“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.” – Og Mandino

The minute I said I was going to look at lazy, my life went into overdrive. It was almost like I needed to be shown without a shadow of a doubt that I am capable of hard work. Laziness did not get a look-in over the past three weeks. This weekend, however, I had three days off in a row and all I did was sleep. My to-do list was as long as my arm, and I ignored it. I even caught myself once saying: “I’m too lazy to clean the house.” Too lazy? Too lazy? After the kind of week I’d had?

I have come to the rather uncomfortable realization that for me there is no such thing as lazy. How does that sit with you? When I think I am being lazy I know now that it is just a cover for what is really going on: me actively choosing not to do something. As much as it makes me uncomfortable to admit, lazy is just code for, “I don’t feel like it.” But I am convinced that that does not have to be a bad thing. Lazy is just my brain trying to get a message through, but not quite succeeding. Lazy is the tired, uncomfortable toddler in me who can’t vocalize why they can’t go on. It’s the toddler who knows that it is not okay anymore for us to throw a tantrum!

So this week I am really going to listen to lazy. Where does it show up? What don’t I want to do? What am I avoiding? What am I afraid of? What message does lazy have for me?

What message do you think lazy has for you?

2 Responses to “What’s lazy?”

1. rhayne says:

   November 17, 2009 at 4:30 pm

   Woah…I think you hit the nail on the head when you said *What am I afraid of?*
   I think that anytime I feel “lazy”, or I don’t want to do something it has everything to do with fear. Sometimes I feel it has too much of a stronghold on my life.
   Thank you for this insight Megg….I am going to sit with that for a while.
   love you!
   xo
2. Mel says:

   November 18, 2009 at 9:24 am

   I like the idea that there is actually no lazy. I like to also think of not doing anything as the preparation for the next big step. Clearing your mind. Preparing, paving the way, thinking about the route. Or just do nothing.