|
Last week, we talked about how Mother Nature is warning us to unite together, not only with fellow human beings, but also with nature herself.
We trash the planet. We rot it within -- littering, polluting, killing other species for our own profit. We are in fact the virus. We are destroying the “body” we live inside. The Coronavirus is, in a way, the “antibodies” of Nature’s immune system, attempting to rid the parasite within her. It is when this microscopic attack on us comes that, together, as a global community, try and put a stop to it. It is during times of struggle that we set aside our differences and focus on the commonalities we all share, the common goal. In this case, the common goal is to eradicate Coronavirus as soon as possible. That leads us to ask: What's it going to take for us to live as one always? Good question. Right now, people are offering neighbors food, making healthcare workers homemade masks, or just sittin’ back on the couch embracing laziness in order to stop the spread. It’s all for the sake of the greater good. There are people "waking up" to the connection we share now because of this COVID-19 outbreak, so we're headed in the right direction. So it seems. Then again, the human species has survived various plagues in the past. The advice always being something to the effect of "relax. stay calm", like a true ProcrastiN8r. Even before we landed here on the shores of Lazy Island, the wisdom of takin’ it easy has been passed on for centuries. Marcus Auerlius, the Roman emperor and great Stoic philosopher, for example, urged his people during the Antonine Plague to not fear death because worse than disease was moral decay and corruption. In his writings, Meditations, he consistently talked about the connection of humans to nature too. ”Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal.” He later died of said plague and on his deathbed, encouraged his Co emperor and advisors not to mourn but to focus on passing on the heir to his son, because the people needed a leader to inspire them and maintain order. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” He too understood the importance of everyone playing a role for the bigger picture and not to allow emotions of the Ego to lose sight of that, not to panic or give into fear, and to accept death as a fate. Still relevant wisdom today. He was lazy af! A real Dude! A real ProcrastiN8r. And that was nearly two thousand years ago! We have reached this sort of "test" many times in our human history, where our ability to work together is put on trial. We are reminded to become One. We pass. We gather as One. We get through. But then...we forget. Almost immediately after the crisis is resolved. Such a shame! What we learn from history...is that we never learn! We’re complete dumb ass apes, who think we Know It All We go back to serving the Ego instead of the Universe. We go back to trying to be different, rather than the same. We go back to hoarding rather than sharing. We go back to working hard, rather than embracing our laziness. We go back to being stressed and anxious instead of cool, calm, and collected. We go back to telling our lies, hiding behind the protection of Ego, instead of being our True Selves. We go back to building our esteem on material possession, rather than love for others. Then another global crisis hits -- a natural disaster, a disease. And we realize our sense of unity as we come together to keep everyone safe. Soon after, we forget about that unity that we always share, even when times are not struggling, again. This is our cycle. It always has been. We get so close to Nature then quickly abandon her as soon as we passed her “test”. We fail to hold on to the value of the lesson, the value of Harmony. We teach our children Ego is necessary for survival rather than Harmony and that selfishness is passed on from one generation to another. We are all naturally selfish, but it is our culture (parents, teachers, coaches, etc.) that encourage it to linger. Selfishness separates us though and has us fighting rather than sharing. It has us hoarding, rather than taking just enough. It has us stressing instead of relaxing. We always leave where we’ve come from. We do come back, on occasion, when there’s a crisis on a global scale. We rush back home to put the fire out, then leave as soon as it's out. However, we haven't been able to "stay" home, United together in the place we were before we were born, in Nature at its purest form. We leave for our own adventure and wind up getting lost over and over again. The difference is now, we're sort of running out of time to learn that lesson of Harmony and stay home permanently. We don’t have much more leeway to find ourselves, return Back to Nature, and keep it that way. Because there's only so much abuse Mother Nature can take before she hits back and decides to rid us completely. There are only so many times we can fuck up before she labels us as “A fuck up” and puts an end to our tiny existence in the cosmos entirely. We’re testing her patience, and she’s about had it with us. We have to Wake Up. We have to Remember. We have to connect to our human past. We have to live in Harmony with the source in which we came from For if we don't, well, then... we're done for, as a species. It’s over, for us. Even then, it's okay. It’s all good, fam. Nature will balance herself out. People say we need to “save the Planet”. Well, as George Carlin put it: “The Planet isn't going anywhere....WE ARE!” We'll serve our purpose to her no matter what path we choose. She'll be fine. She’ll be completely unfazed by how we treat her, how we pollute her. In the words of Carlin, the Planet will “Shake us all off like a bad case of fleas.” We just have to decide if we want to be fine too, if we want to be a part of her...or go our own way. And going our own way, seperating from our true Nature, inevitably leads to our own destruction. All she wants is for us to be a part of her and work *with* her, not against her -- to serve the purpose of Nature and not just push our own agenda. Of course, it doesn't much matter if we decide to come together or not because either way, every human dies, United or not. It's just a matter of whether or not generations of our species will continue to be a part of Nature and thrive, or if we’ll become a long forgotten myth in the stories of the cosmos. So to answer the burning question. What will it take for us all to live together? The answer is actually quite simple, actually. Remembrance. That's all. Remember who we are, where we came from, and how our ancestors have found her before. We are not unique individuals, no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves and others that we are, but are actually one and the same. We have a common goal to create peace and prosperity, not for our country or whatever role we identify as, but for the world. Remember our death. Those ancestors are gone. And one day both you and I and everyone we know will be too. It is the Ego that tries to protect the individual self from dying (and hoard TP for that matter). The Ego brings fear of death. The Ego wants to deny it, doesn't even want to think of it. Unity brings acceptance of it. It's nothing to fear. Just a cycle of Nature. You can focus on what matters when death is not the enemy, nor other people, but Ego is! Remember Laziness. Go with the flow, rather than trying to swim against it. Relax and abide by the laws of Nature. Working hard for the sake of fame or wealth is the finger that cuts itself off. Hoarding more than we need Remember all we could ever want to be happy is within ourselves. Happiness is a decision, not a number on a paycheck or the size of a house. Live a lazy lifestyle full of frugality and appreciation for the little things. Find wealth in what you already own, rather than what you do not. Live in the present. We need to remind ourselves every single day on this Earth of the lessons she teaches us, not just during this Coronapocalypse but always. Practice looking for similarities over differences. Just like any parent, teaching their kid, if the punishments don't teach, then she'll kick 'em out of the house." That's us. A little kid inside Mother Nature's house. She's gonna kick us out if we don't learn to get along with our siblings and to stop "taking from the cookie jar" to satisfy our own childish pleasures or breaking furniture to ease our fears. And how do WE all remember? Start with yourself. You remember. I remember too. Because you are we and so am I. Stop working hard to serve the selfish purposes of the Ego. Relax, lay back, and enjoy your inner-peace with Nature. Be humble, be lazy with your desires. Play your role -- do just enough for the good of all, not just for the good of making a name for yourself.
0 Comments
When the dust is settled, the last patient is cured, when all is "right" again in the world.
We'll return to our ways of poisoning the water, smoking the air, melting the ice, and trashing the ground. We then have to face ourselves and realize: WE are the virus. We are absolute shit to this planet. We are the ones causing harm to the body, the body of life, the body of Nature. We are parasites to the Earth, feeding off the planet for our own selfish existence. We don’t care what damage is caused to the “host”, as long as we have our conveniences and pleasures for the sake of our own Ego. Mother nature's immune system will grow stronger, create more potent "anti-bodies" to rid us once and for all, if we do not manage to align ourselves, in harmony, with the body. If we do not destroy our own Egos and self-centeredness (that's not a word, but you get the point) and place ourselves into just a “part” of the bigger picture. Even IF we do manage to win every single battle against our microscopic enemies, then our destructive ways will bring about our own destruction anyway. What good is it to prevent Nature from destroying us if we are determined to destroy Nature itself? This outbreak is meant to teach us a lesson, a rather harsh one, but a lesson nonetheless. Nature loves us but sometimes uses “tough love” to make the message clear. She punishes us for bad behavior, like a parent to a misbehaving child, to get us to practice more mature behavior. The mature behavior, in this case, she is trying to teach us is one of Harmony, one of bonding and togetherness. Will we learn from her or ignore this wisdom she bestows upon us? Will we continue to misbehave or put away our pride and actually listen to her? We must relax and reflect on what’s really going on here. Beyond the fact that there’s a global pandemic, amidst this crisis… You see it everywhere, right now -- a sense of community and fighting for the greater good. We are creating global Harmony. We are creating peace. We're working together to keep as many people safe as possible. Friends, family, and neighbors are calling each other to ask “Are you okay?” Politicians are discussing plans to provide compensation and provisions to civilians. Hospital staff and other “essential workers” are clocking in overtime to keep things running smoothly. Businesses are being ordered to close. Schools are too. Public gatherings are being banned --all to counter the spread of this Coronavirus. Microsoft and Sony have agreed to shut down their servers during “school hours” until further notice to encourage children to do their homework. In a growing number of cities, there are actually a “Stay at Home” order, where people are instructed not to go out in public except to buy groceries, exercise, or go to work. (This is...a Procrastin8r's dream! A Stay-at-Home order? Yessir! I'll continue living my life the way I have been.) Every action taken, every decision made during this time is inspired by the will and desire to protect humanity, to save lives, at whatever the cost. It is a beautiful thing - to see the whole world uniting as a family, putting aside our differences to protect one another. It is the first time in our lives that this strange little blue planet actually feels like...home, where you are welcome simply for being Human, the same surname as those who live around you. Though there are some outsiders to this family unit (*ahem* I'm looking at you, TP hoarders), for the most part, people are rather co-operative and team-oriented. I had neighbor literally check in on me to see if I had toilet paper. Minus some anxious nuts, we're all looking out for each other's asses. Gone are the endless gun debates. Gone are the fights about abortion. Gone are the disagreements on race and gender. We put away all our differences in skin color, sexuality, gender, and even moral beliefs all to come together and focus on this one pressing issue -- to create Harmony for all of humanity. It’s certainly an inspirational time,if you think deeply, and see beyond the wreck, but unless we not only continue this Harmony with each other in the aftermath but also extend it to Nature, beyond our humanity, beyond our civilization, then Nature will declare war on us. That’s something we want to avoid, as it will be less of a fight and more of a slaughter. If, after all of this chaos, we jump right back to our greedy ways of destroying the environment all for the sake of profit, we will inevitably bring about our own end. For those who do not serve the greater good of the community are exiled. When it comes to the community of the world, humans as a species do not serve towards the goal of creating a thriving planet and instead seek to consume for their own Ego-driven purposes, thus will surely be exiled eventually. Mother Nature is warning us: be together in peace and Harmony or prepare for the wrath. She’s showing us that we have the capability within ourselves to be a global community, to protect something outside our own inner Ego. She’s asking us, firmly, to learn how to get along, not just with each other, but with all of Nature as well. Otherwise, we're fucked, basically. It’s time, and it’s always been time, to embrace our laziness, as a collective society. This Coronavirus outbreak is a warning shot from Nature herself to really get our shit together and shift from a hardworking society into one of relaxation and integration with the universe. We must live in our humble abode, live frugally, take “just enough” resources, and find happiness within rather than from materials. We must avoid a rushed sense of greed to collect as much as possible for ourselves and be open to sharing with others. We must put at ease our “Get it now” instant gratification culture and seek what benefits the community as a whole, even if it takes longer, slower. Procrastinate with Purpose. We must move like a sloth, progressing steadily, and aim to get what we want over time rather than right away. We must take the long path and no short cuts. Slow n’ steady wins the race. We must cast aside our anger and judgments of others, lean back, and listen. We must understand others’ beliefs rather than shouting our own at their faces. We must seek to be fair rather than be right. We must come up with solutions as a team, rather than argue about them incessantly. We must cut the workload tremendously so people have plenty of time to relax in leisure and create mental peace and clarity, rather than build mental stress. We must allow people to have time to “Stay at Home”, be lazy, and take it easy. A society with relaxed minds is more productive than one with anxious minds. We must let go of control and “go with the flow” of nature, rather than trying to force it to work the way we want it to (it won’t). We must play our role and ride with the waves, rather than attempting to move them in the direction we desire. We must join the sea of life and create Harmony. This is our opportunity to learn world peace now -- to see how we’re all in this together,and can create a Lazy Utopia. I’m not one to call upon the gods or say that I am “Spiritual” by any means, but to deny that we are all connected in this giant system of nature is ignorant and blind. If we don’t unite, we’ll lose the fight against nature herself. Open your eyes and wake up. Remember this pandemic and use it as a lesson to see each person as human and each human as nature. We must Embrace Our Laziness and stop our efforts to control nature and just lie in it. Take it easy, N8 With the Coronavirus spreading in a global outbreak, society is turning to the dark side. People are afraid of what will happen and it is that fear that can lead us to corruption, not the virus itself.
As the great wise Yoda said: We need to take the Lazy side and just relax and chill for a bit. Hard work is NOT the path to success and so getting “worked” up about things will only make us fail. We must relax and make decisions based on logic and reason here, instead of frantic emotions. If you think about it, nearly every single fuck up you ever made in your personal life probably had to do with a decision you made based on your emotions. You felt mad so you yelled and now that person doesn't talk to you. You felt frustrated so you cut someone off and now you have a ticket. You felt stressed so you drank too much and winded up passed out on a park bench. You get the gist. If you're not in control of your emotions, your emotions are in control of you. And consequently, if on the larger scale, the people of society are not in control of their own emotions then emotions are in control of society. Emotions are a terrible ruler of society. (Although some may argue that our current president is the epitome of emotions ruling society but I digress) Train yourself to relax and respond, rather than reacting immediately. We need to all do this for the good of society because order in society is directly proportional to the amount of order the individuals within it have over themselves. Chaos within the minds of the individuals brings about chaos to society. It’s okay for there to be chaos in your head, but to let it manifest into the outer world to become destructive to others and the environment, that is not okay and that is completely within your control. You can’t control how you feel but you can control your response to those feelings. More importantly than any sort of vaccine, the cure to this chaos is laziness -- total relaxation. Take a moment to stop, rest, and actually fucking think about what you're doing before you jump up and go do it. Embrace a mental state of total relaxation. Embrace your laziness. Stay calm. You can avoid a lot of mistakes and a lot of consequences by simmering down for a moment before taking action both in your daily life and amid this “crisis”. A crisis, of course, is only as troublesome as you believe it to be. While a crisis can be serious, it does not need to be troublesome. You can be concerned without being panicked. You can look at potential threats, without giving into the fear. Analyze the best course of action, logically and lazily, instead of jumping the gun to do something right away in your emotional turmoil. Procrastinate with Purpose. Be in control of your own decision-making process and don’t let your emotions take the steering wheel. Otherwise, you’ll crash and burn (and so will society if enough people allow their emotions to guide them completely) When in a highly emotional situation, procrastinate your next move, objectively look at the situation and don't attach emotion to it. As Simon Sinek says: "Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options. " Attaching emotions to the situation makes it seem worse than it really is and has you justifying the worst type of behavior. Look, there’s a virus. It’s airborne. People are getting sick. Yes, some people are dying. Infected people may not show symptoms for weeks and easily spread it. That much you can’t control. Take your time. Relax. Take a step back. Look at what is actually happening, and accept the parts of the circumstance that are beyond your control. Then focus on the parts that you actually can. A virus outbreak is on the rise? Well mother nature can be a bitch. The fact that the virus is here is beyond your control. You can control whether or not you give into the panic and fear you are feeling and run out to the store to hoard supplies for yourself, screwing over other people in the process. You can control whether or not you stay on the couch all day or insist on working your ass off and risk getting infected. You can control whether or not you only take what you need. Your Emotional Ego is the little kid inside you trying to fuck everything up. Maybe the kid has a point, but his way of going about things is usually immature and uncalled for. In other words, listen to your emotions but don't let them have authority over you. Be the parent of your own inner-child. It’s best we don’t allow our inner-children to run the course of society and be adults about this whole situation. It’s best we be lazy, laid-back procrastin8rs, who are in full control of our emotions. People are worried about a societal break down. We're literally in a National State of Emergency. Schools are closed. Prisons and hospitals are banning visitors. The military has been given permission to do what is "necessary" to address the emergency. Scientists doubt it'll disappear during the summer, like the flu. The infection rate is high and the amount of infected is quadrupling every week. In a few months, at this rate, nearly the whole population of the entire WORLD could be infected. Everything happening right now seems like the prologue to an apocalypse movie. Is Coronavirus a real threat or just all hype from the media? That's for us to decide. That’s for us to choose. And we can choose to be lazy or panic. See, what we have to keep in mind, fellow ProcrastiN8rs, is that NO virus outbreak will ever cause the complete collapse of society. It's just a tiny thing. It's mysterious, sure. It’s life-threatening, yeah (though the survival rate is quite high at that) But nothing we can't solve. Nothing we can't figure out. We, as a collaborative human society, are smart. We have the tools necessary to solve problems. We can eventually find a vaccine and eradicate any virus, including this one. A virus will never cause societal breakdown But what does cause such a thing is the panic, what does cause it is the fear Panic and fear is what collapses society, not the virus itself. We CHOOSE whether or not to give into the fear we are feeling inside. We may not have a choice in what this virus does, we may not have a choice in how we feel about it, but we do have a choice in how we react to it. Just like your own personal problems, you may not control what happens (externally) but you can control your reaction to it (internally). Usually panic and fear, and deciding to react to it, is what leads to further problems in your own personal life. The same principle applies on a large scale. There’s that old famous saying that we’re “making a mountain out of a molehill”, which is to say you’re imagining the problem as much bigger than it is in reality, through your own worry. Relax man, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about a damn thing, including Coronavirus! When we worry, we make the problem worse than it really is, much worse actually, and typically make irrational decisions which cause consequences that lead us to worry even further. Next, we're making another irrational decision and so on and so forth. It's a fucked up cycle. People are, unfortunately, triggering this cycle by not reacting well internally and are choosing to react to the outbreak with panic. They are choosing to worry. They are letting their Ego run the show. They are getting "worked up" rather than taking it easy. People are hoarding supplies FOR THEMSELVES, everything from toilet paper to hand sanitizer to food. Shelves are being emptied. It is this panic (fear) that causes the hoarding, which brings the depletion of resources, which causes the fights (anger), which leads to mobs, which goes further into anarchy (hate), and eventually brings us to...an apocalypse (suffering). People rush to get more than they actually need all to take care of their own self preservation. They're only out to save their own asses (both literally and figuratively). They are selfish and care only about protecting their own Ego. They're not thinking about the bigger picture.They’re not thinking about how we’re all in this together. They're not thinking about how if they rush to acquire resources that actually makes everyone else rush for them too. It creates a domino effect. When one person falls to Ego and panics, it causes other people to fall as well. We’re all connected. Our individual decisions and ability to control our own emotions (internally) affects the bigger picture (externally) and humanity in its entirety. Rushing to hoard supplies, in panic, creates unnecessary tension and competition between us all; it amps up the pace for society as a whole. If a wheel spins too fast, it flies off. That is to say: Rushing in panic mode is more deadly and disastrous than this virus ever will be. Slow n' Steady wins the race. We must keep that in mind during this time. “Keep calm and carry on” We can certainly blame a corrupt healthcare system, a lack of preparation by the government, the over sensationalized media if and when there is a collapse. We can point fingers at whoever we please. But this act of scapegoating does us no good. We must take responsibility for our own Ego and our own emotions fueling it. Ultimately, a collapse doesn't come down to authority's failure to battle and destroy the virus, it comes down to the individual's failure to battle and destroy their own Ego. Imagine if instead of running out to the stores, thinking to ourselves: "I have to survive this. I have to make sure I live. I can't die. Not me." Imagine if we all just stayed home, relaxed, played video games or whatever, order supplies like food and soap only when we actually needed it and said: "I just need enough. No more. No less. Just enough. I'm not too worried about this. It'll work itself out fine." If we all sit on the couch all day and only eat and use what we need, without hurrying to stockpile, the virus would be quarantined within a week. There would be no rushed panic for resources. We'd all be good. You and I just need a little patience. Cue GNR. The key to solving this pandemic is not to worry. There are problems with how society functions, but it's up to the emotional decisions at an individual level that determine whether or not we need to tear everything down in order to build it back up. I say we opt to let society grow slow n' steady, instead of taking the destructive route of erasing everything to start over. Laziness is the ultimate solution to this pandemic. So let's embrace it. I mean heck, I never thought I'd see the day where we're being told by big figureheads to stay home from work. Of course, I never needed anyone to tell me to do that. The best sort of prevention of getting infected by the Coronavirus is to avoid any human contact. Stay in the house all day. On the couch or on the bed, playing video games or watching Netflix. Heck, maybe even drink some Corona! So in other words, laziness is the best survival tactic for this viral apocalypse. Just embrace your laziness and you’ll be fine. ProcrastiN8rs will survive because, due to our habits, we’re naturally immune. Keep calm and Sloth On, (Oh and wash your hands!) N8 A lot of us are “working hard” to force control into our lives.
Stress and anxiety come from the feeling of a lack of control, so it is commonly believed that the more we control, the less stress we’ll have and the happier we’ll feel. We try to take control over as many things as possible in order to make ourselves feel comfortable. When things don’t go our way, we think to ourselves “I have to do *something*.” We go chasing after comfort in other things and other people, instead of finding comfort within ourselves. The reality is, the more you try to control, the more you have to worry about, and the more “out of control” you’ll actually feel. You must focus on the things that you can control and let go of the things you can’t if you want to achieve true happiness. In other words, for most things in life, you don’t have to do anything. You can embrace your laziness and “let it be,” finding comfort in your own bed (or your own skin, as people say). A “perfect life”, as many believe, is having all the right tools under your belt. It’s being able to control the outcome of all the events that happen to you and make decisions about the direction of every single aspect of your life -- your relationships, your goals, your career. Contrary to that popular belief, a perfect life doesn’t actually exist. No one has a perfect life. Not celebrities, not the people you look up to. Nobody. We all have things that bring us struggle in which we do not directly control. We all make mistakes. We all have imperfections. Even if you make millions, even if you gain fame, even if you meet the girl or guy of your dreams, there are going to be some things you just can’t control. That’s life. There is gonna be external stress factors that hit you unexpectedly no matter who you are or what you achieved. The goal is not to make your life perfect, but to make it simple. The more you try to have, the more you try to control, the more complex your life becomes. Complexity does nothing but make life more difficult and stressful. Eliminate difficulty and stress by eliminating the things you try to control, the things you choose to worry about. Just take it easy, man. Worrying is the act of trying to control something outside of your control. You can’t actually do anything about it, but you sit there ruminating about how you want it to change, or if you can do something about it, you instead focus on the things you can’t do about it, rather than what you can. The way to “take control of your life” is to go ahead and take control of the things that you actually have control over, rather than trying to fix or worrying about the things that are completely outside your control. Don't worry. For the most part though, taking control is more of a matter of letting go than “taking” anything. You have to let go in order to take control. Look... You can't control life. You can only control your response to it. You can't control if your boyfriend or girlfriend is in a shitty mood. You can control whether or not you start a fight. You can't control getting stuck in traffic. You can control whether or not you slam on your horn. You can't control if your boss yells at you for something minuscule. You can control whether or not you yell back. You can't control if your dog shits on the floor. You can control whether or not you throw a fit. You can't control if the media hypes up a virus outbreak. You can control whether or not you panic. Life is full of chaos. But don't be an agent of chaos. Don't let the chaotic outer world create inner turmoil. Don’t let anything or anyone shake you out of bed. Remain in your own mental state of peace and comfort. That’s what you have control over. That’s how you “take control of your life.” That’s how you make your life as perfect as can be, or at the very least, enjoyable. You can only control your own inner world. That’s it. It’s that simple. Don’t try to control all the outer complexities. If things go the way you want, cool. If not, whatever. That’s the attitude you need to have. You’re fine either way. You remain unfazed in your total lazy “don’t give a fuck” attitude. Let go of all the things you can’t change. The only thing you can change is your own mind, so there’s a lot you need to let go and that’s okay. You choose to allow either constructive or destructive thoughts and feelings inside. You choose to allow these thoughts and feelings make you react irrationally or you can recognize them for what they are and respond in a calm and deliberate way. You decide how to manifest and bring to life these thoughts and feelings. You make the decision to react a certain way and put those thoughts and feelings from the inner world into actions and behaviors to the outer world. The things that happen may not make you feel good inside, but that doesn't mean you need to react in a negative way. Feeling bad doesn't mean you should do a bad thing. You control what to do with your feelings about a situation. You may not be able to control what happened in the first place. You may not even be able to control how you feel about it. But you can control what you do about it. Remain positive. Recognize your feelings. Respond to them in an honest way, but remain calm. Don't react. Don't jump up out of instinct. Lie down. Relax. Keep your poise. Stay lazy. Respond slowly but surely. Respond confidently. Create inner peace, despite the outer war. Let go of the fact that you can’t change a person’s mood. Let go of the fact that you can’t convince someone to change their mind. You can set boundaries. You can make your expectations and goals clear. But you can’t force them to happen. Let it go. Let it all go. The more you hold on, the more you hurt yourself. The more you let go, the more control you have. People will respect your influence but rebel against your authority. In other words, if you remain calm yet firm in saying what you want but don’t demand it, and let it go if you don’t get it, people will be more likely to follow your lead and give you what you want anyway. Go with the flow instead of trying to force waves to move in the direction you want. You can captain a ship to sail where you want, but you can’t move the ocean to get you there. Be a diplomat to your own emotions. Sign a treaty with yourself to not react and cause further destruction and chaos to others and the environment. When you react, when you give into negative emotions easily, you cause damage to the outer world, and ultimately damage yourself in the process. You lose friends. You end relationships. You get fired. You cause accidents. All because you could not control the one actual thing you do have control over. Yourself. Not everyone is going to agree with the Lazy Mindset, the idea that laziness is the key to success, the notion that minimizing effort and maximizing results is much more powerful than working yourself tirelessly every day. Haters gonna hate.
Learn to accept that. A real procrastinator doesn't care what anybody thinks of him or her. You follow the Lazy Mindset and embrace a life of leisure because it makes sense to you, not because it gains approval of others. This can be hard, especially when that person that disagrees with you or gives you a hard time about being lazy and not having a typical 9-5 job, is a close friend, family member, or significant other. I will go over some points you can make to increase your “conversion” rate, but there is no guarantee that you’ll still land 100% in getting others to come to Lazy Island and do less with more focus. The goal of convincing someone with an opposing opinion that your opinion is correct, in any case, and not just trying to convince them to follow the Lazy Mindset, is not to hit them hard with counter-arguments or solid evidence. That only triggers their defensive shield. They aren’t open to hearing them. No, you want a more tactful and careful approach. You’re like a rogue sneaking into their mind subtly, rather than a barbarian beating thoughts into them with nothing but brute force. You want t to plant seeds of doubt. Questions are more effective than declarative statements in this case. You want that seed to take root deep in their subconscious and grow into a wild jungle, a jungle of Lazy Island. Besides, arguing is a waste of energy, which could of course be a whole topic in and of itself. Here are some effective Seeds of Laziness to plant in the minds of doubters that tell you to get a nice desk job, instead of stayin’ on the couch all day. 1. The “Hardest Workers Aren’t the Most Successful” Seed I said it before and I’ll say it again.: If hard work lead to success, than all coal miners would be billionaires. Coal miners, deep sea fisher-men, roofers, construction workers, firefighter -- pick an extremely labor intensive job with dangerous working conditions. You’re not going to point to facts and figures and salaries though. Simply ask them: how hard do you think coal miners work? They’ll probably tell you “oh that’s one of the hardest jobs, a lot of physical work, etc.” Get them to admit, themself, that yes, coal mining (or whatever job you chose in your argument) is hard work. After they reply, go ahead and ask how much money do you think they make? They’ll ball park some number; doesn't matter what their answer is, but it’ll probably not be billions (or even millions for that matter). The answer is $60-70k a year, by the way, but you’re not concerned about bringing up facts here. You just want to get them to associate working hard with a low figure salary. They’ll do this naturally because it’s their own thoughts and words answering your questions. It’s not something you barked at them or aggressively forced them to think about .No input needed from you. You’re just guiding them into the Lazy Mindset; you’re planting those seeds of doubt. How much harder do you think they should have to work to become a successful a billionaire? This does two things: First, they just admitted that coal mining (or whatever) is one of the hardest jobs that exists, so they can’t say “well, they aren’t working hard” Second, it makes them think well, maybe, just maybe all that hard work isn’t going somewhere.Likely though, they’ll try to make a counterpoint. This is just them in denial at this point. Just nod and smile and switch topics. Whatever their answer is, it doesn’t matter. You’re done. The seed is planted. They have now begun to think about how the hardest working people aren’t the richest. That’s good enough. That’s all you need. Go no further. Try to dig it any deeper and it won’t be able to grow it or try to get them to a say a specific answer or god forbid, agree with you and accept the Lazy Mindset and your leisure lifestyle, then you’ll dig it out. Either way, it’ll be harder to plant next time, so you’re better off just leaving it be. Trust in the seed of laziness. Quickly change the topics to something completely unrelated. I don’t know, a current event, something you’re watching on Netflix, your latest trophy you earned on PSN, whatever, just get off topic. By the way, you want to ask these questions in a casual child-like “I’m just curious about what you think" tone. Don’t be condescending or overly critical. That will, again, trigger the defensive shields. You have to sneak past that security system without setting it off. Don’t force or rush them into changing their beliefs. Be lazy and laid back in your approach. At the end of the say, if they don’t agree with you, it’s no big deal; you don’t care. 2. The “Billionaires Don’t Do Shit” Seed Mark, Zukerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, just to name a few were all college drop outs. Not only did they drop out of school, but if you look at what they did to earn their success and billions, they were people with innovative ideas that inspired others and leadership powerful enough to convince those other people do the work for them. They were lazy geniuses, procrastinators with purpose. Sure, we have the idea that they “worked hard” to get where they got, but truth is, they did just enough work to get by. Engineers and programmers did the work, yet received none of the credit. I mean certainly you can find those names, but you have to dig pretty deep. Just as an example, if you search for “Who invented the iPad?”, it’ll tell you that it was “announced by” Steve Jobs. Scrolling down the Wiki article, you’ll learn he LED a team of engineers. He wasn’t picking up the screwdriver and soldering the parts together himself, no, he wasn’t working hard to get it on the shelves. He knew what he wanted and made it happen. Billionaires don’t do shit. They know what they want and find the right people, technology, and systems to bring it to fruition. If you work hard, you’ll be the no name who spent countless hours experimenting, testing, and building the iPad rather than the lazy man that everyone attributes the success of the product to. Pick a successful business owner and ask: How many people do you think s/he ever hired to do work for them along their way to becoming a billionaire? They’ll give some answer about how s/he probably hired some sort of staff, and may even add how that person had to work hard to get to that point, and didn’t just start out hiring people. They had to network and work hard and blah blah blah. Ignore their attempts to fire you up. Follow up the question and ask: So an effective way to become a billionaire is to find the right people who do work for me or should I try to do it all myself instead? What do you think? This seems like you’re asking for advice and not trying to start an argument. It’s a friendly approach that lessens the sensitivity of those wonderful defense shields. They may again, bring up how it takes some initial hard work. They’re hamstering at this point, trying to rationalize a billionaire’s laziness. They have already thought about the fact that it’s not all hard work, and that eventually someone will get other people to do work for them. That’s enough for them to gnaw on and get a taste of the delicious pizza flavored Lazy Mindset. Listen to what they say and “thank” them for the advice. Then again, trade topics immediately. Seed planted. Mission complete. 3. The “Laziness is Evolution” Seed Every invention, ever, since the wheel, was invented by a lazy person. We make progress in society by embracing laziness, not by working harder. Our entire purpose of human innovation is to create more leisure for ourselves and to do things in an easier and more effective way. Lives get easier and lazier the more we discover, learn, and evolve. Unfocused hard work stagnates progress on a flate line. In order to move on a steady incline, we have to do less with more focus. If society was built by hard workers and the lazy ones didn’t exist, we’d still be living in caves. Ask them: What’s a popular invention that increased productivity but also increased the amount of work and effort required? (Hint: There is none) That’s a trick question, kind of a dirty tactic, but gets the point across. Inventions increase productivity while lowering the amount of work, effort, and manual input necessary to get the task or job done. 4. The “Slow n’Steady Wins the Race” Seed Ask them: You remember that Tortoise and the Hare story as a kid? Of course they do! Everyone does, I mean unless they were living under a rock. And if they say they haven’t either they’re just saying that to sort of shut down your argument or are plain ignorant. Then ask if they remember the moral of the story. “Slow n’ Steady wins the race, of course!” Well should I slowly move towards my goals and *eventually* accomplish them or should I rush into them and eventually burn out, never to complete them?’ Again, like you’re asking for some sort of advice. Make them dive into their own thoughts. You can’t win 'em all It’s going to be a tough battle if you try to destroy their definition of what “laziness” is to them, they are so deeply subdued it’s not even funny, so just plant seeds instead and let the cogs start ticking. You’re being lazy and letting the debate run itself without participating much. The toughest opponent you’ll face in a debate is your own mind, so let your opponent debate with their own toughest opponent. If all else fails and they still don’t want to embrace the Lazy Mindset, then just show them how it works. Actions speak louder than words, or perhaps better stated: inaction speaks louder than words. There’s no sense in wasting your mental energy or physical breath trying to convince someone to join the lazy side if they’re that stubborn or brainwashed in the “work hard” propaganda . It’s like a childhood religion they can’t let go of. They’ve been brainwashed their whole lives to believe that hard work is the way to success. That’s okay, doesn’t bother you. You’ll just live your lazy lifestyle as a procrastinator and show them, THIS is the way to success. They’re probably just jealous, but instead of being inspired to change their ways they call you “entitled” and “lazy”. Let the haters hate. Meanwhile, we procrastinators procrastinate. We do what we want and get away with it. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed