In my book, The Wealth of Connection, I began every small section with a quote that either summarized or enhanced the next few pages in the book. This morning, I am doing the opposite. I’m putting a quote at the end of this piece that summarizes what you are about to read. Now, if you are like me, you will scroll down, cheat, and read the quote. I challenge you not to.
I’ve always considered myself to be someone who goes against the grain. It was that way from the beginning. I didn’t want to get on the school bus as a kid. I didn’t want to be in school. Aside from meeting girls, hanging out with friends and going to the few classes that interested me, I didn’t really want to go to college either.
I can go on and on about not wanting to do what others tell me that I should do. If you tell me to do something, I’m going to find a way to do it differently. After years of spreading frustration, my parents finally threw their hands up and watched while I created my own challenging but relatively unique path. In essence, I would rather do it my way with the pain that comes with it than follow along blindly because others do it a different way.
Looking back, I am thrilled that’s the path I took. There is a phrase that says that first we make our habits, and then our habits make us. Well, unfortunately, not all habits are good habits. And not all habits that we believe as a culture are good, are actually good.
Take the word busy, for example. Being busy has become a staple of our society. Not only is it a staple, it’s also the way we collectively answer how we are doing.
“Oh, you know, busy!”
“Busy as usual!”
“It’s just non-stop busy with all of the kids’ activities.”
“How am I? Exhausted. It’s just so busy.”
“Busy, busy, busy!”
These were five responses I personally heard last week that derived from a simple ‘How are you doing?”
When did being busy not only become so common but also so accepted? Why are we now subconsciously proud of how busy we are?
This has been building and building for years. Ironically, smart phones, which were supposed to be the magical device that would free up time and make us more efficient and effective, have now become the thing that distracts us and makes us unable to escape busyness because we are always accessible. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
I proudly state to anyone who asks that I am not busy. It’s gone so far sideways that people not only assume that I am busy, but they outwardly are hesitant to suggest anything because they assume it.
“I know you are so busy…” the sentence starts.
“I’m not busy…” I respond.
They then look confused.
I’m going to explain why I am not busy. It’s because I’m lazy. Yup, I’m lazy. Am I allowed to say this in the hyper-competitive, ultra-productive world of entrepreneurship? Aren’t we all just supremely focused on massive personal development, becoming the absolute best versions of ourselves and squeezing the absolute most out of ourselves that we possibly can?
Nope, not me. I’m lazy. I never wake up to an alarm clock unless I have a rare, early flight. If you see my weekly schedule, you will see no more than five things on it all week when I am scheduled on someone else’s time. I daydream a lot, to the point where I can seem a bit like a psychopath.
But yet those in my life who are on these regimented, 4:55am wake up routines to be the ultimate productivity machines tell me that they watch and admire how much I get done. One recently told me that I’m “everywhere.”
For that, I can only give credit to my laziness.
Selfishly, I’m not interested in being productive. I’m looking to make things as easy as possible. For me, and for others. If a job requires you to work for eight hours, but you can find a way to get the same results in thirty minutes, why the heck should I work those seven and a half hours on that task? It’s why I never liked school, and why I never liked jobs. Neither were a good use of my time. In fact, in those institutions, I was constantly busy (rushing to the bus, rushing from class to class, etc.) but it rarely, if ever, led to quick progress.
But being lazy? Ah, now, that leads to progress. You probably think I’m crazy. But being lazy is my kryptonite from busyness. My laziness doesn’t allow me to become busy. It says to me, ‘Why are you doing all of this stuff? What is really important about it? Shouldn’t you sit here and think about what you really want? Shouldn’t you go for a bike ride or a walk and figure out a better way to get that done, and done more efficiently? Should you avoid that next meeting and actually have a real conversation with someone? Shouldn’t you relax by the pool and dream about the next level of what you are creating?
When I have that clear, that’s when I go to work efficiently to make that happen. My best ideas, for example, come from these times. It’s relatively simple to take those ideas and then create multiple forms of helpful content from them, and then products and services from that.
This is how I define laziness. And that’s why I’m rarely busy, yet apparently, highly effective.
Laziness is my secret weapon.
“Progress doesn’t come from early risers. Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” -Robert A. Heinlein
Have an AMAZING day!
Vincent
I’ll be back next week!
In the meantime, I love adding options that can be a help to you!
1- I offer the audio version of my first book, Freelance to Freedom,
absolutely FREE here. I was honored to have amazing people like Seth Godin and Pat Flynn to endorse the book.
2- Grab a copy of my new book, The Wealth of Connection here.
3- If you are looking for an amazing community of business owners to work through the loneliness of entrepreneurship, build amazing connections and create that business that provides you time, money and location freedom, check out The Total Life Freedom Mastermind Community here.
