Today we live in a society that praises work and never ending activity.
At the same time, rest and recovery are looked down upon.
Because of this collective societal thinking, we push ourselves to get even more things
done, whether it's for work or hobbies.
I believe that you at least once, felt like you were not being active or working hard
enough, and you asked yourself this question: "Why am I so lazy?"
But were you really being lazy?
Or could it be that you were just tired from too much activity?
It's important that you understand the difference between laziness and exhaustion.
This is John.
And this is Mike.
Both of them are college students and yesterday they had a day off, free to do anything they wanted.
Let's take a look at how their day went.
Neither of them studied for the upcoming exam.
Neither of them bothered going to the gym to exercise.
And neither Mike nor John tried to work on any of their goals or hobbies.
Instead they both played video games on their computers and watched TV for almost the whole day.
At the end of the day, they both said to themselves: "God, I'm so lazy..."
And you could probably agree with them.
But let's take a look at the bigger picture.
John has been getting bad grades since the beginning of the semester, as he never really studies.
He also never exercised in his entire life and has no goals or hobbies to work on whatsoever.
Most of his days are spent mindlessly watching TV, surfing the internet or playing video
games for hours.
So on his free day, he just did what he does pretty much every single day.
He is indeed, what you would call lazy.
But Mike is actually quite the opposite.
On his regular day, he always exercises first thing in the morning and he makes sure to
study for hours.
He also likes to spend his spare time on a goal of becoming a DJ, as that is his passion.
And he does all this while working a part-time job to save up money.
He's the opposite of lazy, in fact, you could say he's extremely productive.
On his free day, Mike was simply too tired to be his usual self.
He was exhausted and burned out from constant activity and he needed a break.
However at the end of the day, he labeled himself as a lazy failure, because he felt
like he should have been productive.
On the outside, both laziness and exhaustion look pretty much the same.
The person in question doesn't feel like doing much and if we don't know their full story,
we're quick to pass judgement.
But for example, if someone is ill, we don't assume the person is lazy or slothful.
We understand that they need to rest so they can recover faster.
It's the same with exhaustion. We require days where we are not as occupied and we just relax instead.
But we also need regular breaks in our normal productive days, if we want to sustain high-performance.
However choosing to rest rather than keep on working can sometimes lead to feelings
of guilt and unease.
Just as it's easy to judge others and flag them as lazy, it's also easy to mark yourself
as lazy.
Now it's important to understand the difference between laziness and exhaustion, as they require
opposing solutions.
So what's the difference?
When someone is lazy, they are unwilling to do any kind of work.
They have the energy to go and get stuff done if they want to.
But because they lack self discipline, they avoid doing anything that requires effort.
When someone is tired, they have the discipline and motivation to do the work.
But because they rarely let themselves take breaks, they lack the energy to go and do it.
They simply can't sustain their performance.
If you're lazy, the solution is to take action.
If you're tired, you need take a break and relax.
The problem becomes when the solutions get mixed up.
Some people are just lazy, but they fool themselves into thinking they need a break.
What happens is they just prolong their laziness.
However people who are exhausted and tired, also make the mistake thinking they're being lazy.
And they end up taking more action, because they believe that's the solution.
Sadly the result is that they end up even more tired.
This is why it's necessary to first determine in which category you fall in.
All the habit strategies in the world will not work if you’re too tired, stressed out,
or overwhelmed by all the work that’s coming at you.
And it's pointless to keep on going in this state, as you'll just produce sub-optimal results.
Also if you're lazy, it doesn't matter how much rest you get.
You won't get anything done if you don't start taking even the smallest steps towards your goals.
This is why it's important to balance the two.
If you're currently stressing out too much, take a 5-10 minute break for every 45 minutes
of activity.
You don't just deserve it, you need it.
If you're currently idle and you're slacking off, for every 45 minutes of rest, work on
your goals for 5-10 minutes.
Some progress is better than no progress at all.
I want to end this video by saying that we shouldn't label others as lazy, especially
if we don't know what's happening behind the scenes.
The person in question might be extremely productive, just elsewhere.
Also we shouldn't be so quick to judge ourselves for taking a break.
We're not machines and we actually perform better if we allow ourselves to be lazy once
in a while.
Thanks for watching.
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