Understanding and Overcoming Our Instincts
How laziness has lost its value
I'm lazy. And I'm willing to bet you are, too. I don't like exercising or studying or cleaning my house. I'd rather just lay around and watch YouTube or meet friends.
But I still do all those things. I exercise almost every day. I clean my house. I study. I write. I work. And it isn't easy. Every single day is a new chapter in a lifelong war with two sides: me against me.
The lion, that ferocious, man-hunting beast, spends 20 hours a day resting. That's 83% of their lives spent in rest and it's easy to understand why they do this: they have to. Moving and working burns calories. If they have trouble finding food, they need to save all the energy they can just to survive long enough to eat again.
Humans were no different. For most of the path of human evolution, food was likely scarce. Those pre-human ancestors who wasted energy would have starved, ending their lineage forever. The survivors, those who didn't starve, all had one thing in common: they were lazy. And now, hundreds of generations later- you are lazy.
It's in your DNA. It's there to help you survive in times of scarcity.
Except we don't live in a time of scarcity. We live in a time of nearly unimaginable plenty. And our laziness has become a chief enemy of that daily war. It does us no good and for many, it does incredible harm. Every year, roughly 2.8 million people die from obesity- a condition closely related to laziness.
But there's good news. You can overcome it.
I've written a lot about the evolutionary causes of modern human behavior and suffering, and I usually say that we should embrace our Instincts and nature. But there are many times when the utility of an instinct has lost its value. Like laziness.
I believe that by understanding why we are lazy, we can better overcome it. We can let go of the guilt we feel about not wanting to do the hard thing, and instead we can remind ourselves, "I can control this." To control it, you need to do only one simple, incredibly difficult thing:
Decide. It is more than just a thought. It is a willful action. It is something you do. Try it right now. Pick the hard thing you don't want to do and force yourself to decide!
Decide that that ancient instinct has no power over you. Decide to defeat it. Realize that it is your enemy and you are stronger than it. Get up. Go running. Do push-ups. Study that language. Face the day.