Hello, my name is Austin Shadle, and welcome
back to the Life Endurance Podcast, where we
explore methods of unlocking your true potential
in the greatest endurance race we all partake
in, life. I've talked a lot about habits on this
podcast, including how most of our actions and
choices are in some way a habit. And this applies
to laziness as well. If you've listened to past
episodes, you probably hear that and think similarly
to how I did. Laziness as a habit being about
a lack of action. And to combat this, you need
to build a habit of taking action. While there's
definitely truth to that, I heard a quote recently
that adds a very important and deeper root cause
of laziness. Here it is. Laziness is the habit
of thinking of the cost rather than the reward.
What this exposes is the true why behind our
laziness. Think about a stereotypical super lazy
person. What do they sound like? How do they
react to inconvenience or external requests?
Their reasons instantly go to, ugh, I have to
get dressed and find my car keys, or going to
the gym sounds exhausting, or it's going to take
me all day to put in my application. Think about
what every single one of those responses focuses
on. They focus on what the action costs. It costs
the effort, the energy, and the time. We as humans
are wired to avoid spending unnecessary energy.
Before modern day, our resources were harder
to come by, and that meant that the energy we
spent had to go towards action that earned us
the necessary resources to do it again tomorrow.
This means by default, we only spend energy when
necessary. And by necessary, I mean minimum action
to stay alive, which is a much lower bar to meet
in the modern world. So by focusing on the cost
of actions, actions that likely improve our life
in the end, we easily justify not taking them.
Lazy people don't think about the future benefits.
They see a cost and easily deem it as unnecessary.
So the life endurance takeaway for today is this.
If you feel lazy, if you're not taking the actions
you know you need to in order to reach your goals,
you're focusing too much on the cost and not
enough on the reward. Think about why you feel
lazy. What is it specifically that you should
be doing? Now you're thinking of the action.
Think about how much effort, time, and energy
it will take. You may feel overwhelmed now, and
that's okay. But this is where you need to shift
the habit. Switch gears. You think you should
be doing this action for a reason. What is that
reason? Why would it be better if you lost the
extra weight? Why would it be better if you had
a different job? Why would it feel good to become
proficient at this new hobby? Why would life
be better if you were more social? The more we
focus on why our actions will pay off in the
end, the less we'll get mentally stuck on the
cost. Because that's life. And frankly, that's
just physics. If you put in no action or resources,
you get nothing back. If you don't take action
or invest resources, you'll never gain more.
Consider this and we begin to realize why the
cost is worth it. We remove the fear of the cost.
and we build the mental habit that combats laziness.
Thank you for listening, and as always, I look
forward to sharing the next episode.