Conquering Laziness

My experience with laziness is like Bill Gates and his experience on computers, or Jeff Bezos and his experience on shipping things…

… point is, I have a lot of experience on being lazy…

I’ve been what’s called the “gifted kid”. Things come easy, A’s were a given, and I was naturally “good” at whatever sport I picked up.

What does that lead to? Not having motivation or a hard work ethic. Why should I? I would just wait until it was almost time to turn an assignment in and then I’d simply rush to get it done and get that A I knew I’d get. Or cruise by in the starting lineup because I knew the other kids I played with weren’t as good as me.

But what about when things were hard? When things didn’t inevitably come easy? What would happen when the work at hand was more than I initially thought, or when there was that kid that was better than me at a sport? Well… I’d give up, or I’d have a breakdown, or I’d say this is dumb. I wouldn’t put forth my effort into getting over the hump that was in front of me.

In other words, I was useless.

Luckily as I have grown, my paradigm shifted. It started when my kids were born. The weight that hits you is immeasurable when you realize that a human life is depending almost completely on your success for the first decade or two of their life. It is as if someone had taken the density of the sun into the size of a softball and placed it on my chest.

As the years have progressed, I understand the power I have to completely alter not just my own life, but my immediate family’s as well. 

I knew it was time to put aside my laziness and start making a real difference in my life.

But what does making a difference in my life to be less lazy look like?

Making a shift in laziness to finally be productive is what this website is all about. Being 1% better every day. 

Make small changes in your life that’ll be rewarding in the end. Here are a few examples:

• I started brushing my teeth when I wake up and before I go to bed every day, regardless of the time, because I want to instill in my kids that hygiene is important
• I read about 10 pages a day and read to my kids in order to better both of our knowledge
• I pick up small items around the house, and take my kids with me to help clean. As we either sing or talk, I’ll let them hold something or put it away for me. It is good bonding, and they learn responsibility and cleanliness
• I have a nightly routine to ensure that my brain and body knows it’s time for bed, and ensure that my kids have a nightly routine, too

These are just a few steps towards making my life better, and I’m constantly adding to my Rolodex of habits. You can pick any habit and break it down to its smallest component so that it only takes up 2 minutes of your time (that’s a trick taken from the Atomic Habits book). Reward yourself for doing a good job keeping that habit. And try to not miss a day. If you do - don’t worry about it too much - but try not to miss it a second time. 

As you can see, most of my habits extend into my kids. And while I’m not saying you have to have habits immediately impact others around you, I am saying this:

Find your Why. Find your reason as to WHY you want to do something. WHY you want to change. And WHY you want to be a better YOU. There’s no sense in change if it isn’t for a good reason. You read to better educate yourself. You clean to keep a house looking well and ensure a sense of pride. You set a nightly routine to put your body in a better position to be well rested for the next day. You brush your teeth so that you’re not all gums at age 60.

Every day you don’t feel like doing whatever habit you’re building, look back at your Why, or your Who, or your Where, and use that as fuel for your own change. 

It’s difficult, but remember that small habits can be used as a foundation to build bigger and more impactful habits in the long run. By bigger and more impactful, I mean things such as reading every day to one day learn about real estate and start your own renting business. Or say cleaning and having that routine grow into being well organized and detailed in your business or job that then allows you to move up into better things. Or say brushing your teeth develops into having a better aura, more confidence, a better sense of style, and leading you to find someone you love and not being worried about your breath on the first date. 

Whatever it may be, don’t be lazy, because laziness does more harm than simply missing out on the due date of that paper by a few minutes or not being the best one on the field. It’s a drug that’s life altering for the worse. By conquering it one habit at a time, you can be unstoppable.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a year, and underestimate what they can do in ten.” - Tony Robins