You’re Not Lazy, You’re Demotivated! | Improve Tuition | Tutors | Tuition | Tutoring | Tutor

Countless times, when I am told to do something that I do not want to do, I tell myself ‘I’m too lazy’ to do it. When I plan to wake up at 8:00 am but end up snoozing my alarm clock till afternoon, I sigh at my inability to wake up on time and proceed with a day of groping, yawns, and boredom. When I need to revise but I can’t find the willpower, I say ‘I’m feeling too lazy’ to do it. ‘Lazy’ just seems to be an appropriate word to describe my reluctance to get things done. For my ‘putting off work for later’. For my reason to sit around and waste precious time, when I know I should be doing something wiser instead.

 

 

It’s often the case we mix up the terms ‘lazy’ and ‘demotivated’. ‘I’m so lazy’ seems correct to say when we fail at prioritizing. For me, this has been the case for most of my teenage life. But it’s only as I grew, that I realize it was merely a justifiable excuse to not get things done.

 

Really, am I lazy? Because tell me we’ll go shopping in the morning and I’ll wake up at least 2 hours before we go just to get ready.  7:00 am, I seem to up, refreshed and ready to go. Yet somehow, when I need to wake up early to revise, I’m just too tired. Tell me to read a book and you’ll find me saying ‘I haven’t read one since I was a kid’. Tell me to do my homework and you’ll see me on Monday morning with tired eyes because I stayed up the night before to get it done. Why the last minute? Well because I’m lazy.

 

But all the other nights I was happy staying up watching Netflix, scrolling through my Instagram feed, going out with my friends, chilling, more chilling, snap chatting on the group chat, you name it. For some reason, I’m never too lazy for the fun stuff.

 

When I really think about it, I’m not lazy. None of us are ever really lazy. Yes, we may say we are, but we’re simply demotivated when it comes to certain things. What’s our motivation to go out? Self-satisfaction. We feel happy when we enjoy ourselves, have a good time and spend quality time with loved ones. That’s the moment we feel like we really live for sometimes. Motivation always comes from when we feel like we’ll gain something after the sacrifice. But the difference between one who’s ‘too lazy’ to study and the ‘good student’, is the lazy one craves to be immediately satisfied whilst the good one knows with hard work now, they’ll later achieve their long term goals. And they use that as their motivation to work, study and achieve.

 

For me, I wouldn’t label myself as a good student but I definitely could relate to the lazy one in the past. Within time, I was able to change, which was down to find my own motivation. Every students’ goals differ. Timing to find your motivation differs too. For some people, ‘I’m lazy’ is their excuse even in adulthood. For others, they are able to quickly get rid of this mindset and find something that drives them to get work done. And for me, I changed within time with these 2 life-changing steps:

 

1. Look ahead. What are your long term goals? Often question yourself and the work that you are doing. How will this effort, this hard work, and these sacrifices benefit me in the future? Believe me, with deep thought you will find your answer. At times, you’ll feel like giving up. You’ll question what the point is in doing what you’re doing. But you must always remind yourself that this work really will benefit your future, even though it may not seem like it at the moment. ‘No pain no gain’ is often the term people use for exercise, but you can apply it in the case of work too. It’s boring, yes. It’s emotionally painful, yes. It’s frustrating, yes. It gets you moody, yes. But it only benefits YOU!

 

2. Self-discipline. Believe me, this takes strength. When it comes to working, there are more days of feeling tired and lazy than energetic and motivated. That’s where self-discipline comes in. You have to push yourself and find the strength within yourself to get up, get prepared and get working. Remember no one can get your work done for you but you! Finding and maintaining this courage will make prioritizing and getting tasks done easier and more efficient.