Laziness is something that every person has to a bigger or lesser extent. Some people have it to a much, much bigger extent, though. We are used to considering it as a bad thing. However, what if it is not? What if laziness actually helps to become more successful? I bet many of you would like this approach. Actually, many lazy people achieve huge success. History gives us many vivid examples. For instance, Charles Darwin was incredibly lazy. His teachers and parents suffered a lot making him learnt grammar and math at school; often he fell asleep right at the middle of the lesson. He preferred fishing and shooting crows to doing sports and when he was a college student, he spent most of the time in pubs. Even when he got into science, he didn’t rush things and spent years writing his work.
Another example is sir Winston Churchill. At school he showed the worst result in class and didn’t even go to college. He was absolutely indifferent to sport and his favourite activity was sitting on a rocking chair. Afterwards he became a great politician.
Carl Marks lived at the expense of his poor mother, partied for months and didn’t want to work at all. Then he lived on Engel’s money. All in all, his study has overthrew the established views of the whole world.
Many other great people were said to be incredibly lazy including Einstein, Newton, Picasso, Mendeleev and others. Nevertheless, they managed to achieve unbelievable success and become well-known all over the world. That proves lazy people can actually go far. And laziness can be a great advantage. Here are some reasons lazy people are more likely to be successful.
They are inventive
Lazy people are very creative when it comes to organizing their work. They don’t waste time on unnecessary things and get strict to the point. A lazy employee will always find a way to automate and optimize all the repetitive processes in their jobs. As there is nothing more annoying for a lazy person than a regular monotonous work.
Lazy people always try to make life easier. People were too lazy to scoop out the soil – they invented a digging machine. They were too lazy to do the cleaning – they invented a vacuum cleaner. Who knows, maybe lazy people were the ones who invented all the great inventions of the century.
They are entrepreneurial
Often lazy people are very enterprising. They have many ideas and projects as their minds are not filled with excessive thoughts and responsibilities. They think in different categories. It is important for them that the work process is not boring and there are guaranteed results at the end.
They know when to rest
The most important thing is to know when to relax, as the more energy people expend, the less you have of it to fulfil big plans. People who strain themselves all the time age faster; their memory is falling much quicker. Besides, some scientists think that getting up early if you are a night owl and making yourself exercise intensively has a destructive effect on your health, especially after you are 40. So, lazy people, relax and keep being lazy.
They are more relaxed
Lazy people don’t rush everything and don’t jump from one thing to the other all the time. They take the time and get to task after task. While some people panic, their attention get distracted and they don’t fully commit to tasks. Lazy people, on the other hand, have fewer worries and calmly do their jobs.
They know their goals
Lazy people know how to prioritize and to focus on their own goals, not on those imposed by other people. They are simply too lazy to pay attention to other people’s priorities, so they focus on their own. Besides, they spend much less time achieving these goals, as they will have more time to relax then.
They cannot but be clever
It actually takes a great mind to be lazy at work. You need to find ways to do nothing for a while and then to complete all the tasks in time. Employees tend to be either smart or stupid, lazy or painstaking. If you are smart and lazy, you probably are the most efficient worker in your company.
They use technologies that allow them to be lazy
In our time, there are lots of programs, applications and gadgets that allow people do their job much quicker. Lazy people know about all those things and use them to get the tasks done twice as fast. For example, if they work on a document, they wouldn’t just write it and then send it to lawyer, editor, manager and other people to check – that would take a lot of time. They would just create a Google Doc, give people the access to the document so that they can approve or make any correction at the same time. That would simplifies the whole work process, save a lot of time and allow them to be lazy for a bit longer.
American professor Arnold Ludwig once analysed more than 1000 people who achieved the greatest success in their lives. He came to the conclusion that apart from having some natural talent, you need to be able to… waste time. Surely, it may sound paradoxical for our century and lifestyle. However, even Einstein used to say that boredom is a great tool for developing your imagination and creativity.
