You keep saying this but have you considered that you are not lazy in the other aspects but that you are simply spent as you’ve already given it your all to some other aspects?
You also mention the reverse time discounting but we can’t know that to be true until that time comes and you actually slack off. My guess is you’ll continue this practice, and continue saying that you are working hard now to make it easier later but eventually that later will have passed and you’ll never have taken it easy.
I might be wrong, of course. But another narrative that would be equally true but less self-deprecating is “I work really damn hard on some things that matter to me and then afterwards I have nothing more to give”
For every thing you give into life you’ll also need some downtime (or alternate time). Whether that’s through taking a bath and reading a book, playing video games, creating something, sunbathing, socialising, or whatever else you find restores you that isn’t “laziness”. It’s… fundamental human behaviour. One sick thing is that so much focus today is given to monetizing and effectivising everything that it may spoil the restorative quality these activities have.
I’ve always assumed a level of self deprecation everytime this kind of thing was mentioned.
This is a thought I’ve heard from many different places and I’m still waiting for a nice model to present itself. The best I’ve seen so far is Dan John’s work on “Work, Rest, Play and Pray”. That if you balance all 4 areas of life, your life tends to expand in a good direction. It’s not the neatest or most satisfying model but it seems to hold a lot of truth.
When I start finding things tough, I try to look at what area I’m neglecting.
It’s hard to put that into words. I like theories and ideas that just “fit” nicely in my head. That one doesn’t completely, but I’m not quite sure why not.
Generally, I’d struggle to believe that there could be a meaningful model with any degree of useful detail capable of applying to the limited, narrow, slice of the human experience to which I myself have been exposed to. That slice is miniscule in relation to what I’d imagine encompasses the entire human experience and yet so insurmountably rich.
And thus, I’d set out to find a model that fits you and ostensibly is something that you can meaningfully pass down to the next generation (you have kids, or am I confusing memories?). Or, as suggested, an iterative practice you can continue to apply.
To be honest, balancing work, rest, play and pray is probably about as good a model as anyone needs on the subject. I’m aware that expecting more from it is just a strange internal quirk with me and my brain looking for neatness and completeness in everything. Especially since I’m unclear what more I’m expecting from the idea.
We’re the same there. As can be demonstrated at anytime I start overthinking programming. It’s an okay quirk to have as a programmer but can really also put a damper on productivity sometimes.
Maybe study your kids for answers. My niece is now old enough to have started conforming to her surroundings but before that when she operated on needs only that might serve as a model for health. Ate when hungry, played when in the mood, slept when tired, cried when sad, laughed when happy.
And play was just play. The point wasn’t to be good. Or to be able to do it for rent money at some point. And the activity was impromptu chosen, not to continue investing in that “skill”. It was just raw fun.
This isn’t going to go well over with people that are religious so I’ll preempt this by saying I’m not trying to be tongue in cheek or disrespect you:
Maybe the reason you’ve yet to find a satisfactory model is because they include things that come from outside (work, and for some: pray) and they don’t reconcile well with intrinsical axis of need (play, eat, move, rest, although I acknowledge for some pray belongs in this category).
And the above paragraph doesn’t acknowledge that work can be a means of self-actualization but I distinguish between the two because whether or not work is a means of self-actualization can be transient and the means to accomplish that may change over time.
I’m also not religious. I should have clarified that “pray” essentially means “thought” or meditation, self reflection, whatever you want to call it. I feel like you’d include this as part of work, but I see value in separating them.
@Voxel@dagill2
I really enjoy your conversation. Very philosophical
Well, I could definitely be doing more, for example, I spend a couple of hours watching YouTube when I could (and should)have been pre learning linear algebra, reading studies, learning about investing, writing…
I didn’t because I didn’t have to- hence laziness
Glad to hear you liked the discourse. Shared @dagill2 s thoughts about moving the discussion.
With regards to your counter-argument I have nothing to say as my offered perspective is rooted in that it’s not a question of availability, i. e. the point isn’t that you’ve exhausted time as a resource but yourself as a resource.
It’s entirely predicated on the assumption that to be able to learn algebra, read studies, learn about X, write X, you also need room to assimilate the experiences you’ve had by engaging in something requiring none, less, or a different kind of engagement from you.
To relate back to something all of us here are familiar with, even if you were independently wealthy and had nothing else eating into your time it wouldn’t serve you to lift weights 24/7 as you’d still need to make room for eat, rest, and sleep.
I’ve probably mentioned “Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work” by Mason Currey that explores the habits of historically renowned creators (artists, writers, painters, filmmakers, scientists,entrepreneurs, political leaders…) and while the text itself doesn’t make an attempt to categorize or label these individuals a few patterns emerge,
You can have very low daily standards, but meet them every day and accrue a vast body of work after plugging away for decades
You can use stimulants (amphetamines, caffeine) and depressants (alcohol) to still retain a notion of sleep but have semi-above average effective days to the detriment of all other qualities in life except engaging in drinking with friends
You can work excessively hard, but burn out repeatedly having a very on-off step-function like productivity during your life
You can be mentally ill and transcribe your experiences and be fortunate (?) enough to have what comes out of that have an audience
A lot of conversation has happened since you originally posted the question @anna_5588 but I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring your question. I agree with @dagill2 on the premise that, if you enjoy the discomfort, that’s masochism. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with it: it’s just a thing about yourself to be aware of. When designing/executing your training, you have to ask yourself “Am I doing this because it will help me reach my goals, or am I only doing this because I like it?”
As a non-masochist/a hedonist, I have to catch myself when I’m taking the easy way out: especially when I can convince myself it’s the HARDER way. The safety squat bar is the primary example here. By all measures, squatting with a SSB is harder than squatting with a straight bar, but in my specific case my hamstrings and lower back are my strengths, and with a SSB I can just round like hell and effectively deadlift my squat up. With a buffalo bar, I’m not afforded that ability, so it forces me to rely on my weak points to squat. In turn, squatting with a buffalo bar sucks more for me than a SSB, so I use the buffalo bar.
For myself: I catch myself trying to find the interesting way out. I find some training methods or tools that i find interesting or exciting and try to shoe horn them together and then try and justify why that moves me towards my goals.
For yourself (@anna_5588), I suspect you could find certain sessions that are comfort driven, not goal driven.
Definitely. When I was running sheiko, I loved the high volume but hated how I couldn’t fit in cool conditioning workouts without compromising squat day.