Even if the odds of success are actually quite good, we may still not be able to go forward, since we'll nervously anticipate how bad we'd feel should our efforts not be successful. Without the internal resources to "catch" ourself should we fail, and absent the ability to unconditionally validate ourself independent of failure, we're unable to start the project in the first place. In short, our negative programming-not our actual ability-renders us unequal to the task.
And, it should be added, absolutely none of this has anything to do with laziness. Moreover, even though what we label procrastination may relate simply to poor time management, the act of procrastinating may also be motivated principally by the fear of failure. And such a delaying tactic (commonly seen as depicting some sort of "laziness") generally goes back to our having learned in childhood that we weren't good enough if our performance was somehow flawed. So naturally we learned that it was better not to take on anything unless we were sure in advance we could do it well. In fact, much of what we describe as perfectionism derives from having grown up in a home where our parents held us to unrealistically high standards that, unless we could meet them, led to our being constantly criticized.
• Fear of refusal or rejection. If we require help to get something accomplished and we're afraid that the person needed to assist us might refuse our request, we might decide--for that reason alone--not to start the project at all. As regards, secondly, our fear of rejection, if we're dependent on others to feel good about ourselves, then we won't be able to undertake anything that could lead another to be frustrated with us, stand in judgment over us, or maybe even reject us altogether.
• Sense of discouragement, hopelessness, futility, etc. All of these feelings, moods or states of mind can drop us into that listless place of apathy where we no longer care about getting anything done. This is a painful, dispirited state in which our very will is paralyzed. And in such a state virtually no task seems worth doing. For it's impossible to imagine that undertaking it would help us feel better about ourself, or about life generally.
And so our lethargic avoidance--which to an outsider might seem indistinguishable from laziness--has in fact nothing to do with laziness and virtually everything to do with depression. DSM-IV (the mental health practitioner's diagnostic bible) actually defines depression as characterized by a "markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities." And so, whether the activity be work- or pleasure-related, the overwhelming impulse is to avoid it. In such a state, merely getting out of bed in the morning can feel like an almost insurmountable task. What we might appreciate here as the enervation of our spirit seems almost synonymous with what the Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron (in her article "Looking into Laziness") refers to as the agonizing "loss of heart" experienced in this state.
• An attitude of pessimism, cynicism, hostility or bitterness. One final reason for explaining our lack of motivation to apply ourselves to some task or project has to do with our becoming so jaded that we view our efforts as benefiting only others rather than ourself. Or we've become so skeptical about our future prospects that we no longer believe it makes sense to push ourself to do anything.
This I'd refer to as rebellion masquerading as "laziness"--a kind of "Hell, no! I don't want to do it, and I'm not going to do it!" Underlying this self-restraining orientation is un-discharged anger (or rage) from past disappointments, which propels us into resistant negativity. Because of the depth of past psychological wounds, we're left disheartened, disillusioned and disenchanted. And perversely, we experience our strength only in reactive, oppositional willfulness. So we refuse to do what otherwise we might achieve without much difficulty. And here--yet again--our resistance to take action, even if it's really in our own behalf, has nothing to do with laziness.
Originally, I'd considered calling this post, "The Many ‘Motives' of Laziness." But in the end, putting the word "motives" in quotes seemed less descriptive than putting those quotes around the word "laziness." Hopefully, as a result of reading this piece, readers will begin to question in their own lives whether they might not want to re-think some of their former assumptions about this so oversimplified concept.
Having given Dagwood Bumstead this post's first words, I thought it fitting to give the last to an even zanier humorist--namely, W. C. Fields--who once declared, "The laziest man I ever met put popcorn in his pancakes so they would turn over by themselves" (!). I must admit that this quote sounds more descriptive of true laziness than anything I've described earlier. But we must still ask ourselves whether Fields' portrayal actually reminds us of anybody we ever knew.
What, ultimately, makes Fields' quip so funny is its very exaggeration. It's doubtful that we can actually recognize ourselves, or anybody else, in this ingenious, intriguing (but not finally revealing) one-liner. To the extent that anyone might have tried to get popcorn to execute the job of turning over pancakes, such a novel approach would suggest more about the person's creativity in the service of making a task less routine and more fun than an expression of some biological propensity toward sloth.
---Comments? Questions? Criticisms? If you're sufficiently motivated, I welcome responses to this post.
Notes:
Regrettably, this piece has had to ignore entirely the topic of overcoming laziness, for such a focus would have taken me in a completely different direction. Reviewing what on the web relates to this equally important topic, I can direct readers to at least two articles, even though I don't necessarily agree with all the suggestions included in them. They are: "11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic," by Scott H. Young , and "10 Ways to Make Laziness Work for You," by Leo Babauta
There's actually a book entitled The Myth of Laziness, which I thought I should probably mention, even though it has almost nothing to do with the thesis of my post. Written by pediatrician Mel Levine, it's about so-called "lazy" children who in fact can't perform up to their innate potential because of what he calls "output failures." These failures are caused by a variety of biological, neurological and psychological deficits. Obviously, my post is not intended to address such performance-degrading deficits--which Levine conceptualizes as involving such internal factors as motor skills, long-term memory, oral language ability, mental energy dysfunction, idea generation, and organization; as well as external factors, relating to family patterns, socioeconomic background, and negative modeling.
---Lastly, I invite readers to follow me on Twitter. http://twitter.com/drlee1
