Allowing Ourselves to Have a Lazy Day Is a Crime!

Well, not exactly. In the worst-case scenario it’s a venial sin; often, it’s a necessity.

Image by Thomas Rüdesheim from Pixabay

Oh, we ARE lazy in general! I mean, look around. How many hard workers do can you see around? If you aren’t in the super-special environment, not many.

There are some individuals who cannot sit idly, like my father, but they are few and far between, especially in this era, when everything comes so (relatively) easy to us.

Laziness is a feature built-in in human construction. Thus, considering already over 100 billion people lived on the planet and each of them had thousands of days of life, a lazy day happened trillions of times. And the planet is still spinning.

So, in the grand scheme of things allowing yourself a single lazy day will not be catastrophic.

“Make rest a necessity, not an objective.” — Jim Rohn

Personally, I like Jim Rohn’s approach. Have a look at the below chart:

(The Slight Edge chart; created by author)

A single lazy day is not a big deal. However, a string of lazy days puts you on the downward curve of life. Hustling is good. It brings all the good things into your life. You need constantly to work on your career, finances, relationships, personal development, education, and health to make your life better.

On the other hand, the only way to work “constantly” is to regularly get a rest. So, if “a lazy day” serves you as a time to charge your batteries, it’s a necessity. It’s good.

But you and I both know it’s rarely the case. Too often, we are lazy just to avoid the effort.

A Vice

BTW, laziness is a vice. Its definition says it is:

the quality of being unwilling to work or use energy; idleness.

See the core of this definition? Unwillingness.

In every second of your life, you have a choice. You can choose to work or to be idle. You can pick an easy path or the harder one. You can invest in your future (work), or you can take credit from your future self (a lazy day).

There is no such thing as a neutral choice. There are always some consequences.

But our subconscious mind doesn’t really understand the concept of time. That’s why it’s so common to fall into an easy “here and now” decision. Only when you turn on your conscious thinking and put your decision in the perspective of time and consequences, you can see the full picture. The Slight Edge picture.

Only then, you can realize the truth.

“An immediate reward for lack of discipline is a fun day at the beach. A future reward of discipline is owning the beach.” — Jim Rohn

Usually, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to have a lazy day. It’s a downward slope. The only exception is a “scheduled laziness” — the time to charge our batteries.

Originally published on Quora.