I’ve only been described as lazy a handful of times in my life, and most of them have come from my parents regarding unfinished chores. They are right that cleaning house isn’t really my thing. But I prefer to look at it as choosing to focus on alternate activities rather than a laziness with housework.
But do you know who has a long history of consistently accusing me of being lazy? ME!
Crazy I know. But the same person that pushes me to work beyond my capacity, and wears me out until I’m so tired that all I can do is binge read, or binge watch Netflix, is the same person that tells me I’m lazy when I have to take a break.
This year, I decided enough was enough. In January, I dubbed this year The Year of Amy (You can even read about it in my blog post.) I decided no more with this internal pattern of killing it, getting burnt out, and then still expecting myself to keep up the pace.
This year I paid much closer attention to myself and I’m learning to listen to my needs. That inner voice, is steadily picking up volume and my to do list is no longer controlling my life. (It still controls my day though… another blog post for another time.)
As I’ve been on this journey, I’ve seen my same pattern show up in my clients as well. They start to get tired. They push through the tired to accomplish the job, and then they are suddenly sick. They are confined to their bed. They have no voice. I have news for you!
YOU ARE HUMAN!
And humans need rest. You can either plan for it, and give yourself the type of rest you enjoy. I.e. a book by the fire. Or you can have rest thrust upon you. I.e. a week in bed with no voice.
We need a balance of time to create, time to produce, and time to rest. But for some reason when we are doing anything but produce, we start to feel… LAZY!
Can we come to an agreement?
Over-scheduling is not glamorous!
Busyness is not a sign of success!
Greatness is not perfection!
Running from one task to the next does not bring joy!
But you know what is true?
Quiet time increases your creativity.
Creativity improves your thinking.
Joy happens when you have time for it.
Relationships, sex, and health improve when you run at a healthy pace.
So may I submit the possibility that if you are reading my blog, you are probably a small business owner with a dream. You probably work hard every day. You are probably doing great things. And you are probably just tired, not lazy.