by Shayna Smith

 

”For your laziness to go away you will need to replace it with a solid plan as to what you will do with the time and energy gained by the departure of your laziness”

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could banish laziness from my life? Imagine what I could achieve if that were the case! I’d have a bikini body and would be rolling in millions!!”. It breaks my heart to say that it’s been more than a year from that entry and I’m nowhere near being a millionaire. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t made any progress, though. By a conservative estimate I’m at least twice as productive as I used to be earlier, and for someone who has been fundamentally very lazy all her life that is a BIG achievement.

Is it even possible to completely defeat laziness for the monster that it is? Holding us back from our true potential, getting in the way of us and our biggest ambitions, and living life to the fullest?

Wow, big words. You won’t get to hear more of them going further into this post because one of my 2014 resolutions has been not to use big-sounding words that are actually quite hollow. And never mean anything. (Seriously, what does “living life to its fullest” even mean?!)

So I’m sharing with you some of the laziness-conquering tricks I’ve gathered along the way. Simple but not simplistic. May not sound big, but are actually effective. So here goes!

Rewire Your Mindset.

Way easier said than done.

Well, actually it is quite easy. It is the easiest way I know of conquering bad habits. (And yes, laziness is a bad habit, a deeply wired bad habit.)

The only snag is that the results won’t happen overnight. But they happen faster than you’d suspect and last long; in fact, lifelong.

Rewiring your mindset involves giving your subconscious clear orders about what you want to accomplish next.

As you doze off to sleep each night, and in the minutes immediately after waking up, keep telling yourself calmly but with total sincerity, that you want to KICK laziness out of your life.

Sleep is an awesome thing, make it work for you.

But don’t stop there. You need to go beyond it and this next step is extremely important — Imagine if you were already free of your laziness. What would your daily life look like?

Make a list (passionately, not mechanically) and jot down a few answers.

This is crucial. You need to be clear about what you’d do with the extra energy and time if laziness were to disappear from your life. Would you sign up for salsa classes? Would you do yoga every day and hence be fit and lean in no time? Would you write more blog posts? Would you have more sex? Would you learn cooking? What exactly would you do with your day if you were not lazy anymore?

No wishy washy answers, but real stuff. The clearer you are in your mind about what you’d accomplish if you were on your toes and energetic all the time, the better your mind will understand how your laziness/apathy is holding you back and more willing it will be to kick it out.

You can’t just take something away; you need to supplant it with something more effective.

In this case, for your laziness to go away you will need to replace it with a solid plan as to what you will do with the time and energy gained by the departure of your laziness. If you don’t, you will lapse into old patterns (laziness says hi!).

So to sum up, order your subconscious before going to bed each night that you want this bloody thing (excuse the language) called laziness out of your system, and then follow up with a long list of things to do – things that actually resonate with you.

Eat Naturally High Energy Foods 3 Times a Day

I hate anything healthy unless somebody can convince me that it will contribute to my already very vain image. Meaning, will make me look better in my selfies.

One glass of green juice (doesn’t really have to be yucky) does exactly that, as my skin can attest.

However, one of its unexpected results has been the rush of energy I feel each time I down a glass of veggie juice. It’s got to do with the alkaline properties of the vegetables mushed, I’m told. Whatever the science behind it, eating foods that are naturally high in energy is an awesome way to stay awake the whole day. They may not have the kick of caffeine in them, but they do impart a spring to our step, especially the juicy kind of foods.

I recommend a fresh orange when you are feeling too lazy to work out. Try it!

Oranges and grapes are great re-energising foods.

 Make Om Chanting a Regular Practice

There’s an app that can help you chant, but I need you to not just listen to the chants but actually do the chanting yourself. Put all the distractions away (including your phone) and sit down on the floor cross legged, with your spine erect.

Chant Om the way it is supposed to be chanted, the sound beginning in your belly, traveling all the way up to your throat and then leaving your body via your shut mouth. Only 11 rounds of this and one feels a tremendous rush of energy in their bodies. It’s best to do this in the morning, pre-breakfast, so that you are able to approach your day with more energy and intent.

Make this a regular morning practice to start your day on the right foot.

Set Reminders through the Day

Reminders of what, you ask?

Of anything that you feel is sucking your energy away. It could be boredom, or just an I can’t be bothered with anything feeling that comes and goes during long hours at work.

You need to determine what affects your energy negatively. Is it a time of the day? A thought? Your work? (You’re in trouble if that’s the case.) And then set a reminder to do something that would stop the negativity in its tracks.

I feel the worst in late afternoons. I am supposed to work out at 7.30 each evening but I do sometimes skip it because I feel too mentally tired from my job. The best way to stop that from happening, I’ve found, is to set a reminder for myself around 6pm. It’s just a basic alarm kind of thing in my phone. It reminds me to check out a YouTube video on awesome bodies or listen to any music that has me pumping in no time.

When I do that, I arrive home in much better spirits and look forward to working out instead of trying to rationalise with my mind why I must work out.

In conclusion, I’d like to reiterate that it is all a matter of energy. Laziness is a lack of energy. So the best way to counter it is to do more of those things that slowly but surely herald energy into your routine (and your mind). Do this regularly and without any great expectations. Laziness would cease to be a problem for you sooner than you realise.

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Shayna Smith is an experienced writer, particularly interested in health and parenting issues. She follows both the fields keenly and keeps herself updated of the latest research. She primarily writes for couponshq.com.au, where she has expressed her views on a variety of health-related topics.

30 Days, 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians from across the world to share their stories and experiences – creating a meeting point where our common humanity is explored.

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija