Laziness is fear of failure; the fear of not living up to one’s perception of self. It’s cowardice in disguise.

Trying is basically learning. In this sense we say ‘lazy’ because we mean such people have been cut off from their innate thirst for discovery and learning - due to numerous reasons.

If you’re called ‘lazy’ and come here to find out how much truth there is in this statement then you’re here to try and understand. Once a reasonably firm ‘solution’ is found you’ll become ‘lazy’ again most probably before facing another possible uncomfortable truth about yourself and/or other people’s opinions of you.

I think ‘laziness’ ends when we manage to wrestle the egocentric view into a more open sense of curiosity about the world, others and our place, rather than just ourselves as the centre of investigation.

There is also the problem of distinguishing ‘procrastination’ for ‘laziness’. Both result in a petrification but for completely appositive reasons it seems - during transitioning I believe we have to bounce between the two at various stages in our lives.

Pain motivates, and fear of pain deadens motivation. How we approach and cope with inevitable pains sculpts our state of motivation. Fear expounds every aspect of human existence, but we shouldn’t fear fear itself unless our primary motivation is death, darkness and a life of cold, empty comfort (something which is an attractive proposition for every human at some point due to the constantly misconception of ‘fear’ as an ‘enemy’ rather than as a ‘request’ to look beyond our immediate threshold.

Of course, those of certain so-called ‘buddhist’ persuasions will likely say that avoiding pain is best ... if you wish for oblivion then go ahead and french kiss the devil whilst death takes you from behind. Once you’re in that position though breaking free from either will slap you back into the world or severe your sanity forever. Meaning, the greatest ‘suffering’ is felt strongest by those who wish only to avoid ‘suffering’, whilst those who attend to their suffering never destroy it and see no sensible reason to do so - the wisdom of buddhism derives from ‘facing’ suffering NOT blind avoidance.

Sadly the western-tilt on buddhism has a tendency to fall for fully in the former example I gave and is lapped up by New Age types in a hedonistic despair.

Being lazy, in pain or lacking vitality is a sign of a beginning so don’t make it into the be all and end all.

I generally agree, but I'd like to add two thoughts:

1. I wouldn't define laziness as lack of motivation only.
In addition to the insufficient positive motivation, there are factors of aversion at play, right?
(and I see no need to make a distinction between laziness and procrastination. I believe that the same mechanisms are at play here)
For example: If I have a big project, it would make perfect sense to start as soon as possible. But by starting, I am naturally reminded of the huge amount of work that needs to be done.
That's intimidating and causes feelings of pressure, of being overwhelmed, of possible failure. Thus: aversion. Avoiding the whole topic by NOT starting and instead procrastinating is not rational, but makes sense emotionally.
Other example: Cleaning out that disgusting, stinky garbage can. Doing a workout at the gym. Spending 2 hours on your knees while waxing the floor.
Prior experience as well as my imagination is warning me that this action will be uncomfortable or painful. I need to overcome my very natural aversion to pain and discomfort before I take that action.

2. from an evolutionary point of view, laziness is a valid choice.
Humans, for most of their history, were hunter-gatherers, right?
Agriculture, cities, division of labor, maximizing profit... those are comparatively new ideas.
And for a hunter and gatherer who lives off the land and doesn't store or trade goods, laziness is a valid choice.

If you're hungry or cold, that's certainly motivation enough to go and seek food or shelter.
But if your immediate needs for food, shelter and companionship are met in a given moment, why move?
Why try to gather more food that you cannot eat immediately? It will spoil.
Perhaps go hunting for practice? You'd risk injury. And a broken bone can quickly be a death sentence out in the savannah.
Find another, better shelter? Why, if the one you have is sufficient? You'd just waste energy on the trip.
For a hunter and gatherer, "laziness" is equal to conserving your strength and minimizing risk of injury.

Therefore I assume that laziness is a perfectly natural human instinct, since it was a useful strategy for a long, long time.
I see it like this: There may be some motivation or desire to act - be it social or moral duty, curiosity,desire to win or rational calculation.
But at the same time there's another, older instinct advising caution: is this action really necessary?
Is it worth the risk of failure or injury, is it worth investing that much energy? Isn't there a more efficient way to reach our goal?
Without our instict for laziness, wouldn't we be more prone to work ourselves to exhaustion, to take risks, to do unnecessary work or choose inefficient courses of action?

Laziness is the engine of progress.

The wheel was invented by someone too lazy to carry stuff, the cooking-fire by someone too idle to chew, and every labour-saving device by someone who had a strong aversion to labouring. Laziness is only a sin for donkeys and you peasants; for the flower of civilisation like myself it is high art.

Chillin'

Seriously, though, I'd question this:

tasks that we desire and are important to do, but we don't end up doing it. — Purple Pond

The person might desire x to some extent, but y, where y is parsed as "laziness" in a negative sense by others, or at least z, where z winds up appearing as y, is probably desired by the person more.

For example, maybe the person desires the advantages they'd achieve from a job--like a steady income, but they probably desire chillin' at home and playing video games more, and they'd really rather not need a steady income, or they'd at least prefer to get paid for chillin' at home and playing video games.

As per un's point, the extent to which the lack of activity referred to as laziness is so referred in that pejorative sense is fairly arbitrary across and even within societies and historical periods. One person's man of leisure is another's layabout. One's free spirit is another's bum. One's esteemed aristocrat is another's parasite. So the evaluative term doesn't tell you much apart from that folks like to control each other's behaviour by making them feel bad about it especially when they resent the positive aspect of that behaviour which they are forced through the same kind of social pressure they are in the process of applying in furthering said evaluation to obscure from themselves. So, what is "laziness"? A weapon-word used to whip donkeys into shape—very often by wannabe flowers of civilization.

The wheel was invented by someone too lazy to carry stuff, the cooking-fire by someone too idle to chew, and every labour-saving device by someone who had a strong aversion to labouring. — unenlightened

True about the labour-saving stuff, except of course in the Capitalist production systems where efficiency of production meant better profits. In this view, most ad-hoc inventions and mcguivering solutions used in industry were created by engineers who were whipped by management to make production more profitable.

But cooking was most likely not invented by someone who got tired of chewing. He or she WOULD HAVE HAD TO KNOW THE OUTCOME BEFORE TRYING if the case were a goal to chew less. Instead, in my fantasy (I can't show a proof) or in my imagination, cooking was invented by accident.

So was the wheel. There is a process described in books on history of engineering how that happened.

All major breakthroughs, or at least an overwhelming majority of them, were not thought up, but were discovered via experimental error, via accidental solutions. The micro-wave oven, the transistor, the penicillin pill; the stick, the slingshot, the gunpowder; the sail, the boat; the knife,the reading glasses, the telescope; the tanning process, the agricultural cultivation; the sundial; etc. etc. etc.

So what is laziness? A lack of motivation. (I learned this from my psychiatrists in my twenties when I was suffering from a debilitating mental disease, part of which manifestations was a deep depression.) According to my aunt at that time laziness was one of the myriads of my character faults.

Just like Baden said in the previous post.

Laziness is fear of failure; the fear of not living up to one’s perception of self. It’s cowardice in disguise. — I like sushi

I strongly disagree with this in general. Often times, I just don't feel like doing whatever it is I should be doing or could be doing, not because I have fear, but because I'd rather screw around or watch Netflix, or even post here than put in the effort. And this is what I observe with other people and what they say a majority of the time. Sometimes, it can be true that you put off doing something because of fear, and maybe that can manifest as laziness. But not most of the time for a majority of people.

I think it's just the animal in us that prefers laying around or goofing off. Chimps spend a surprising amount of time doing very little. Maybe it's society that makes us feel like we should be more productive.

I think sushi is right about the fear part, but not on the part of what we fear. In my opinion it's not failure we fear, but more, horrendously extensive, all-stupefying boredom. We are lazy because the things we don't do bore us... it's just a tiny bit hateful, or not even that, the things we lazily avoid doing. They are mild, benign activities, which are not exciting, and therefore we fear that such overpowering boredom will reign over us, that it will make us into quagglepratts.

I think sushi is right about the fear part, but not on the part of what we fear. In my opinion it's not failure we fear, but more, horrendously extensive, all-stupefying boredom. We are lazy because the things we don't do bore us... — god must be atheist

I don't recall ever being afraid of boredom. I just dislike the tendency to reduce complex human behavior and emotions to a couple basic ones.

I don't recall ever being afraid of boredom. I just dislike the tendency to reduce complex human behavior and emotions to a couple basic ones. — Marchesk

I'm afraid that I have to eat my hat and agree with you.

Mind you, there is a little truth in my fear of boredom. I am retired, with not much to do. There are days when a good chunk of the day I know ahead of time I have to spent bored.The boredom is not borne out of laziness, but out of not having anything to do. (But I am also lazy at times, make no mistake.)

This is exacerbated with more fear of potentially becoming a stroke victim or getting otherwise debilitated, and having an agile mind, I'll be forced by circumstance to lie in a bed on my back, day in and day out, in some reconvalescent home, staring at the white ceiling right above me and not having an outlet or inlet to stimulate my mind, to entertain me.

Now, that is a real fear of boredom. But you're right, it is not connected to laziness.

Very interesting question.

We all work, some work harder than others but the bottomline is we work which here is contrary to laziness. However, why do we work? To earn the means to food, shelter and clothing. These are basic needs I've described but after these are satisfied what do we do with our time? Nap, watch TV, surf the web, read a book, chat with your friends, etc. which are all what we see lazy people doing.

So lazy people are doing exactly what people who aren't lazy want to do after they work. I'm beginning to think laziness is everyone's objective. Stolen moments from paradise.

What are your thoughts on laziness? — Purple Pond

I think it's a floppy misleading term with moral baggage that is of no use.

I think the only fair use of laziness is when someone has a particular goal/expectation and as far as we can tell, the only way to achieve that goal or meet that expection would involve activity/effort that the person does not engage in.

So then laziness is really a kind of entitlement in relation to the universe.

Or it points to a lack of desire. You say that's your goal. But it doesn't seem to be. You don't have much interest in achieving it. If you really wanted it, you'd be worried that couch surfing isn't getting you there.

But otherwise, the mere fact that someone is not doing what we consider much doesn't seem like laziness to me.

it's all about self motivation. Some people don't have enough self organization and they really struggle of it. When I started to work on my laziness and procrastination it appeared to be really difficult job actually. Then I have read this book and it was the best motivation ever. Really great and helpful one.

Helpful effort, or love, defines what’s good;
Goodness, taken to extreme, is called ‘God’;
Evil, or harm excess, names the ‘Devil’;
Laziness, as neither, is being neutral.

Fair enough.

I guess I should rephrase and say that rather than “laziness is fear of failure” I could be clearer by saying “laziness is lack of concern toward fear”. It that sense I meant ‘cowardice’ - we’re all ‘cowardly’ in some sense, it’s nothing to be ‘ashamed’ of, but not something we can wallow in for too long and retain self-respect.

Note: I’m not talking about resting and/or leisure activities.

Nice insight sushi

“laziness is lack of concern toward fear” — I like sushi

Why is not being concerned by fear cowardice? Isn't it more like bravery? A brave person disregards his or her own fear, and enters a dangerous situation.

I don't think it makes sense to talk about motivation or stuff like that in isolation. Many things actually facilitate and maintain motivation. Such as, is the thing I am doing really meaningful or has some value to me? If not, then I don't feel motivated to complete the task. If it's about my child or someone I care about in doing something, then I suppose I might find motivation in abundance to make money for them.

I don't think there is anything in the world that is more motivating than caring for one's children. In rare cases even the will to live is superseded over the needs of one's offspring. Just an example.

I meant that as in not facing fears, ANY fears. Bravery is facing up to fears not ignoring them.

Okay, I got it. I was confused because "not facing up to" is a bit different from "lack of concern toward". Lack of concern acknowledges or rather, does not exclude knowledge of. "Not facing up"is denial.

Just a minor difference, i guess. Not facing up is to fear is bravery borne of ignorance; lack of concern toward fear is bravery via phlegmatism. If you want to call the first one cowardice, so be it, but I'd still call it false bravery.

I confess I most definitely could have picked my words more carefully. I was being lazy :)

Now ... was this ‘laziness’ fear? Yes, I admit it was. I tend to try and distract myself from what I set out to do by surfing the net. I guess we all know that vice right?

Anyway, enjoy. I really don’t quite know how to make the best use of these forums anymore. I feel like I’ve been forcing myself to hold onto something long dead and believe I am better suited to other activities - not that I haven’t gained a great deal of forums online, but I’ve grown quite weary of them this past year or two.

Maybe it is just me but I’ve found that over time the depth and breadth of the kind of discussions I’d like to have don’t suit forums. Responses are too slow, feedback is sparse and/or facile, topics cycle, BUT at least it is still engaging in regards to communicating the same things in different ways; that’s probably the only reason I cling on (as well as to practice writing).

Ramble over. Enjoy guys and gals! I’ve got books to read and thoughts and to be thunk :D

Laziness for a lot of people is depression. Sometimes depression is situational. When it is, such as experiencing a loss, then the depression is actually grief. People can feel grief from more than just a lost loved one. Grief can be due to a loss of a good, abuse-and-trauma-free childhood. Grief can be from the loss of your breasts from breast cancer.

Actually, I think most depression is situational to some degree.

Depression can cause laziness.

Anhedonia can also cause laziness. Anhedonia causes a lack of general desire. I believe anhedonia also stems from grief caused by a sense of loss.

Still other people enjoy being lazy. Being lazy IS the goal. That’s why there are so many people who would jump at the chance to retire early. This is a common desire.

Laziness is generally frowned upon in my opinion because people are envious of the lazy person. The envious people can’t afford to be lazy, so they feel animus toward the lazy person who can do what they themselves would want to do.

Laziness is generally frowned upon in my opinion because people are envious of the lazy person. The envious people can’t afford to be lazy, so they feel animus toward the lazy person who can do what they themselves would want to do. — Noah Te Stroete

Laziness scares many because if all were completely lazy, the techno-economic system breaks down. You need those ingenious go-getters to make stuff. We are born so this can keep moving along. Habits form to make us accept it with something like glee. How are the ingenious ones going to get any accolades of if not through either money, esteem, or the knowledge that people are consuming stuff they thought of?

I thought of a couple of more reasons for laziness, viz. lack of conviction, apathy, and indecision.

Lack of conviction may be a personality trait. I’m not sure yet.

Apathy may be situational or learned, and it may be a developmental issue.

Indecision may be the limbic system not strongly pressuring the frontal lobe enough. This could be a neurochemical or wiring problem. I’m not a neuroscientist.