I am anything but lazy.  “Workaholic” is a more apt description.  I’ve known a few just plain lazy folks in my life, but I find that most people who are deemed “lazy” are not really lazy at all.  They’re really just unmotivated.

Sometimes, I just feel a bit lazy.  I just don’t wanna do nuttin’.  But if I really look at that, it’s always clear that the real reason for the feeling is that I’m a little lost or, more often, I’m so stressed out that I can’t face the work.  So I try to handle the deeper issue, not the laziness.

If you suffer from the laziness malady, just don’t accept it.  Go a little deeper.  Ask yourself why you are being lazy.  Check your motivation.  Make sure you have a goal.  Make sure you are excited about your goal on some level.  Make sure there is a right purpose to your goal.  Make sure you’re clear on that.

Every couple of months or so I like to sit down with myself and check my goals and motives.  It’s sort of an oil check.  Sometimes I’ll write them down on a piece of paper; sometimes I’ll just rehearse them in my mind, but I try to get the concepts clear within myself.  What am I doing?  Why am I doing it?  And how do I feel about doing it?  And lastly, what do I need to do to feel better about doing it?  It’s really the first beat of organization on any project that I do.

And it’s sometimes hard to remember to do it first because usually you want to cut right to the details of the project and get it started.  But I find that projects always go better if I first do my oil check.  Then the engine runs smoother.  Then I stay better organized.  Then I wake up in the morning excited about the day, excited about getting to work.

If I do these simple things (and it never takes more than about 15 minutes) the word “laziness” never really comes up, never enters the equation.

People who watch TV all day are not really lazy; they’re just lost.  Same goes for video games.  If you have the couch potato syndrome, try turning off that TV for two hours and just sitting in a chair in a quiet room and looking at your life and try to figure out something you’ve always wanted to do.  Why is it important to you?  What’s kept you from it?  How can you better get around the obstacles?  Is the idea good for you and others in the first place?  Are you giving to the world in some positive way?  How can you do it better?

If you take the full 2 hours and keep your hand off that remote, I guarantee you’ll get excited about creating something new; something that you wished you’d done years ago.  If your goals are big, and that’s a pretty relative word, and your motives are pure, you can’t help but get excited about your new idea.

Then lazy will not enter in.  Lazy is a cop out.  It simply means that you haven’t looked and thought deeply enough.  Get under the laziness and root around until you dig up the true cause of your indolence.  Don’t let the world pin this term on you.  It’s not the truth because it’s really just the tip of the iceberg.  It’s the result of shallow thinking – on the world’s part and ultimately on your part.

Find a goal.  See that your motivation is pure and clear and if it isn’t, then take the time to make it so.  These 15 minutes of oil check can mean the difference between success and failure.  They can be the most valuable time spent on the project because when goals and motives are observed, then the project can’t help but start out on the right foot.

So if you think of yourself as a lazy person, throw that notion away.  You’re not stuck with a world perception, but really operating under the world’s misperception of you.  Refuse it.  It’s just a mistake you’re making.  Think more deeply about yourself.  Live smarter.  See through the laziness to the real problem and then go to work solving it.  Go get ‘em.