Mental laziness: what it is and how to overcome it with the help of psychology

What is mental laziness? What is it due to? And above all, how to win it once and for all?

The time has come to talk to you about one of the most subtle enemies, who act quietly and who stand between you and the realization of your goals: I am talking about mental laziness .

This is one of the problems that prevents the realization of the maximum potential achievable by each of us to a greater extent: laziness blocks, with the inertia generated by it, the progress of our path.

In fact, how many times have you promised yourself to do a certain thing and how many times, just as often, have you found yourself giving up, for the simple fact that you didn’t feel in the mood to do it or simply didn’t feel like it? I tell you, too many !

Moreover, the next day, your feelings of guilt overwhelm you and in the long run negativity pervades your thoughts. This is not exactly a good feeling … If only because it compromises not only your enthusiasm, but also your productivity .

You prefer sweet doing nothing to the action and the realization of your goals. You do not perceive the importance of taking steps forward and prefer to lounge or engage in less demanding activities …

But do not worry. Mental laziness, as in many other cases, is a situation that can be solved! Let’s see how to do it in this article, using what psychology says on this issue.

Index [ hide ]

  • Mental laziness: what is it?
  • Effects of mental laziness on your life
  • How to overcome mental laziness: 3 basic tips
    • Ask yourself why
    • What are the consequences?
    • Reprogram your habits

Mental laziness: what is it?

Laziness in general is the tendency to avoid doing an activity, despite having the skills to successfully carry it out. In other words, the causes of laziness are not to be found in a lack of skills.

Laziness is due to different causes, linked on the one hand to the ambition of each of us, on the other hand to the respect and trust we have for ourselves. I will tell you more about the causes of laziness in the discussion.

Sometimes it is customary to add the word mental to the word laziness , to describe that it is a character trait. In fact, what requires you to act is linked to the predisposition of your mind and in general to the way you deal with everyday activities.

The causes of mental laziness are universal and do not depend on the particular case, related to a specific activity that you do not intend to do or that it weighs on you to conclude.

In the vast majority of situations, laziness is in fact due to a lack of:

  • Self esteem
  • Discipline
  • Grounds

A low self-esteem , may lead you to think that it makes no sense to dedicate to demanding tasks, as they do not really think you can make a positive impact on your life, in simple words to make improvements . You can run this test to check if it is this.

What is your level of self-esteem and security?

TEST

Being unruly , not having a method for organizing your day and managing your time, can for its part facilitate the tendency to be transported by the distractions , which today are increasingly numerous, with all the technology we have available. If you believe this is your cause, a very interesting resource on the subject is Brian Tracy’s book No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline .

The lack of motivation , finally, is recognized as the most obvious cause of mental and physical laziness. If you don’t find valid reasons to do an activity that you find boring or tiring, it is automatic that you will tend not to do it. I advise you to take this test to check if this is your case.

Find out how motivated you are!

TEST

But what everyone agrees on is that being lazy is first and foremost a habit : to give up acting, not to even try, to leave things as they are.

Effects of mental laziness on your life

Laziness has destructive consequences on your life. So if you have a problem like this, I invite you to carefully read the contents of this article to the end.

First of all, mental laziness has harmful effects on your health . Doing little movement and not training your mind leads to low energy and memory levels , thus compromising your efficiency. It is no coincidence that the saying Mens sana in corpore sana .

But the effects of the most serious laziness are of a much more general nature and concern your entire existence . Habitually behaving in such a way as not to act prevents you from reaching your true potential in your life, reaching your goals and being happy.

From the point of view of time management, laziness leads to postpone or avoid doing many of the activities that are also the most important. It is often associated with procrastination, but in reality it is not quite the same .

Procrastination is an unconscious action that consists in deciding to postpone a specific activity that was planned to do, and this to remove those negative sensations that derive from the thought of doing it. We prefer simpler or more fun activities, that is immediate pleasure. For more info you can also look at this article .

Being lazy , on the other hand, means not having the motivation, that is, not having reasons to perform that particular action; or it can mean not believing in yourself and giving up acting. Third, it can be related to not having discipline.

Summing up, laziness is a very limiting factor, which does not allow you to progress and achieve full success in life.

How to overcome mental laziness: 3 basic tips

So let’s get to the point. In the remainder of this article we will deal with how to overcome mental laziness once and for all and get rid of all the harmful effects that it causes, thus being able to be more productive and generally happier in life.

1. Ask yourself why

The first suggestion on how to fight mental laziness (and I would add also the most important of the three), is to ask yourself why .

Why do I have to perform a certain task? For what reasons did I plan to carry out this activity a day, a week or a month ago?

Knowing right away and continuing to keep in mind the reasons why you should do anything is the only way to keep your motivation levels high. Let’s see it with an example.

Suppose you planned to go for a run in the afternoon, but after lunch you feel really tired or in any case you don’t want to leave the house. In this case it is useful to ask yourself: why should I go?

The answers can be many and also depend on the goals you set yourself: from a general “I want to be healthier” to a more concrete “I decided a month ago that I would go regularly to run to reach the goal of losing 3 kg in two months “.

Whatever your reason, I invite you to recognize it in whatever you decide to do. Just as I found it in writing this article, you too can do it, whatever it takes you to do!

2. What are the consequences?

Another tip on how to overcome mental laziness is to ask yourself what are the consequences of not doing that particular activity.

How would you feel? What emotions would you perceive? And more concretely, what problems would you have from not doing that thing?

Thinking about it on the positive side, you can ask yourself questions like:

How would you feel if you had completed that difficult or boring task? What benefits would you have from doing it?

As the saying “Man warned half saved” says, by giving up acting you will already know what you will go against, and this will push you to avoid the negative effects of laziness.

Evaluating the pros and cons at the table surely helps you to be more aware that being lazy does not help your life, and will lead you to decide to take a path aimed at never being so again.

3. Reprogram your habits

I told you previously that being lazy is first and foremost a habit : giving up fighting for your dreams and achieving real success.

To combat mental laziness, this habit must no longer be part of your life. You have to act at your subconscious level and reprogram your mind to success .

So, whenever you don’t feel like doing something, you will have to put effort into overcoming the pain and negative feelings of rolling up your sleeves and acting.

Commit to doing it regularly, until you have introduced a new habit in your life: that of not being lazy anymore, of feeling a sorrow, now, if you give up the action. This is precisely the power of habits, the reversal of the lever of pain with that of pleasure.

For further information on the subject, I recommend you read this article , dedicated specifically to how to reprogram the subconscious and transform yourself into a more positive and proactive person.

If you are interested in having more in everyday life, eliminating laziness from your life, I finally recommend you read a guide that I wrote on the subject. It’s called Ultramotivation

 

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

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