Laziness Does Not Exist

by Devon Price

As awful as being tired, overwhelmed, and burned out with no energy for hobbies or friends was, surely being lazy was worse. I learned at an early age to tie my self-worth to how productive I was.

Once someone was deemed lazy, they were much likelier to get yelled at than they were to be helped.

I felt shame over being so frail.

I taught myself, slowly, that I deserved to be comfortable, relaxed, and happy.

The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless.

I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral.

Research on productivity, burnout, and mental health all suggest that the average workday is far too long,

I also came to see how the thing that we call “laziness” is often actually a powerful self-preservation instinct. When we feel unmotivated, directionless, or “lazy,” it’s because our bodies and minds are screaming for some peace and quiet. When we learn to listen to those persistent feelings of tiredness and to honor them, we can finally begin to heal.

There is no morally corrupt, slothful force inside us, driving us to be unproductive for no reason. It’s not evil to have limitations and to need breaks. Feeling tired or unmotivated is not a threat to our self-worth. In fact, the feelings we write off as “laziness” are some of humanity’s most

important instincts, a core part of how we stay alive and thrive in the long term.

The people we dismiss as “lazy” are often individuals who’ve been pushed to their absolute limits. They’re dealing with immense loads of baggage

and stress, and they’re working very hard. But because the demands placed on them exceed their available resources, it can look to us like they’re doing nothing at all. We’re also taught to view people’s personal challenges as unacceptable excuses.

We’ve been taught that any limitation is a sign of laziness, and therefore undeserving of love or comfort.

system that says hard work is morally superior to relaxation, that people who aren’t productive have less innate value than productive people. It’s an unspoken yet commonly held set of ideas and values. It affects how we work, how we set limits in our relationships,

Your worth is your productivity. You cannot trust your own feelings and limits.

There is always more you could be doing.

It’s no wonder so many of us are constantly overexerting ourselves, saying yes out of fear of how we’ll be perceived for saying no.

we ask them what they want to do—in other words, what kind of value they want to contribute to society and to an employer. We don’t ask nearly as often what they’re passionate about, or what makes them feel happy or at peace.

The stakes of not being productive are dire. As a result, many of us live in a constant state of stress

Our economic system and culture have taught us that having needs makes us weak,

Laziness Lie: that we cannot trust our own feelings of exhaustion or sickness, and that none of our limitations are acceptable.

fevers up in my mind and secretly manipulating my friends and loved ones into feeling sorry for me.

Exactly!

According to the Laziness Lie, however, these are not useful warning signs—they’re deceptions.

No level of success grants a person the social permission to stop and catch their breath. We’re forever left wondering What’s next? What else?

Laziness Lie has done to us. It has made us terrified of living at a slower, gentler pace.

Many etymologists believe it came from either the Middle Low German lasich, which meant “feeble” or “weak,”13 or from the Old English lesu, which meant

“false” or “evil.”14 These two origins illustrate the odd doublespeak at work whenever we call someone lazy.

the word implies that they’re failures on a fundamental, human level. The idea that lazy people are evil fakers who deserve to suffer has been embedded in the word since the very start.

Puritans had long believed that if a person was a hard worker, it was a sign that God had chosen them for salvation.

if a person couldn’t focus on the task at hand or couldn’t self-motivate, that was a sign that they had already been damned.15 This meant, of course, that there was no need to feel sympathy for people who struggled or failed to meet their responsibilities.

A productivity-obsessed form of Christianity evolved from the older, more Puritanical idea that work improved moral character, and it was pushed on enslaved people.

Enslavers made it a point to keep enslaved people as busy and exhausted as possible out of fear that idle time would give them the means to revolt or riot.

Americans working long hours in manufacturing plants, the Laziness Lie was pushed even more. The wealthy and highly educated began to claim that poor whites also couldn’t be trusted with “idle” time. In fact, too many breaks could make a person antisocial.

Laziness had officially become not only a personal failing but a social ill to be defeated—and

Laziness Lie found its way into countless films, plays, and TV shows. From the national myths of Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed to the strong, independent cowboys on the silver

For people who believe in the Laziness Lie, things like economic reform, legal protections for workers, and welfare programs seem unnecessary.

Research also shows that when we believe the world is fair and people get what they deserve, we’re less likely to support social welfare programs and have less sympathy for poor people and their needs.

if we believe the world was created solely by independent people, we may come to think that there’s no need for us to be interdependent and compassionate.

This teaches viewers that our skills and talents don’t really belong to us; they exist to be used. If we don’t gladly give our time, our talents, and even our lives to others, we aren’t heroic or good.

educational system was formulated during the Industrial Revolution, and was designed to train students for employment in warehouses and manufacturing plants.

remarkably similar to the structure of the average workday.

Children who struggle to focus or sit still for eight hours are treated as problems to be minimized.

The “lazy” feeling he hated and feared was probably a sign he was tired and nearly burned out, but he had no way of realizing that because everyone around him was singing the praises of hard work,

It’s a strange paradox, but when we set out to do more than is good for us, we end up feeling like we’re not doing anything

When we feel unfocused, tired, and lazy, it’s often because we desperately need some time to rest our bodies and brains.

“Wasting time” is a basic human need. Once we accept that, we can stop fearing our inner “laziness” and begin to build healthy, happy, well-balanced lives.

Our culture looks down on people who quit things. Rather than encouraging their good judgment and self-respect, we perceive them as weak-willed or dishonest.

We’ve been browbeaten into saying yes for so long that we don’t know what a confident no feels like.

We so often see “laziness” as an indulgence we never truly deserve.

being up-front about your limits and needs is a sign of strength, not weakness.