Understand and Avoid Laziness – आलस्य को समझे और इससे बचें (September, 2017)

Another quality that hurts us the most and has the highest likelihood of robbing us of our full potential is laziness. Everyone, be it a student, a businessman, a worker, or a person pursuing any worthy goal, will attest to the horrifying implications and utter frustration when he/she falls prey to laziness. A lazy person cannot be successful. In other words, to succeed in life – or in any endeavors, no matter how small it is – one must understand and overcome laziness. Yes, this month’s topic for kid’s assignment is Understand and Avoid Laziness (आलस्य को समझे और इससे बचें).

 

Laziness is defined as a quality of unwillingness to work or spend energy. Somehow, it gives an impression that laziness solely depends upon one’s physical strength. But, it cannot be further from the truth. Laziness has more to with mental state than the physical. Let’s think of a kid who comes home from school completely tired and throws his shoes and his bag on the floor and himself on the sofa. Knowing he is supposed to put his shoes in the rack and bag in the rack, he doesn’t bother because he is “too tired” to do all that. In other words, he justifies his laziness. Now, the same kid receives a call from one of his best friends. He jumps out of the sofa and talks with his friend sitting fully upright. Wow – he is not tired anymore! Further, when his friend shares his plan to visit his house in the next half an hour, the same “tired” kid actively starts to clean the room. Not only he picks up his own shoes and bag but also cleans the room thoroughly. Think of another scenario: a person goes to bed completely exhausted but wakes up early morning – and that too without alarm – because she is doing something important, critical, or exciting that day.

 

What do we learn from the above examples? In the kid’s case, despite being completely exhausted and tired, his laziness disappeared as soon as his mind saw the benefits of being active. He wanted to spend time with his friend and that too in a clean room. The excitement of the alternative is much more than the fun he was getting out of lying on the sofa; this understanding of the benefits of the alternative removed his laziness. Similarly, when the lady was excited about the next day activity, she woke up refreshed in the morning even though sleep wasn’t enough. We can see countless such examples in our lives.

 

If our mind is absolutely clear about a goal and its benefit, laziness doesn’t come in the way of its achievement. On the contrary, when our mind is not clear about a goal or doesn’t appreciate its benefit, even smallest of smallest matters will have the capacity to suppress the actions required to achieve that goal.

 

Having highlighted the criticality of building mental clarity of goal and its benefits, importance of the physical strength cannot be dismissed either. After mental dexterity, it is the physical stamina that helps one fight laziness. For instance, if a person is mostly sleep deprived or is in poor health, his willpower will start to fade over period. It will be difficult for such a person to perform the actions with energy and swiftness. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to build both mental and physical strengths to fight laziness.

 

Some of the ways to achieve physical strength are taking proper sleep, eating healthy food including lots of fruits, doing regular exercise, and maintaining good hygiene. In addition to physical health, all of these actions also pave the way for mental strength. For instance, a student is in a much better state to understand complex topic in the class after having a good night sleep. Some other actions that particularly aid in achieving optimal mental strength and clarity are yoga (physical and breathing exercises), meditation, and prayer. While sounding like additional burden in an otherwise busy life, incorporating these activities end up creating more room in our lives by removing laziness and making us more efficient.

 

Finally, not getting rid of laziness is not an option, at least not for an alert person. Laziness makes for failure, frustration, and moral decadence. A lazy person starts to cut corners and slacks off, which leads to losing respect and trust of others. To avoid the frequent embarrassment, a lazy person then starts to lie and continues on immoral path, and ultimately end up losing respect in one’s own eyes. Let’s resolve to get rid of this horrid evil.

 

As for the assignment, in addition to covering the topic, kids will share how they think they will apply these learnings to improve their lives. I am looking forward to listening to their views and learning from them.

 

Best Regards,

Harsh Mendiratta🙏