Laziness: a Personal Story of Conquer

June 20, 2007

Laziness is great isn?t it? There really isn?t anything better than spending a day in your pajamas with a significant other, eating junk food and watching TV, only getting up when it?s absolutely necessary and living like a great, fluffy panda bear. Ah. That?s the good life, right? These days off are great now and again for us all to take a breather from our working lives and our constant goal seeking and just veg out and be lazy. Too many of these days however, lead to nothing but more laziness and eventually to illness and unhappiness. What? Laziness is bad for you? I didn?t sign up for this!

Sadly, it?s true, and I know it as well as anyone. You see . . . I?m a college student. That explains everything doesn?t it? I recently took a year off from my schooling to think long and hard about what I wanted to do with my life and what my next steps and my next college should be. I soon decided that since there would be no college for another year and I could survive for a while without a full time job, I started doing contract web design and programming work from home and worked in my off time indulging in my passion for self improvement. The only problem with my plan was that I had too much time off and quickly fell into the lazy trap. I would stay up late, sleep late and generally find great excuses to explain to myself why I wasn?t working toward any of my goals.

This went on for a few months. I wanted to lose weight, but that really wasn?t going anywhere once I decided that running hurt too much and that food just tasted too good. I didn?t gain anymore weight than I already had, but I certainly didn?t lose any. I suddenly developed the habit of being incredibly forgetful and incredibly tired all of time. I had usually been great at handling sleep deprivation and a fair multi-tasker when it came down to taking on many responsibilities at once. After a few months I began to realize that not only was I basically wasting a year, but I was destroying myself in the process. All of my good habits were slipping away and being replaced by forgetfulness, lethargy and general apathy. Okay, I had the apathy before hand, but it got a lot worse as the months went by.

Slowly, I began to turn this rushing tide of laziness and began to find that my energy picked up, the more I picked my energy up. It sounds counterintuitive, but it?s true. The more energy I expended, the more energy I seemed to have. The less energy I expended, the less energy I seemed to have. I realized that I could turn myself around, just by doing things. And they didn?t have to be big or overly important things, I just had to do things. Exercise a little; write a little; program a little; go get a part-time job a little. So I began to find that the more hours I used up in my day the more usable hours I had. Again, this result seemed counterintuitive. I had always guarded my time like it was gold. I didn?t want to have to do anything that took up too much of my precious time, even though I wasn?t doing anything with my time as it was. Then the more I began to fill up that free time, the more time I seemed to have in the day. Days went slower and I could not only get more done, but I could enjoy my downtime more.

So what?s the moral of my little personal story? Well, it?s not poetic and Aesop wouldn?t be proud, but it is simply this: Do Stuff. Short and sweet. Laziness begets laziness and the more time you try to covet, the less time you?ll have to enjoy. Use your time and you?ll find you have more of it. Use your energy and you?ll find you have more of it. It?s all abundance. So get up, get out and Do Stuff. This blog will still be here when you get back.

Posted in Determination, Motivation, Self Improvement