How to Solve Your Laziness or Productivity “Problem*” (Tip 1)

There’s nothing wrong with productivity. I’m all for getting stuff done. 

But if you are measuring your self-worth by your productivity or you believe you are inherently lazy, you will never measure up. 

So first things first: Awareness.

Start by 1️⃣ noticing how often you tell yourself you are lacking or lazy, 2️⃣ uncovering your beliefs about laziness and productivity, and 3️⃣ observing how these thoughts impact the way you feel and show up. (My prior posts might help on 2 and 3).

Some questions to ask yourself to:

▫️How do you know you’re lazy or being lazy? What metrics are you using?

▫️How productive is productive enough?

▫️How do I know when I’ve done enough each day? Each week?

▫️How do I talk to myself about my productivity? What does it sound like in my head?

▫️Do I think it is a problem to be lazy or unproductive? Why?

▫️Why am I choosing to believe that? What happens if I don’t?

▫️How is telling myself I’m lazy or that I should be doing more impacting my life? 

▫️Is it getting me the results I want?

▫️How does it make me feel?

Your answer to these first three questions can’t be (but probably is) something like: “I just know.” Or “I’ll know it when I see it.” Or “More than what I’m doing.” 

These translate to: “It’s never enough.”

If you’re going to measure your worth by your productivity, then try to define what “enough” is or what “lazy” means to you.

Exactly when is the point where you are allowed to love or respect or be nice to yourself because you are productive enough? 

When are you allowed to rest? 

When are you allowed to do things for no reason other than you like them?

When are you allowed to say “no”?

When are you allowed to quit or ditch something?

I’m guessing you currently do not have a good or objective way of defining enough. 

So your brain will never let you believe that you’ve done enough.

You’ve trained your brain to believe you are lazy or that you should always be doing more, so it is always going to tell you that you aren’t doing enough. That YOU aren’t enough.

No matter what or how much you are actually doing.

The key is to reframe your thoughts, now that we know what they are! We will work on that tomorrow.

*It’s only a problem in the sense that you are telling yourself it is - i.e., you are telling yourself that you are lazy or unproductive and making that a referendum on your worth as a human being. By solving it, I mean how to stop trying to motivate yourself with shame.

A ❤️ note to you: You don’t have to keep any of your current beliefs about laziness or productivity if you don’t want to. If they aren’t serving you (and I bet they aren’t). If they aren’t helping you create a life that you want and love. You can learn to think about yourself and your value in a completely different way. And still get plenty of stuff done if you want to. I can help. Send me an email (jenn@jenndealcoaching.com) or hop on a free call with me to hear how: jenndealcoaching.as.me/consult.