udim (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} udim) wrote,@ 2007-05-28 13:16:00 |
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[written: 2003/02/17]
I hear a lot about people being depressed, having nothing to do that's worth while - people that don't have a meaning in their lives. What they mean to say is that they have nothing to do. More to the point, they don't have a reason to do anything new. They have "free time" but won't lift a finger in order to make good use of it.
Like I am right now: given a lot of free time (it's the second day of the semester) and feeling extremely sleepy, even though I slept more than 10 hours last night (also due to free time).
Laziness begets more laziness. The more you think about something in the sense of not doing it, the more likely you won't do it (and vice versa). Understanding wants is not what the wants want (well, at most one of them wants to). You are always doing something. If you don't choose, then the path of least resistance will choose for you.
The problem with these people is that they are already meeting the minimum requirements for living. They are used to what standards of living they have and they don't feel like exerting themselves to improve, because nothing bad will happen if they don't, but mostly because it's hard.
What makes it hard (in no particular order)?
1. Fear of hurting your ego. This shouldn't be a problem.
2. Being used to "taking it easy"; being used to not working hard. This shouldn't be a problem.
3. Having to give up/sacrifice lesser activities. The problem arises when these lesser activities require less effort than what you're trying to do and you're lured back to them as a result of numbers 1 & 2 above. The end result is that the lesser activities end up taking all the time. This shouldn't be a problem: stop doing the lesser activities and in time you'll realize just how much you don't need them.
Speaking of time, sometimes you are doing things you must do, but end up without any free time left. This is the norm. If this is something you hate doing or won't finish until the end of the day, then you should make time in the middle of the day for doing other things. The more things you do, the less time they take.
[In hindsight, I was completely off the mark. The real problems were not in this list.]
I hear a lot about people being depressed, having nothing to do that's worth while - people that don't have a meaning in their lives. What they mean to say is that they have nothing to do. More to the point, they don't have a reason to do anything new. They have "free time" but won't lift a finger in order to make good use of it.
Like I am right now: given a lot of free time (it's the second day of the semester) and feeling extremely sleepy, even though I slept more than 10 hours last night (also due to free time).
Laziness begets more laziness. The more you think about something in the sense of not doing it, the more likely you won't do it (and vice versa). Understanding wants is not what the wants want (well, at most one of them wants to). You are always doing something. If you don't choose, then the path of least resistance will choose for you.
The problem with these people is that they are already meeting the minimum requirements for living. They are used to what standards of living they have and they don't feel like exerting themselves to improve, because nothing bad will happen if they don't, but mostly because it's hard.
What makes it hard (in no particular order)?
1. Fear of hurting your ego. This shouldn't be a problem.
2. Being used to "taking it easy"; being used to not working hard. This shouldn't be a problem.
3. Having to give up/sacrifice lesser activities. The problem arises when these lesser activities require less effort than what you're trying to do and you're lured back to them as a result of numbers 1 & 2 above. The end result is that the lesser activities end up taking all the time. This shouldn't be a problem: stop doing the lesser activities and in time you'll realize just how much you don't need them.
Speaking of time, sometimes you are doing things you must do, but end up without any free time left. This is the norm. If this is something you hate doing or won't finish until the end of the day, then you should make time in the middle of the day for doing other things. The more things you do, the less time they take.
[In hindsight, I was completely off the mark. The real problems were not in this list.]
