How To Overcome Feeling Lazy

 

Feeling unproductive and labeling yourself as lazy? Hold on! Today, April Shprintz explores the difference between laziness, procrastination, and waiting for inspired action. Learn how to identify your true motivators, leverage procrastination for better results, and cultivate the ideal mindset for peak productivity. Discover strategies like setting personal deadlines, engaging in physical activity, and seeking encouragement from friends to unlock your creative flow and achieve success on your own terms.

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How To Overcome Feeling Lazy

I am so glad you’re here. Have you ever gotten into the trap of beating up on yourself because you think you’re lazy or you’re being lazy? You’re wondering, how am I going to overcome this? First, I have to ask you a question. Are you actually being lazy or you’re just motivated differently than other people or do you just need a rest? If you just need a rest, I’m going to tell you that you’ve got to allow yourself that time. You’ve got to allow yourself that ability.

You know that if you’ve been pushing yourself nonstop and then you find the entire weekend, you’re just at stop. You run all week. Then on the weekend, you can’t seem to quit surfing the couch. That’s because your body needs some rest. That’s how you’re able to run through the week like you are. Let’s not call that lazy. Let’s call that recuperation. Let’s say you’re really trying to decide, “Am I lazy?”

 

If you’re being lazy, you don’t want to do anything and you miss out on important opportunities. I’m not talking about things you should do. I don’t believe in shoulding on anyone. I’m talking about things that legitimately or opportunities that you would be excited about that you would want to do that sound fun. A lot of times, we’re more procrastinators and we mix that up with being lazy because we wait until the last minute to do things that we want to do.

A lot of times, we confuse procrastination with laziness. We wait until the last minute to do things we actually want to do. Click To Tweet

Keep in mind that there is a whole subsection of people who do their best work by procrastinating because they’re motivated by deadlines. The closer a deadline gets to them, the more of their creative juices start flowing and the better work they produce even those society may tell you, don’t procrastinate that’s not a good thing. For a lot of people, procrastination makes them produce the best work they are ever going to produce.

Now, I’m someone who loves to procrastinate. What works for me is to set my own deadlines and then I can procrastinate to my deadline and get the creative juices flowing but then still get it in time where it’s not last minute for other people. Lots of coping mechanisms that you can come up with and ways to really work with yourself if procrastination is something that actually makes you better.

Now the third one, and this is one that people don’t talk about very much and I think it’s really important because it is such a fantastic way to do things, is sometimes people think they’re lazy or they’re procrastinating because what they’re actually waiting for is something called inspired action. Now, inspired action is the sweet spot where you are not pushed to do something or do something you said you would. You feel pulled to do it. You are excited about it. It sounds fun.

You can’t wait to create and do whatever it is that you’ve planted to do. Now, the thing about inspired action is it is 1,000 times more powerful than just taking action because you said you would because you’re in alignment. You feel like you’re in flow. You’re excited. You create the best things you’re going to create from that place. Now, how do we set ourselves up to do it though because we don’t want to feel lazy, and we don’t want to procrastinate but we have certain deadlines.

Again, that’s where building your own deadlines can really help. The deadline might not be the deadline when you finish. It might be the deadline of, “I need to start it by this point because then I’ll have X number of hours, X number of days to complete whatever the task is so that I can get myself into a good mindset about doing it.” Taking that inspired action is amazing. You’ll notice that the things that you create in that environment are going to hit better with clients.

 

They’re going to help people more when you’re creating content or projects. They’re going to just more smoothly go through processes because you’re in that great place of alignment and inspired action. If you find yourself or you’ve got to create something or you’ve got to do something because of a deadline and you can’t get into that place of inspired action, there are three things that I like to try and do to get myself to that place.

One is any kind of physical activity because I find that the endorphins create even a really short walk. Some kind of physical activity can put me in a really good place. The second thing is to phone a friend or talk to someone who always really gives you that extra boost of energy, helps you get excited, and helps you work through things. You can make a partnership where you’re going to call each other when you’re looking for a place of inspired action. A third is I like to watch inspirational videos. I’ll save them either on Instagram or YouTube for just this time when I just want to get amped up. I want to get excited about working on a project that I’m taking and inspire action on it.

 

Next time you think you’re lazy, I want you to double-check with yourself. Am I tired? Do I simply need to rest and recuperate or am I being too tough on my work style? Because if your work style works for you, it doesn’t matter if it’s not the norm. It doesn’t matter if it’s not what society rewards the most. Find a way to work it in and let it fit with your life because that’s the way you’re going to create the things that are the most powerful and the most memorable. Here’s to your success.