Permission to Refuse the Laziness Lie - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
I’m a fairly active and productive person. All my life, I have enjoyed days when I have quite a few items on my to do list, and then I methodically crush each of my objectives. I feel genuine accomplishment when I get things done.
But then I also have days when I have a list of tasks I want to complete, and I have no energy or motivation to even start them. On those days, just moving from a horizontal to a vertical position seems like an impossible feat. And more often than not, I feel bad about myself when I have these types of days. Instead of honoring my body and thanking it for letting me know it needs time to rest, I often belittle myself and feel shame for being lazy.
Lazy is a four-letter word in our culture. It’s one of those adjectives we never want affixed to our names. However, a recent podcast helped me to reframe my ideas on laziness. On Glennon Doyle’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things, she recently interviewed Devon Price, PhD. And Devon claims that laziness does not exist. He says laziness is a lie that is built on three tenants: 1. Your worth is your productivity. 2. You cannot trust your own feelings or limits. 3. There’s always more that you can be doing.
Devon, and I, believes that a person’s worth exists simply because they exist. At some level we can all understand this concept. Think of pets and babies. Many of us have had pets and/or babies in our homes. Why? Neither have any sort of productive value. They’re not going to make us money or get things done around the house. But we value their existence in our lives anyway. We love them and will even pay good money to have them around. They have intrinsic worth. And that worth doesn’t go away as a baby grows into adulthood.
Most people want to lead fulfilling lives. They want to do meaningful work and get bored if they remain inactive for too long. However, pretty much every person also has days or even seasons when they aren’t as productive. Whether they’re battling an addiction or depression, recovering from an injury or a loss, or they simply need to rest their minds and bodies; I don’t believe that we need to berate ourselves during these periods and call ourselves lazy.
In the future, any time my brain wants to scold me for being lazy, I’m going to remind myself that my mind and body are wise, and my lack of motivation is usually present when I need to rest. As I get older and I increasingly trust my intuitive limits, I find that I move more seamlessly through the world and feel more authentic. Lazy is a word that I’m striking from my vocabulary. It doesn’t serve a purpose for me. If you feel the word brings you only guilt, perhaps a reframe in your thinking could help as well.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team