Episode 1043: Are You Just Lazy?

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1043 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Barry Moline: I'm Barry Moline. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your. Having the ability to connect with others is key.

[00:00:24] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

[00:00:34] Scott Maderer: But the truth is the real deep way to overcome laziness is simply understanding it's natures, understanding the causes. And then spending the time to get in connection with what is the real value of those tasks that you are putting off. And if you discover that they have no value than getting rid of them.

[00:00:55] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. [00:01:00] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:21] In today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time. I talk with you about what laziness is and what it isn't. I share why there are underlying reasons that often result in laziness. And I also talk about some tips on how you can overcome lazy. As we talk about stewarding your time.

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[00:02:08] Those things that I hear from people from time to time when they come to me for help with productivity is they'll talk about, I'm just lazy. I just don't get things done because I'm lazy. And as part of that, I wanted to talk about what laziness really is because sometimes when people come and they have that concern, they are indeed actually acting lazy.

[00:02:33] And other times they aren't that, but they have been labeled that or they feel that way. Or they think that. So the definition of being lazy is if you're able to carry out an activity that you ought to be carrying out another words, you're able to do something that you really should be doing, but you don't do it because.

[00:02:57] The effort involved or the [00:03:00] payout involved doesn't feel like something that is worth doing. And other words, instead, you maybe do it just a little bit or you switch and do something else that's less strenuous or less difficult or less boring, or you just sit around and do nothing at all. Another words, if your motivation.

[00:03:22] To spare yourself. The effort is more than your motivation to do the right or the expected or the needed thing. We talk about this as indolence or slaw indolence basically means without pain or without taking trouble, that you're sparing yourself the pain or the effort. And of course, sloths even has a spiritual overtone because we think of sloths as one of the deadly sins.

[00:03:49] And it's talked out against in the Bible and others, by the way, laziness is not the same as procrastination. Procrastination is simply putting off. [00:04:00] Task for the future. And again, it can sometimes be done for good reason. And sometimes it's done because you want to do something more fun or are easier.

[00:04:11] So it does have some similarity in terms of a lack of motivation, but the procrastination you still want to get the task done. You just don't want to do it now, but the laziness may actually be, I never wanted. All right. I'm always going to avoid it. Idle this, by the way is even again, something different sitting around and doing nothing can come out of procrastination or laziness, but it also can be something you do strategically.

[00:04:43] Remember, I've talked before about building in time for idleness, for rest, for recovery and the value of these things. And they are actually valued. So why would we be lazy? Why is [00:05:00] there an underlying reason for this? And the truth is that we are wired in such a way that we still think of our energy as a very limited scarce resource, that we can only expand on things that have a short term advantage.

[00:05:18] We're wired to look to the short term and weigh that much heavier. Then the long-term, but the world now is it really set up in that way? Mo for most of us mere survival is not something that we have to worry about. And instead by conserving energy and focusing on the short term at the expense of the long-term, we really can't see the value of those delayed and uncertain payoff.

[00:05:51] And that actually leads itself to why some people are more lazy than others, because [00:06:00] if you're able through intellect through intelligence or through behavior, through habit to gain confidence that uncertainty. Pay off in the future is probably going to happen. In other words, if you increase your confidence in your certainty about the future, you're more likely to take action.

[00:06:21] We also, aren't really good at actually doing the calculation and thinking about what is the pleasure today versus what is the pleasure in the future? We're not able to emotionally connect to a deep why very easily. This is one of the reasons that I talk so much about, you've got to dig out the emotional why are you doing.

[00:06:42] Because the truth is laziness is not something that is really a must or intrinsic and something that this is a lazy person and they're always going to be lazy and there's nothing you can do about it. The truth is sometimes it's come from the situation they [00:07:00] find themselves in. Sometimes it comes from a lack of connection with the future, or a lack of understanding of how, what they're doing today actually has positive effects on the future.

[00:07:13] Sometimes people are lazy because they're so hopeless about the. And sometimes they're lazy simply because they haven't found the thing that actually gives them. Joel. They haven't found their calling. They haven't connected in a deeper way because the truth is even people that everyone says are lazy.

[00:07:33] When you look at when they will do something, if it's something that brings them pleasure and that they enjoy, they'll almost always go ahead and do it. This is why it's clear that laziness. Isn't something that is a permanent condition. We also get lazy, whatever. We look at our comfort zone. In some ways having success can lead to laziness because if you're already doing really good, why work hard to get [00:08:00] better?

[00:08:00] And that can express itself into laziness that unfortunately can sometimes bring us down. And then of course, laziness sometimes comes out of feeling. Because we're afraid of success or failure, we're afraid of the future. And the truth is I can give you a lot of tools and techniques, and we've talked before about ones around procrastination, like neatening things, creating task lists, developing concrete goals, getting in touch with the deep emotion of things.

[00:08:32] Finding ways to make things where you have accountability and all of those are good ways to fight laziness, but the truth is the real deep way to overcome laziness is simply understanding its natures, understanding the causes of it, and then spending the time to get in connection with what is the real value of those tasks that you are putting off.

[00:08:57] And if you discover that they have no [00:09:00] value, then getting rid of. And moving to something else, but if they do have value then going ahead and putting in the time and the effort to do them. And at that case, you may discover that indeed, you aren't just lazy. You simply haven't found the reason to do what you are called to do.

[00:09:21] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get [00:10:00] you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.

[00:10:06] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.