(Writer’s note: I’m talking to me as well as all of you. I realized about four months ago I had a serious problem with laziness. I wouldn’t call myself lazy, but it was easier to be lazy than to admit that I had a problem with my phone. I have been making small changes since then to get better. However, this advice is not coming from a perfect hustler either.)

In this day and age, laziness has become the norm. We love reading about people who hustle and work hard to succeed, but we also hail the keyboard warriors too. The ones who do nothing but sit on a computer all day and claim themselves to be an expert on whatever they so choose.

With the progress of social media, the internet, and the increasing control technology has on our lives, laziness has become a real problem. We are distracted by everything. Attention spans have become shorter and shorter. Our heads are looking down and we do not interact with the world on a physical level anymore.

In addition to technology, people will admit that their diets have become poorer because they find it easier to grab something quickly from a fast food place. They don’t want to cook because that takes too much time. Frozen food and convenience items have become increasingly popular to take advantage of people who don’t want to take the time to cook.

People admit that they do not take care of themselves because they don’t feel they have the time. People admit to feeling more and more tired even though they have done very little during the day to be that tired. People admit to needing more caffeine and more sugar just to stay awake and get through the day.

Laziness has become an epidemic in this country. We claim to be able to do a lot more than what we do. We say that we do not have time to cook supper, but we can kill hours playing games on our phones. We say we do not have time to garden or even go for a walk, but we can watch television or videos for an hour. We say we do not have time to learn a new skill, but we can scroll through social media for long periods of time.

Quite frankly, most of us have the time to do whatever we want to do. However, our priorities have become skewed. Those skewed priorities are what are going to kill us. We are gaining weight, getting out of shape, dealing with poor health, losing touch with reality, ignoring our families and pets, ignoring our homes, and more.

We don’t pay attention to what is going on around us when we are lazy. With our heads buried in our devices, we might not see when a dangerous person walks into the room. We miss the mood change in our spouse and wonder why they are yelling or crying. We stay locked and secluded in our little world and miss the moments with our kids.

Instead of watching/reading the news ourselves, we get our news from what people share on social media or from a text alert. People get mad because no one told them to get ready for the hurricane that is coming the next day, but emergency services and weather stations have been warning people for a week. People will throw a fit because a grocery store is out of bottled water, but won’t fill bottles themselves at home.

In some cases, being lazy can cause a life-or-death situation. People don’t heed the warnings to get stocked up and prepare for a natural disaster. They don’t have food, water, fuel, batteries, or a radio to be prepared. Hopefully, some help will come, but not soon enough. People don’t evacuate when they are told to evacuate and end up calling for help because they are stuck in a flooded home. People are told the roads are unsafe to travel due to ice or snow, yet they still try to go to town because they need groceries and get stuck in the middle of the road or a ditch. All these situations require emergency personnel to risk their lives due to someone’s laziness and complete lack of foresight.

How do we fix this?

“We” don’t have to fix anything. You have to fix yourself because only you can fix yourself. Now is the time to give yourself some tough love. You need to put down the phone and start setting some limits. You are a grown adult so this shouldn’t be a problem. Willpower and self-determination will get you a long way in life and it will now too.

Need some tips?

• Set a timer.
• Schedule your day.
• Plan your day and write a list of things to get done.
• Delete your social media apps on your phone and computer.
• Set reminders and timers on your phone to help you remember to get stuff done.
• Don’t look at your phone until you have showered, got dressed, and had breakfast in the morning.
• Set some goals and make a plan for them.
• Set a time to read emails and respond. 
• Set some limits for yourself as well as your family.
• Involve your friends and family in pursuing new interests.
• Invite people over and spend time with them without your phone being present.
• Stop putting the ringer on your phone on silent. Use the ringer and you won’t miss a call and you can still be productive.
• Don’t let people get to you when they get mad you didn’t answer that text right away. Rarely does anyone need an answer right now.
• Put down the phone an hour before bed and pick up a book. 
• Get rid of any distractions that you didn’t marry, give birth to, or gave birth to you.

Remember: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Benjamin Franklin.

Some of you might not like this post. It’s easier to blame everything else wrong than to look in the mirror and take responsibility for yourself. No one is going to come along and do the work for you. If you need accountability, there are hundreds of people out there to help you be accountable. However, YOU still have to do the work.

You may have health problems, but they don’t have to define you or give you a reason not to live your best life. There may be circumstances out of your control preventing you from doing all you want to do, but you can still do a lot of other things. Excuses hold us back and make us lazier. You can’t let them define you.

Laziness will kill you if you don’t nip it in the bud. Sometimes, you need a lazy day but you don’t need a lazy life. You need to be challenging yourself every day to get done what you want to accomplish. Having your eyes on your phone and wasting hours a day on games and social media will just make your problems worse.

Get off your phone and go do something!

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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