"Lazy" is just another way of saying that you're not doing something somebody else thinks you should be doing. Nobody is lazy at playing video games or eating a favorite food. If you like doing it, you do it. You can't be lazy. You can only be lazy in some kind of context where you or others judge you and find you wanting. So two pieces of advice. First, stop judging so much. Do what you love doing and don't feel the…
I cannot disagree more. You can be lazy about something that brings enjoyment. Laziness is stagnation without regard for enjoyment or perceptions. In other words it is the opposite of ambition or progression. For example you can enjoy playing video games and yet become lazy about it through a lack of effort in that a decline of related goals does not necessarily translate into lower interest or participation.
Spinning the subject into something entirely unrelated, such as sensitivity or self-esteem, completely misses the point and could actually be really harmful advise. If you wish to focus upon or improve enjoyment, self-esteem, or emotional well being the do so with great deliberation but not because you have confused those with effort.
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Think of mental laziness as a lack of mental exercise. Mental exercise, such as tough decisions, actually burn more calories and impact your overall physiology. The only way to fight mental laziness is to increase your own self awareness with a goal for self improvement over time, like working out the rest of your body. Some helpful tools are reminders, taking notes, reviewing prior decisions, and advice from other people.
To fight mental laziness I recommend focusing on these criteria:
* criticality - don’t be afraid to ask questions and seek greater learning
* originality - try something new. A new approach may require a far lower effort and yet may cause anxiety. Confront and appreciate that anxiety directly as part your increased self-awareness
* empathy - empathy is the cognitive exercise of perceiving the situations of other people. Do not confuse it for sympathy, the process of sharing an emotional response. Empathy requires deliberate effort and often does not result in sympathetic state
* deliberation - own your decisions. Take credit for all decisions without fear. If you are afraid to associate a decision with your reputation then somebody will make the decision for you. It is better to make a wrong decision early than to put that decision off to a future time. A wrong decision in the short term results in learning that can result in corrective decisions that would otherwise be absent.