16. Laziness and Procrastination

Laziness refers to the mentality and behavior of being slack, disorganized, undisciplined, inert, passive, unmotivated and lacking in action. 

Procrastination is often related to laziness. It refers to the mentality and behavior of intentionally or unintentionally slowing down or putting off an action that is necessary to accomplish a task, causing a failure to meet the goal/standard or timeline. 

Examples are: 

• Being consistently late and the habit of delaying things. 

• Not being able to keep the work or living environment tidy and clean – only cleaning and tidying up when it is absolutely necessary. 

• Rushing to get things done at the last minute, resulting in failure to meet deadlines or achieve the expected quality. 

• Knowing many problems and unhealthy patterns need to be dealt with, but not knowing where to start. Although the preparation period has been underway for a long time, one never feels truly ready.

Related patterns include: Avoiding and Hiding, Indecisiveness, Perfectionism, Ignoring and Avoiding Action, Lack of Patience, Exaggerating and Debasing and Shirking and Shifting Responsibility. 

One can feel discomfort such as pressure, anxiety and fear when setting goals and planning. It creates a cycle of 1) a period of little action in order to relax, followed by 2) a last- minute sprint in ‘fight or flight’ mode. After this intense period, in order to relax, one goes into the ‘little action’ period again until the next ‘sprinting’ period.

Life keeps following this cycle, causing one to experience unhealthy emotions such as stress, nervousness, uneasiness, anxiety, fear, self-blame, low self-esteem, sadness, self- sabotaging and self-destruction. It can also become a source of conflict with other people and frequent occurrences of things going wrong. One can feel exhausted, burned out and overwhelmed from constantly being in ‘fight or flight’ mode.

• Work on related patterns on the Xin Ling and consciousness levels. Make a consistent effort to identify, face and change these patterns. 

• Get to know one’s strengths and shortcomings. Make good use of the strengths and work on the shortcomings. Learn to plan and put things in good order and strengthen one’s ability to take action and execute a plan. 

• Learn to manage time. Although every person has the right to decide how to use his time, good time management can create order in life and enhance efficiency (better use of time). 

• It is important to learn to say ‘no’ when it is appropriate to do so. Learn to be more decisive and avoid practicing perfectionism. 

• Examine on a deep level to see if there is fear of failure or fear of success. If there is, it is necessary to work on it. 

• Cultivate the habit of completing a task first, then relaxing. 

• Prioritize according to importance and urgency and allow sufficient time for tasks.