will gain from acting immediately. Runners do this very well. When going for a run most runners hardly think about the long road that they will face. Instead they think about the feeling of accomplishment that they will experience after running. Accomplishments allow us to experience feelings of satisfaction, fulfilment and joy knowing that we have taken action. To overcome laziness the focus should be on the expected pleasurable feelings that we will receive from accomplishing a task. Used well, the expected feelings of accomplishment can easily replace perceived present pleasure from not acting.

I doubt if anyone would be encouraged to overcome laziness and go to the gym if they thought of all the hard work they would have to do at gym and the muscle pain. Instead those who go to gym think about the rewards after gym such as being physically fit and having positive body image. Gym fanatics overlook what most people see as pleasure when they do not exercise and replace present pleasure with future anticipated gain i.e. being physically fit, muscular, weight loss and so on.

You might ask yourself how to do this from a practical point of view? Here is how - Let's say that you are seating in a couch lazy to exercise enjoying the pleasure of the moment. To get yourself encouraged to exercise begin picturing anticipated future pleasure from exercising. See yourself having completed your exercise - this can be running, going to the gym or doing a few exercises in your own home. Experience before hand how happy you will feel about yourself knowing you stuck to your plan and completed your exercise routine. Picture yourself in the future having positive body image and feeling healthier. Feel the intensity of these positive feelings in your heart. As you experience the positive feelings get up immediately, wear your gym clothes and exercise. You will find that you have more power overcoming laziness when you visualize positive future results like this.

2. Always act immediately

Most of the time, laziness and procrastination manifests itself as a result of the internal debate we have with ourselves prior to taking action. Often before pushing ourselves to get up from bed we ask ourselves questions, "should I get up now?", "Maybe I should sleep 10 minutes more", "I am going to run late maybe I should wake up?", "How about calling in sick?" Depending on the day, you either defeat your thoughts and get up or you get defeated and sleep until late.

To overcome laziness and procrastination it is best that you act immediately on whatever it is that you want to do before the internal debate starts. This will help you change the pattern that laziness and procrastination causes. So always and always act immediately when you need to do something without allowing yourself to have an internal debate.

http://ezinearticles.com/?2-Quick-Ways-to-Overcome-Laziness-and-Procrastination&id=9455487

How To Motivate Yourself To Overcome Total Laziness

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.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/motivate-overcome-total-laziness/

12 Tips to Overcome Laziness

      

What is laziness?

It is the desire to be idle, to do nothing and resist effort.

It is a state of passivity and of letting things stay as they are.

Sometimes, we enjoy being a little lazy, such as after working hard for several hours, or on a very cold or warm day, but if this state occurs too often, something has to be done about it.

In order to carry out our chores, work efficiently, live to the fullest, and achieve success, we must learn how to overcome laziness.

Simple tips for overcoming laziness:

1) Break down a task into smaller tasks

We often avoid tasks because we find them too big, too overwhelming, too tiring, or taking too much of our time.

Breaking a task into several smaller tasks can solve this problem. Then, each one will not seem so difficult or intimidating. Instead of having one big task, we will have a series of small tasks, which do not require too much effort.

This approach can be applied not only to tasks, but also to goals and everything else we have or need to do. This will tend to melt much of the laziness and inner resistance we often experience.

2) Rest, sleep and exercise

In some cases, laziness is due to being tired and lacking energy. If this is true in your case, you need to give yourself the rest and sleep you need, and also give your body enough exercise and fresh air.

3) Motivation

In some cases, the reason for laziness is due to lack of motivation. You can strengthen your motivation through affirmations, visualization and thinking about the importance of performing your task or chore or achieving your goal.

4) Have a vision of what and who you want to be

Frequently reflecting on the person we want to be, the goals we want to achieve, and the life we want to live, can motivate us to act.

5) Think about benefits

Think about the benefits you will gain if you overcome your laziness and take action, instead of thinking about the difficulties or obstacles. Focusing on the difficulties of the task or action lead to discouragement, avoidance of taking action and to laziness. It is important that you focus your mind and attention on the benefits, not on the difficulties.

6) Thinking about the consequences

Think about what will happen, if you succumb to laziness, and don't perform your task or chore. Thinking about the consequences, if you do not act, can also push you to take action.

7) Doing one thing at a time

Focus on doing one thing at a time. If you feel you have a lot to do, you will probably feel overwhelmed and let laziness overcome you, instead of you overcoming laziness.

8) Visualisation

Your imagination has a great influence on your mind, habits and action. Visualize yourself performing the task easily, energetically and enthusiastically. Do so before starting with a task or goal, and also when you feel lazy, or when your mind whispers to you to abandon what you are doing.

9) Repeat affirmations

Tell yourself:

"I can accomplish my goal."

"I have the energy and motivation to act and do whatever I want or have to do."

"Doing things makes me stronger."

"Doing things makes things happen."

10) Regards a task as an exercise

Consider each task as an exercise to make you stronger, more decisive and more assertive.

11) Procrastination

Avoid procrastination, which is a form of laziness. If there is something you have to do, why not do it right now and get through with it? Why let it stay nagging at the back of your head?

12) Learn from successful people

Watch successful people, and how they do not let laziness win. Learn from them, talk with them and associate with them.

Overcoming the habit of laziness is achieved through a series of daily actions and activities, when you choose to act, instead of remaining passive. Every time you overcome your laziness you get stronger. Every time you choose to act, you increase your ability to win, achieve goals and improve your life.

http://www.successconsciousness.com/overcoming-laziness.htm