Is Laziness a Good Thing?

By Rawan Albina ( @RawanAlbina)

Are you a starter or a completer? Do you find that you often get excited about new ideas and new activities, start them and soon enough just lose interest and move on to something else? You might start feeling guilty about it, blaming yourself and that voice in your head starts reminding you of all the previous times you have done exactly the same thing… “When will you ever learn? You are just a starter. You can never finish anything! You are lazy and a procrastinator, so why waste your time and energy?”

If this sounds like you, do not worry, you are not alone! Instead of putting yourself down, step out of this negative space into a more curious one; a space where you are not judging yourself, but rather trying to understand your relationship to laziness and procrastination. Try replacing your “why” questions with “what” questions for a change. So “why am I so lazy” turns into “what does laziness mean to me? What does it bring me?” “What do I like about being lazy and what do I hate about it?”

You can also ask a “who” question: “who am I being when I am low on energy and do not feel like doing anything?”

Laziness is very connected to the self-limiting beliefs that are imposed on us as children by our family, school and society. When you grow up with the idea that laziness is a bad thing, you can never accept it as a part of you. The feeling of guilt will always be there to accompany it.

You must be thinking this is crazy! Is she actually saying that laziness is a good thing? Well, it depends on how you look at it. From my experience working with clients from all walks of life, anything that creates a feeling of guilt in you is worth investigating. We all make mistakes and instead of judging ourselves, we should be able to forgive ourselves and allow ourselves to learn and grow from the lesson presented. You can either choose laziness and procrastination to be part of your life or not! A very important concept to understand is the fact that whenever you are being lazy you are deciding to be lazy; you are actually making that choice.

So is choosing to be lazy always a bad thing? Not necessarily. In today’s day and age, laziness has become a luxury. Life has become so fast that we constantly feel like we are running; always heading somewhere. Sometimes we are not even sure where we are heading.
I encourage you to stop every now and then and give your body and your mind a much-needed break. Allow yourself to be lazy without feeling guilty. Just make sure that laziness is a choice, not an excuse. When you decide to be lazy you are in control. This means that you have your priorities sorted and you are not procrastinating on an important task. Whatever is in the pipeline can actually wait.

It is only when laziness and procrastination become a habit that they become dangerous.

Here is a typical day in the life of a procrastinator: they sleep late, their body does not get the rest it needs to refuel and start a fresh new day, they drag themselves to work, get there late, rely on coffee to keep them awake, half focus on the tasks that need to be done for the day, have a quick most probably unhealthy lunch because they need to get back to work, try hard not to fall asleep on their desk and end up staying late to meet the deadlines for the day while postponing any items that can wait till the next day. They were meant to go to the gym after work but obviously do not have any energy left so they get home, grab a bite and fall asleep on the sofa watching TV.

And this is how the cycle starts. Delaying things like sleep, meals, work tasks, workout, fun, time with family and friends… and the list goes on and on until you are actually delaying your own life. You keep saying to yourself that you will see that friend you have not seen in so long tomorrow or learn a new language or an instrument next month. But the reality is unless you stop right now and take control you will wake up one day and wish you had. Do not allow feelings of guilt and inadequacy consume you. Take charge now because life waits for no one.

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Rawan Albina is a Dubai-based professional coach. You can learn more about her and her work by:
– Visiting her website www.leapconsultancy.ae
– Follow her on Twitter @RawanAlbina
– Or join her Facebook Fan Page “Life on a Treadmill”
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