Laziness is genetically embedded in us. Our ancestors used to conserve energy as a survival technique. They could use the extra energy to escape predators. That instinct to conserve energy is still in us, but ambition and perspective can help override this instinct, but its prevalence is still in us. Laziness can often result from the absence of self efficacy and the belief that if you put your mind to something, you will be successful. People will lose the ambition to do something if they have no faith in a good result. The gratification we receive from accomplishing a task is important for boosting ambition. Long and onerous tasks that don’t have an end result in sight don’t give us that gratification. We end up feeling like the task is not worth the effort. We turn to easier tasks or simple idleness. Sometimes people are lazy because they haven’t found what they want to do. It’s important to invest time and effort into something that you like. So that you have something to look forward to when you’re done doing all things you don’t like.  It helps you to put up with working on the tasks you find irritating or irksome. If you spend all your time working on tasks you don’t find enjoyable you will start to feel like your work is meaningless, and lose your ambition to do it. We become lazy.

 Unfortunately the result of laziness is often the same as the cause of laziness. Laziness often leads to low self-esteem, lack of gratification, and a sense of having no purpose. You just become more and more lazy. You know how mad you get when something really needs to get done and you do all you can to complete it, but someone else slacks off and ruins the whole thing? Then you have to do extra work because someone else is too selfish to think about how their lack of effort is affecting everyone else? It makes sense to be upset when someone lets you down, but have you ever considered how they feel? Most of the time people don’t slack off for the sole purpose of making you miserable. They don’t slack off because they just don’t think they can be bothered with something so trivial as helping you. Laziness has a psychological element that people don’t think about. Laziness can cause someone to lose their sense of meaning, and with it their discipline. They start to do stuff half- heartedly, and when they inevitably don’t relieve gratitude for their shoddy work, they feel dejected. They begin to think that if their work is not appreciated why do it? The little effort they put into getting things done begins to feel overwhelming and not worth it. They get stuck in an endless cycle of laziness. 

So what can we do to keep ourselves from getting trapped and laziness? Laziness can often destroy good habits. So it’s important to start new ones. However if you are feeling overwhelmed it can be less stressful to take small steps towards a goal you want or need to achieve.  Laziness has different stages. While some people just struggle to get hard or annoying tasks done, others struggle to get anything done. Either way it helps to take  things one step at a time. smaller steps make a task seem less, big and easier to achieve, and it allows you to see little accomplishments. A lot of times being able to see results helps encourage you to continue with a task. It is also important not to expect perfection. Perfection is too high of a goal for you to achieve. When you work to perfection you will always fail. It’s important not to set yourself up for failure when you are trying to break lazy habits because failure can take away your ambition to keep trying. Another tip to help break laziness is to be willing to ask for help. If you find yourself stuck or confused while doing a task get help. If you try to figure it out on our own you may just hit a wall and give up. Also use positive self talk rather than negative self talk. Congratulate yourself when you complete steps, and reward yourself for completing goals. To the best of your ability make tasks fun. Maybe listen to music while you’re cleaning, or take timed breaks from your homework. However,  when you take timed breaks it’s important not to do something on a screen because that can make you more lazy. Go for a walk or a run, make yourself a cup of tea, or eat a sack, any of these things can help boost your energy rather than deplete it. 

Though laziness is hard to avoid, it can be stopped, but only if you’re willing to take the steps to stop it.