Make a list of what you keep putting off. It’s often less about laziness and more a list of what scares you.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Putting things off usually gets diagnosed as laziness, which is comfortable and wrong. Looked at closely, most of the list has something uncomfortable attached: a possible no, a conversation, a chance of being bad at it, a decision you do not want to make. Laziness would be indifferent, and you are plainly not indifferent, since you keep thinking about these. The discomfort is the obstacle, not your character.
Write the list out properly and put one word beside each item naming what is in the way. Fear, boredom, confusion, or no real reason at all. Start where the fear is smallest and do that one badly this week.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which task have you postponed so long that fear explains it better?
MORE IN SOLITUDE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE
- Buying your first book with your own money feels different. You’re picking what goes in your head now.
- Some people need a crowd to feel alive. Some need a quiet room. Neither one is the correct setting.
- You can be close to people and still keep a few rooms in yourself private. That’s not distance, that’s a home.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.