Ask Niall! "Niadvice" isn't really that catchy, is it?

How can i stop being so lazy?

Aaah, this is a tricky one.

Well, firstly you can make this into a competition. As of this post, we will have both posted 35 times. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Because I am! I challenge you to a forum off! May the best poster win!


Outside of the obligatory joke paragraph, the answer to stop being lazy is going to take a little more in depth discussion than just a mere 100 words. But first:

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How can i stop being so lazy?

Hmm yes, this is a terrible case of laziness. I recommend 30 milligrams of Shift Key.

Aaaright, let's do this:

As somebody who suffers from a tendency to procrastinate, I can tell you that there's no easy answer for this one. Procrastination comes about as a lack of motivation coupled with the desire to take action. Two conflicting mindsets that seemingly cannot exist in the state of one's mind. Well, they can quite easily. The biggest step to overcoming procrastination and doing what you want to do is you need to assess how strong both of these desires are. Because they are both linked to the same action we cannot assess each other individually.

To get up and going, you're going to need to know why you are not motivated to do what you want. What is it that's holding you back? I assume it's not a case of time or accessibility, because if that was the case then you wouldn't say you were lazy, so much as busy. So it's not time, despite what you brain might try to justify to yourself when you don't accomplish what you set out to do* (you can always make time for hobbies if you manage your time efficiently. Again, it's down to motivation to do so). In most to all cases, the main cause of not being motivated to do something is some sort of fear, and this is the part where this advice column is gonna work for you or not.

When ascertaining what it is that make you non-motivated, the first response will be "bluh bluh, I'm a lazy, blobbly, blob". Stop. That kind of self depreciation won't get you anywhere�. Next, you need to get over the phase of "well I've thought and thought about it and I still don't know" because in nearly all cases, you will know if you put your mind to thinking about it�. Basically, you need to not be critical of yourself, but you need to be honest. Don't try and pick apart yourself. Just make a statement about yourself and evaluate its truthfulness in the scheme of yourself. Rinse, repeat.

The point you need to reach is that of "I procrastinate because I don't want to___" or "I procrastinate because I'm afraid of___". It could be many things. Success. Failure. Trying. Having people being critical of your efforts. That you won't have the staying power. It could be multiple things. I do believe that at the heart of all procrastination lies a fear, and in order to understand why you do so, you need to know what that fear is.

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SpoilerHere's a musical interlude relative to our discussion. Does it bear truth for you?

I'll use myself as an example:

"I procrastinate because I'm afraid that if I try to achieve my potential, I won't reach the level of expectation I've set my ideal self at." In other words, "I'm afraid if I try, I won't be amazing." There are several basic problems with my fear. Firstly, I need to accept the fact that nobody who begins something is amazing at it. You need to practice at something to become good at it, even if that means working hard at it. While I am currently telling myself that of course I will need to practice at something to be good at it, my fear of immediate failure prevents me from taking the first step on the basis that my first attempt will probably be not polished at whatever I do. Secondly, I've set an unreasonable expectation for myself, but more than that, I've set an idealistic expectation for myself. "Amazing" is such a high standard in my eyes it equates to "Nation-famous in my chosen field". What I need to do is to give myself a reasonable expectation for myself. Instead of "Top 0.005 percent" I should be aiming for a goal I am be comfortable with, yet within the bounds of tangibility, like "being able to support myself off the occupation I've chosen" (musician, for instance). Finally, I've placed myself in a position of a Schrödinger's Cat situation. I'm too afraid that if I try and fail, thus becoming a failure in my eyes, that I'll prevent myself from doing anything that might reveal if I have the needed potential or not. People say "It is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all" and while this is true for love, being in the grounds of emotionally growing etc., it's not true for every person in other aspects of their life. Some people would prefer to keep that box closed and go on believing that they perhaps do have the talent without ever actually succeeding instead of opening the box and knowing. The truth is, not everybody's cat is alive, and not everybody wants to know either. Still, I believe that potential isn't a "you have it or you don't" more of a "varying degrees of success", so , in my opinion, most cats are just sick and can be nursed back to health�.

Aaaarrrggghhhhhokay, where are we? Symptoms, check! Treatment, god dammit, haven't even begun. Luckily, this is going to be the shortest part of my god damn essay (shame there isn't a Grand Advisor Battle, eh?â?¡). OK, what to do. Now that you've started thinking, before you even act, catch yourself out at your own game. When you tell yourself to do something then don't do that. Catch that voice out and recognise what it's saying and how it's manipulating you. After that, keep working on understanding yourself. If you put an expectation on yourself that you'll do something, make sure you really want that expectation there. If not, know why. Knowing is half the battle. The other half is simply the actions you take, and there's nothing ever truly stopping yourself from doing something. You can pick up that pen and spend hours writing/drawing/stabbing Shank A Bitch contestants if you so choose right now. There's nothing stopping you really. Remember that.

*Your brain will tell yourself that you are too busy to be, say, drawing a picture or composing a ditty (macramé dragons, whatever floats your boat). Instead, it will find excuses as to why you don't have enough time or you should be doing something else. Fight this! If you can say you have reasonable (not great, just reasonable) time management skills then this argument won't be able to hold water in your mind and you'll be able to fight it easier. Don't have good time management skills? Get some! It doesn't take that much effort to sit down and write out what you do in a day and how long it takes. I've done it. It's a great way to see if you're being unreasonable with the commitments you want to make for yourself.
�I could even go so far to state that it's a defense mechanism that is used as a shield to the emotional unrest that comes with facing up to the real issue at work and it can be used as an excuse/barrier to actually accomplishing goals, but that's another discussion for another time.
�Again, defense mechanism. If you keep telling yourself you don't know why you act this way, maybe you're not ready to face up to your habits? It's something you'll need to consider.
â? 

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â?¡The winner would have the gift of the GAB.

I don't know how much of this is relevant to you, or if any of it is helpful. It could be I just revealed the inner workings of my mind and this has absolutely no relevance to you at all. Still, I hope you find some nugget in that clusterfuck I just wrote. When I write, I can say something well, or say everything I want to. There's little middle ground. Well, I hope this helps a person or two, especially you Ed.

This is Niall signing off, wishing you a good night and happy advice.