We all want to be more productive. So what’s stopping us? For many of us, it’s a combination of bad habits and a lack of willpower, a.k.a. laziness. If you feel like this is you, don’t get down on yourself. In this post, I’m gonna share 6 simple steps to destroy laziness anytime it rears its ugly head.
I know a thing or two about struggling with laziness. When I was a teenager, I was a juvenile delinquent that bragged about being a good-for-nothing. In my early adult years, I was homeless and living out of my car.
My life started to come together when I refused to keep living from victimhood. I went from broke to running a multi-million dollar company and marrying the woman of my dreams. If I could do it, you can too.
6 Simple Steps that Destroy Laziness
Getting rid of laziness isn’t always easy, but it’s also not as hard as you might think. It gets down to motivation and momentum, with a little bit of organization. If you find yourself in a slump, do the following five things in order. You’ll be back at it in no time, crushing your goals.
Step 1 – Get Emotional
Usually when people say “emotional” they mean it negatively. But it can sometimes be good to get emotional, because then you can tap into your passion. You need passion to breathe fire and get things done in the face of resistance, especially resistance from within.
Here’s a secret: motivation trumps laziness every time. Whenever you feel lazy, it’s almost always because you’re not feeling motivated. In other words, if you can learn to motivate yourself, you can destroy laziness in your life.
So how do you get motivated? By visualizing yourself where you want to be. When you imagine yourself having already accomplished your goals, you can feel the emotion of your success before your success happens. These positive emotions will energize you like nothing else – you’ll want more of that victory and will climb over mountains to get it. Moreover, it’ll give you hope, which you need to persevere.
So the next time you feel lazy? Picture yourself where you want to be and let yourself feel it.
Step 2 – Start Small
Every big goal is made up of lots of smaller ones. Therefore, to accomplish big initiatives, it’s important to break them down into bite-sized tasks. Not only does this make things less intimidating, but it builds momentum. Anytime you experience a win, it creates energy. So stack up small wins, and watch yourself take off!
Step 3 – Create Deadlines with Yourself
Deadlines are proven to make you more likely to succeed, even when they’re only with yourself. They make your goals feel more real, attainable, and urgent. Deadlines are also a commitment, and everyone knows instinctively that breaking a commitment feels terrible. In other words, deadlines destroy laziness because they provide both positive and negative reinforcement.
Step 4 – Embrace Discomfort
Generally speaking, if you’re uncomfortable, you’re probably growing from that experience. If you learn to think of discomfort as something that makes you stronger, then you may find yourself more eager to embrace it. That said, don’t overdo it. Make sure you reward yourself after you accomplish a goal or milestone. Celebrate your victories. Just remember that refusing to stay comfortable is a victory in and of itself.
Step 5 – Remove Distractions
Sometimes to win the battle you need to change the terrain. Your environment can heavily influence your productivity, often in very subtle ways. You need to be aware that the presence of distractions alone can drain your energy. This is why it’s important get your work space as clear as you can. Making your environment work with you rather than against you will destroy laziness without you having to do much.
For instance, you may find yourself less efficient when you work from home. If that’s the case, don’t try to fight against that tide if you can help it. Instead, go with it. Find a park, or if possible a coffee shop or co-working space, and take only what you need to get your work done – nothing more. If you find yourself checking Facebook when you should be working, deactivate your account for a while. Compulsively looking at your smartphone? Put it in the other room and don’t go in there until you finish what you need to do.
Step 6 – Create Routines
Start setting appointments with yourself at the same time every day to work on that project you keep putting off or develop that new habit you wish you had. There’s so much power in reserving a time slot for an activity and sticking to it, no matter what. You’ll find that when you do, you’ll want to keep doing it. Pretty soon, it’ll seem far less attractive to you not to keep your routine than to keep following through. Routines are the crown jewel for destroying laziness, so start building a new one today!
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