How to Use Laziness as a Super Power

It’s no secret that everyone is looking for a shortcut.  You shouldn’t feel bad about it.

You shouldn’t feel bad about being lazy either.

Laziness is normal human nature.

I’ll admit that I’m pretty lazy myself. Some might think I’m not lazy, but let me clarify what I mean. I don’t like to think more than I have to on any given task.

Anytime we are put in a position to do something brand new or outside of our normal habits, it makes us have to use more mental muscle.

Anyone that works hard at their job have gotten so good that it, that their “laziness” has become automatic.  In other words, you’ve gotten so good at what you do because you’ve developed routines to help you think less that allows you do a better, faster and more effective job.

This so easily applies to weight training, but think about the first time you learned to drive a car.  A lot of mental energy was used to figure out how to use the turn signal while having your foot on the gas pedal.

It’s pretty safe to say that driving is pretty automatic now.  (or manual)

The way you drive is automatic.

The new book I’m reading, The Power of Habit, talks about these things.

I can’t tell you how eye opening it is.

Everything that might seem amazing to one person is a habit for another.

Can you develop the habit of changing yourself?

The habit of pushing yourself?

The habit of experiencing pain?

Well, not without a reward. There’s got to be a payoff of some kind.

Sometimes we are working so hard to maintain what we have and NOT gain weight or NOT lose strength.

This is what you would call playing not to lose.

Other times we are working hard to accomplish a big important goal.

This is what you would call playing to win.

Playing to win is almost always better, however, it’s not better all the time.  Recognize that life is more complicated than losing fat and eating less calories

Stop thinking in “If I could just …..”

“If I could only find more…

“If I had better …”

Laziness is human nature and it’s more about efficiency than it is about laziness. Our brains and bodies want to make everything easier for us.

The big changes you want to make in your body, mind, health and wealth come from using this laziness to your advantage.

The human mind is an amazing and powerful thing. Inside our brains is this thing called the Basal Ganglia, it’s basically the controller of our habits.  I’m oversimplifying things here, but it’s sort of like the fly wheel on a bicycle or a cruise control on a car.

When you start a pattern of behavior that is familiar, the Basal Ganglia kicks in and puts you into cruise control – damn near causing you to function on autopilot.  It does this because your body is efficient and refuses to have to think of every step you take and ever breath you make.

It’s not that it’s missing anything  😉

Your body is very aware of what’s going on, but it will ignore things that don’t require its attention in order do things more efficiently.

Efficient = laziness

Here’s the trick.

The secret of changing your built in autopilot is in knowing what triggers it.  It’s like a Pavlov’s dog effect.  It’s 12pm , so you get hungry.  If you’re a parent and pick up your kids after school, 2:30pm means it’s time to pick up the kids.

If you have a 9-5 job, there’s usually a feeling you get after you get off of work.  What does that feeling typically trigger? Go home take a nap, go to the gym, go to the bar or is it something else?

If you figure out your trigger…

If you can spot it functioning..

You can change what it tells you to do.

This email blog post is brought to you by 27 Body Transformation Habits by my buddy Tyler Bramlett.

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