I dont think I would not describe myself as a lazy person and most people who are familiar with me would probably say I'm not. Typically I like to be productive, work on ideas and learn something or plan my next ste. However, I'm not always the most conscientious person, and laziness comes in very devious ways at times.
Not the obvious one where you don't do anything throughout the day.
The bad kind that involves repeating the same excuse over and over – “I'll do it later.”
One incident comes to mind.
There was an important piece of writing that I needed to finish a few months ago, It wasn't too hard and I knew what I wanted to write. I projected that it would take me about 2 hours to finish up.
Two hours.
That's all.
I just couldn't seem to get around to it though.
I said to myself on the first day I wasn't "in the mood", On the second day, I told myself I had to do more research.
Each time I thought of it, I'd get a little uneasy. Rather than sitting down and finishing it, I would browse through my social media and watch a couple of videos, check out messages or do a random activity that appeared urgent.
The peculiar thing about being lazy is, it's not always nice to be lazy.
Sometimes it's exhausting.
I couldn't feel accomplished, because I was not making progress.
I was walking around with the burden of work unfinished, but not receiving the payoff that comes with the completion of that work.
Fifth day, I was tired of my excuses.
At that night I sitted down, closed off all the distractions, turned on my laptop and began.
Can you guess what happened?, It's exactly what you would expect, It only took a couple of hours to complete the whole task.
5 days of delay.
2 hours of real work.
I recall giggling at myself once I was done.
Not because it was funny at the time, but because I thought to myself, how many times do we make a bigger issue in our heads than there needs to be?
The task was not an easy one.
It was only getting started that was difficult.
That is something I have observed about being lazy.
Most times it's not the work that we're avoiding, it's our inner self, It's the pain of starting.
After we begin moving, it is typically easier.
Momentum takes over.
Ideas begin flowing.
Progress becomes visible.
We feel like the task is larger than it is if we don't begin, however.
From then on I have been trying to take my own advice on a simple lesson.
Whenever I think, "I'll do it later" I ask myself if the task will be easier later and Most of the time, the answer is no, In fact it's more difficult as the deadline approaches and pressure builds.
But my recent bout with laziness did not turn out to be a bad experience.
It was finished and all went well.
It did teach me something though.
Often the peace taken away by procrastination outweighs the peace gained by the job.
Sometimes it isn't the perfect motivation that makes the person feel better.
It's simply starting.
The other thing that we've been dreading for days can be done in a matter of minutes more often than not.
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