Overcoming Laziness and Achieving Goals

 

Laziness has been the biggest problem of my life for many years. Most of the time, I had so many things to do, I knew what I should do but I didn’t want to do, I used mobile phone most of the time and slept other time. I have wasted so much time being lazy and I regret it so much.

Since I started the journey to my heart, I love myself more and more. I know my potential and capabilities, I know I can achieve all of my dreams, and I deserve all the happiness in the world. But laziness was something that stopped me from giving my best. Because of laziness, I was afraid that I will not be able to fulfill my dreams. 

So, it was high time to overcome my laziness. I changed and improved some of my habits. I observed what works best for me to stop being lazy.

I want to share the 10 ways that helped me overcome laziness and achieving my goals with you all so that you can get some help if you are also tired of feeling lazy most of the time. So let’s get started.

10 Ways of Overcoming Laziness and achieving goals

1)   Want something madly/ be determined to achieve your goal at any cost 

Everyone has their life purpose, goals, and dreams to achieve, if not one should figure out their life purpose as we lack motivation to work hard in life without it. Every new day is a new chance to reach your goal and every new day should be one step closer to that purpose. 

Before starting to work on your goal, you ask yourself why you want to get it. That answer should be compelling enough to give your best, it should motivate you to keep working on your dream and it should be more powerful than your excuses to feel lazy and procrastinate.

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”-Paulo Coelho

You should have a hunger, a burning desire to achieve your goal. You should be determined to achieve that goal at any cost. Laziness and procrastination are nothing in front of your hunger, your determination, and the burning desire inside you. You can easily overcome your laziness as you are way beyond your excuses and ready to conquer the world.                                                                                   

2)   Do what you love 

I think doing what you love is a well-known secret of overcoming laziness. When you do the things in which your heart stays at, you become more productive, you focus more on the quality of your work rather than the time you invested in it, you stay positive most of the time, you enjoy every moment and you never feel like you are working.

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”- Marc Anthony

Study your favorite subject so that you are eager to learn more and more, you are energetic most of the time and you don’t feel tired of learning. Work in the field you love so that you won’t be lazy to wake up in the morning, be ready for a grand new day, and give your best on your work.

3)   Have faith

Sometimes, fear becomes the reason for laziness. Your mind never wants you to leave your comfort zones. It fears a lot, it has fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of criticism, fear of change, and many more. It resists you every time you try to break those comfort zones. It produces negative thoughts like what if you fail? What if you lose everything you have now? What if society will laugh at you? Etc. 

You become a coward and stop your efforts. You get frustrated and you run away from everything. You take your mobile phone in your hand, play games or watch entertainment videos or use social media. Laziness prevails over your efforts. 

So, it is very important to convert fear into faith. You should have faith in yourself and your intuition. You should have faith in god’s timing and believe that you are able to achieve anything you want. 

Feed positive thoughts in your mind. Stay away from negative people, negative situations, and negative environment. Don’t fear failure since it teaches you to succeed next time, don’t fear loss since there is a high chance of profit if you make calculated moves, don’t fear change since it leads you to something more beautiful, don’t fear criticism since it turns into praise when you succeed.

4)   Get a good sleep

In my opinion, lack of good sleep at night is the most common reason why we become lazy for an entire day. From the moment you open your eyes to the end of the day, you keep yawning, you feel fatigued along with gritty eyes, and you will have negative thoughts throughout the day and do nothing but get angry with yourself. You feel so energy less that you keep lying on the bed even though you know that we have many tasks to complete. 

That’s why it is really important to get a good sleep at night. Set a peaceful evening routine so that your mind is free of all tension, ready to relax and sleep as soon as you lay on your bed. When you wake up with a night of sound sleep, you feel an energy with which you are ready to start a very purposeful day. Try to sleep early at night, get 8 hours of sleep and wake up early in the morning.

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”-Benjamin Franklin

5)   Make your morning positive as much as possible

How you start your morning will determine how your day goes. So, it is very important to make your morning positive and energetic as much as possible. Make sure you think positively and avoid any kind of negativity entering in you at any cost, as your mood can swing in just some seconds filled with sadness, anger, and dullness. 

You can get out of bed expressing some gratitude, wish good morning to your loved ones, listen to devotional songs or any mantras or motivational speeches, read a book that motivates you to start a great day and dance to some happy songs. 

You should avoid using social media right after getting up in the morning, in fact, you should use them in the evening time when we have completed all the tasks for the day so that any sad or bad news cannot take your positive energy and stop being lazy and dull. You have to avoid negative people and situations as much as possible. 

Exercising in the morning can really help you overcome laziness and add positive energy. So, you should add exercise as your daily morning habit.                       

6)   Create an environment that energizes you

Our surroundings and environment play a great role to turn on/off our mood. Organized and decluttered space makes your mind calm, helps you to feel good and creates positive vibes. That positivity motivates you to become more productive. 

Whereas, disorganized space and clutter disturbs your mind and leads you to negativity, which results in laziness. So, before you start your work, make sure your work area is clean and decluttered. Also, make sure that it smells nice.

Lights too affect our mood while working. Make sure you get sufficient light during work and your eyes are not stressed more. Paint your walls with your favorite colors which make your mind calm and energized at the same time. 

You can decorate the place as you like you can, get some indoor plants or place nice wallpapers on the walls or stick some motivational quotes and get more positive and pleasant vibes. If you feel more energized in nature, then you can go to a garden or a park and work.                                                                                                                                                                                          

7)   Break down a project into smaller tasks and create a to-do list

Many times, we panic and overwhelm before starting a project because we see the project as a big responsibility, tiring work, and a difficult job. So, we feel lazy to start and procrastinate it many times. 

It is beneficial to break down the work into small tasks that can be completed in a day. Even if we take a small step in a day; even if we complete a small portion of the work in a day, it is better than not doing anything right? So, you can set a portion of work to do the next day, go into detail and create a to-do list. 

Finishing tasks and ticking on the to-do list is very satisfying. Doing this not only helps us overcome our laziness but also enhance self-confidence and faith in ourselves.

8)   Put your mobile away from you while working

Distraction, at many times, tends to succumb to laziness. If you get distracted again and again while working, you can’t concentrate on the work. You give your time to the source of distraction and once you pause doing your work; it takes hours and hours, even somedays too, to restart that work.

Nowadays, the mobile phone has become the biggest source of distraction. If you get a message while you are working, there is a high chance that you will open your mobile to reply. If notification of your favorite new video pops out, it is pretty sure that you cannot resist your fingers to unlock the screen and watch it. 

If this happens to you too, you should put your mobile away during work. You can reply to the message and watch the video during your lunchtime and break time.                                                          

9)  Take a break

Continuous work sometimes can be a reason for laziness. Because continuous and long term work makes you tired and you want to rest. Rest is good but if that rest is not included in your to-do list or schedule then your body may be in rest mode but your mind keeps on saying that you are supposed to be working this time, you are so weak, you will not complete the project on time, etc., etc. 

When your mind is not resting, the rest you took is not rest actually and it causes laziness. You are still tired and you procrastinate more and more.

So, you should include a break in your schedule. Schedule your break according to your capacity to concentrate. If your work is tough and takes lot of physical and mental energy, you can work for 30 minutes and take break of 5-10 minutes; if you can work for more time, take break accordingly. You can listen to music, go out for fresh air, take a nap or do whatever that energizes you again. 

After completing a task or project, taking a break of at least a day is very necessary. You can travel to your favorite place, hang out with your friends, go to your favorite restaurant and eat good food or stay at home and spend some me-time. Taking a break refreshes your mind, your body gets energy and you can start a new day with new goals and determinations. This way you can overcome your laziness.

10)   Take care of your health

Our health is very much responsible for our laziness. When you get sick, you obviously should take a rest and be free from any kind of stress. But even if you feel some kind of uneasiness, for example, a bit of headache, a common cold, or a small pain, your mind tells you to stop everything that you are doing because you are sick. 

Some days ago, I suffered from the common cold and it cost me an entire week. I sometimes felt like I have fever and sometimes like a headache. I wasn’t that much ill that I couldn’t do any tasks, but in my mind, there was an illusion that I am sick and I have to sleep, I didn’t want to wake up, even for brushing my teeth. I could have done so many productive works during that time but I couldn’t or didn’t do it. 

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”-Buddha

So, it is very important to take care of your health and follow some healthy habits.

i) Drink a sufficient amount of water; keep a water bottle with you.
ii) Dress up as per the weather; make sure you wear warm clothes during cold times.
iii) Fall in love with fruits so that diseases will not fall in love with your body.
iv) Do not take stress, work early, work freely and attempt small task at once.