Lazy simply means unwilling to put forth effort. While there are undoubtedly a large number of individuals who want to pawn off responsibility and its associated work to anyone they can find (their mom, co-workers, the government, whoever…) in my experience, most people don’t fall into this category. Most people I have met are willing to work, they just work hard doing tasks of questionable worth.

To put this in perspective, if you are a college student and decide to put copious amounts of effort into developing your beer-bong skills instead of the mastery of calculus or writing effectively then you are not actually lazy. You spent many long hours and worked hard at the funnel mastering the ability to down 8 beers in 2 seconds. No matter how hard you worked though, it is extremely unlikely that beer-bong mastery will actually move this person closer to their goal of graduating.

Likewise, many people spend hours on end in front of a television where they are investing time and, arguably effort, following their favorite characters on their favorite shows. They know every character’s motivations, skills, history and especially what they did in last weeks episode. Makes me want to ask whether or not this effort actually move them closer to, or further from their goals. Do they even know what their goals are?

Hopefully it is obvious that a consistent refusal to put forth effort (ie:laziness) will cause a person a lot of pain in their life. The proverbs state that someone who is “..slack in their work is brother to one who destroys…”. It must also be stated that hard work alone isn’t enough for anyone to reach their goals. Hard work that is driven by solid planning is what will bring results.

The time we have available is finite and, unless we use the resources we have available wisely, we will end up working in an endless wheel that goes nowhere. Working hard chasing the pleasures of the moment at the expense of the future and wondering why things aren’t working out the way we wanted.

I guess that is the heart of what diligence really is, hard work wisely applied joined with a willingness to endure short term discomfort for the promise of future rewards…

Examples:

1. Sam’s club: fewer trips to the store (and cheaper!) means more time and money.

2. Keep a list of errands i need to run on a weekly basis, so when I am near an errand, do it then. (frees up saturday)

3. General frugality: no NEED for overtime, if i live within my means to begin with. It also means that i don’t get stressed about work — I have a lower paying job (compared to similar options) but I have a lot of fun there! (add 8 hours of psuedo-leisure time to my day)

The overall point here, is that lazy is not bad, if you accept that you are lazy and use it to your advantage.