Let it Flow

Not getting your workouts in as planned? Skipping meals or heading to the fast food drive through because it’s easier? Stuck in a dead end job thinking you don’t have any other choice? Could be laziness. I recently read a book entitled How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life by Susan Piver. (Quick and easy read, by the way. I recommend it.) In it she describes three types of laziness. While she writes about laziness as it pertains to a meditation practice, laziness can apply to almost any of life’s scenarios – achieving weight loss or exercise goals, relationships, or advancing your career. According to Susan and Buddhist philosophy (keep reading, this is very every day stuff) there are several kinds of laziness including:

• Regular Laziness – You’re probably very familiar with this. You get up late on the weekends, you spend time in front of the TV, or you nap knowing there are other perhaps “more fulfilling” things to do. Simply put, you avoid errands, cleaning, work or even spending time with your family.

• Discouragement – When things don’t go according to plan, it’s easy to say, “Why can’t something good happen to me?” Maybe you’re not losing weight as quickly as you might have hoped, perhaps the new job isn’t as challenging as you thought, or maybe you just exited yet another dissatisfying relationship. Bottom line is you think that nothing good will ever come to you and you give up hope.

• Busyness – This is one I had never considered as laziness, but when I really thought about it I realized how much sense it made. We stay busy to avoid things we might be afraid to do (go to the gym) or that we don’t necessarily want to do (go to the gym!). So if you live a life of “too busy” or “things are crazy” or “if I had more time” you are lazy. You avoid what matters most to you, your deepest passions and priorities.

I most often find myself lazy as it pertains to busyness – always thinking the house needs to be cleaned, email to be checked and blogs to be read. All legitimate activities, but are they my priorities? Are they feeding my passions and taking me where I want to go in life? No. And so I’ve become aware of this in order to create a more appropriate action plan and watch for when I allow these things to get in the way of activities that truly make a difference.

What do you think? Are you lazy and not putting what matters most first in your life? How can you stop being “so busy” in order to make time for what matters most?

Tags: Food for thought, Miscellaneous Wellness //