Laziness - in it's true form

Laziness is a vicious cycle. You don't feel like doing anything, so you don't, and then you feel like a failure, which makes you depressed, which makes you feel like not doing anything.

I never thought I would see myself as lazy. When I was in junior college, I worked two, sometimes three jobs while carrying a full load. At my four-year university, I worked 25 to 30 hours a week while taking a full load in a slightly accelerated program. My senior year, I got sick and couldn't eat or sleep very well, which made finishing school exhausting and very challenging.

Then I graduated and moved home. And slept. Cooked dinner. Read a book. Checked Facebook. For the first month or so, I think it was necessary to relax and recuperate. I needed to gain weight, I needed to sleep and eat regularly, I needed rest.

But five months have gone by and I still prefer to spend the day “recuperating.” The things on my to-do list get erased - not because I did them, but because I found an excuse for why I can't or they aren't important.

Today, as I was walking home from my second trip to the grocery store (forgot to get walnuts and return the movie to Red Box) I realized something. It was as if all of my nap taking, excuse making, channel flipping, Facebook checking, and snooze-button hitting had finally found a name – and that name was LAZY.

I am lazy. Which is hard to admit, especially since I grew up in a house with eleven commandments – the first ten, plus “thou shalt not be lazy.” It's not an easy thing to admit to yourself, especially since LAZY has a friend called EXCUSES.

So I decided that this is a problem, and I need to kick my lazy habit. To start with, I Googled “Cure for laziness” and read what some psychologists and personal-development coaches had to say.

You might be lazy if:

• you are motivated by how you feel more than what is necessary.
• you are always blaming other people and situations for your poor performance.
• you only do what you need to get by, sometimes not even that.

My brother Mark is known in my family for his impeccable logic. He told me once how he decides if he is going to procrastinate or not. I thought it was brilliant.

I just say to myself “I'll be good so that future Mark can have fun.” And then future Mark looks back and says “Thanks, past Mark. Sucks to be you, but Woo-Hoo!” Or sometimes, past Mark wants to have all the fun, and then future Mark always says “Past Mark, you SUCK!”

One of the professionals I found said something similar – that there are two roads, each with a hill that prevents us from seeing the destination. One is the responsible action road, which doesn't look very pleasant. The other is the fun road, which is much more appealing. But on the other side of the hill, the action road ends in the pleasantness of achievement, while the fun road ends in failure and depression.

We have to decide which will motivate us  – the ease of the trail, or the place that it takes us.

"A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich" - Proverbs 10:4