9 ways to tackle laziness (not how you think!)
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Some days with all the best will in the world it seems impossible to get yourself into productivity mode. You know how it is, you’ve got some amazing plans that you are excited about and loads to do but can’t get your a** in gear. I’ve been experiencing a lot of this recently and I’m sure I’m not alone. Feelings of self-judgement and self-doubt rise to the surface “how much can I really want this?”, “have I really got what it takes?” yada yada yada.Things like physical activity help but what about those days where it seems as though nothing can shift it? Inspired while commenting on Alex Shalman’s recent post “11 ways to jump out of a lazy rut” here are 9 ways I use that help:
1. Let yourself be lazy
A great starting point is to simply let go and let yourself be with your laziness. “It is what it is” is swiftly becoming a favourite saying of mine and in this case you are feeling lazy so be lazy – accept it. It may not be practical you may have 101 things to do, but fighting it will keep it lingering for longer.
Chill out, giving yourself permission to be lazy doesn’t mean you will fall into a pit of endless inactivity, it’s happening for a reason and as long as you fight it you are unable to access the insights, wisdom and learnings from the experience. “What you resist persists” after all. Once you allow yourself to be with it, you can move on to taking something valuable from the situation.
2. Leaving enough time for integration?
There are many reasons for feeling de-motivated and listless, once you come out of victim mode “why am I tired? I’m exhausted, I’ve got no energy etc” you can start to see what your body is communicating to you. For fans of personal transformation it could be a sign that you are not leaving enough time for integration. When we are involved in a physical exercise programme it’s a known fact that the rest and recovery days are just as important as the days we take physical exercise. The same applies to personal growth work, I believe being more present and conscious to our lives means we use more energy and need to take time out to allow our growth to integrate.
Resistance happens prior to integration so see your lack of motivation as a sign that you are in resistance and need to take time out to integrate. Good integration activities include anything that feeds your soul and makes you feel good in a nourishing way, like meditation, exercise, reading, sleeping etc. For yoga fans it helps to see integration days in the same way you see the corpse pose at the end of a session.
3. Are you supporting your physical needs?
Another thing your body could be communicating to you is that it requires more physically for what you want it to do. Are you eating enough? Are you getting enough vitamins and minerals? Again, this is of extra importance for people going through transformation as you are not only using physical energy every day but also mental, emotional and spiritual energy too. What more can you do to support your body?
4. De-clutter and simplify
We can find ourselves de-motivated when we are overwhelmed by how much we have to do. Feelings of laziness can be a good indicator that we may have to much on and need to scale back by de-cluttering and simplifying our lives. Have you got too much on your plate? Are you spreading yourself too thinly? What can you cut back on? This is a good time to write down all you have to do, reconnect with why you’re doing it and prioritise accordingly.
De-clutter in the mind first and your environment will follow.
5. Ebb and flow
We live in a world of duality; there is no flow without ebb. One day you could be flowing in the sea of productivity and another stuck in a drought of inactivity. This is normal and the ebbs help the flow. Use ebb time to do less taxing but necessary things like sew that button on you’ve been meaning to or update your address book or something.
6. Take baby steps back to productivity
The fog of de-motivation will clear you just don’t know when so allow yourself to do a little of something that will take you in the direction you want to head. Here’s a practical method I use:
- Just like with the de-cluttering step write a list of all the stuff you “should” be doing and keep updating the list whenever something new comes to mind. Use sub-headings if necessary.
- Then assign each task a realistic timescale to complete it
- Draw up a plan starting from the following week or so and allocate the tasks to certain days. Make sure you leave space in your plan so you don’t feel trapped and in case of anything you haven’t accounted for comes up. Also, bear in mind appointments, if you have a Doctor’s appointment on Tuesday morning this means you will have less time on Tuesday for work, factor this in. Spread this plan out over as long a period as possible, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months it’s up to you.
- Have a look back at your plan, how do you feel about your tasks now?
- Kick back and relax knowing that your tasks are now out of your head and you have a plan of action where everything will be done.
7. Change your perspective
Laziness is a judgement and there are many other ways to reframe it. Instead of “being lazy” you could be relaxing, chilling, integrating, landing, treating yourself to down time, preparing for a busy period, nurturing, nourishing…… Get the drift?
8. How does it align with your goals?
Sometimes these feelings arise in response to something you have been asking for. For instance, I am working towards manifesting financial abundance and have been experiencing a lot of tiredness some days. I can see now how this relates to my intention. Because I sometimes feel guilty about feeling tired it’s like the Universe is saying “if you want to manifest abundance, you’re gonna need to learn how to rest.” How else will I enjoy all the financial abundance I WILL manifest.
9. You are always creating
Physical activity or no physical activity, you are always creating! When you are feeling bad about feeling de-motivated, you are feeling guilty and therefore creating more to feel guilty about and guilt always looks for punishment.
When in the midst of de-motivation think about what you are creating from how you are feeling about it. It can be a great time to take you closer to your goals or away from it – you decide.
(c) Lola Fayemi
Lola Fayemi, Personal and Business Success Coach. Please visit Lola’s site at www.urbanspirit.co.uk for a free no-obligation coaching consultation
