Is it good or bad to be lazy?

By Ahmet Abdulaziz ….

All who know me agree that I am a lazy person.  Looking back on my whole life, I also have the same opinion about myself. For the whole of my life I waited for things to be done without really doing anything. At times it happens that others do what I am supposed to do. But of course, this does not happen all the time. Sometimes I find myself face to face with something to be done, in such conditions I drag my feet, doing it unwillingly.

People understand my nature as a lazy person, when they find me doing something unwillingly.  I know that I am not the only one who is lazy. There are many many more like me.

They all do not want to do something, but find themselves in a situation where they cannot find any other way out but to do it. I also understand that people usually do not want to do something, in particular something which they do not like. I have seen many lazy people who work very hard, only when doing something they like.

But what makes me different even from them also, is that frequently I do not like doing something which I like generally. For example I like making paintings, but it is not always that I like doing that.  At times it’s just my laziness which stops me from painting.

I believe that I work hard when making a painting for a client. But even in that situation I always find myself taking things easy. For example if originally I had planned to work in the daytime and finish a particular painting, most probably I will sleep the whole day, telling myself that why should I bother myself, when I could finish the painting at night. In most of these situations, I do not complete that particular painting even on that night as well. I either sleep again or listen to music or read something or even start a fresh painting.

This is not just when I do the painting. Even when I plan to write something, I do not write it immediately. I keep on delaying it, for hours and/or days. My habit of delaying everything forces me not to go for it immediately. I keep on telling myself that there is no need to hurry, as I could write it in a short period of time. Instead of writing that particular article or story, I continue playing with time. For example, I may start working on a painting when I was supposed to be writing or vice versa. Or I might be doing anything else at that time, except writing.

Above are just two examples that I have quoted. But I am the same in all walks of my life.

However I believe that even laziness has also got its benefits. For example in the two examples that I mentioned above, I may come up with some better idea during the period of delay. For example, during this period I may come up with some better color combinations for the background of the painting. The same is also the case with writing. During the period of my laziness, I may come up with some other more interesting ideas to be included in the story. Or I may come up with something totally new to write, and I scrap the original story.

Analysing all this I believe that I am becoming lazier with every day. The main reason for this is that with the passage of time, my experience in every field is increasing. With excessive experience, I have started taking things easy, because I believe that I have not only obtained mastery over certain things but have also invented shortcuts to reach the goals. I believe that this is the main reason for my increasing laziness.

So I cannot decide if my laziness is good for me or not.