Lazy vs Idle: A Battle of the Mind or Just Another Sunday?
Lately, I've been entertaining lazy thoughts more often than I'd like to admit. And it has led me to question myself: "Am I becoming a lazy bum?"
It's one of those Sundays when I'm craving hot pap with akara, the type they fried with palm oil, not groundnut oil, please.
I fantasise about devouring an unhealthy amount of these, then lie on the floor shirtless and spend the whole day playing COD on my ONEXPLAYER.
Lately, I've been entertaining such lazy thoughts more often than I'd like to admit. It has led me to question myself: "Am I becoming a lazy bum?". So, I decided to play therapist and dig deep into my psyche to figure out if there's a fire on the mountain and if I need to call the firefighters.
After some sessions with myself, here's my verdict on Laziness:
Everyone gets lazy, sometimes. There are moments when we just can't be bothered to do anything. Some people have stronger willpower to push through the lazy thoughts and get stuff done regardless of how they feel, while some don't put up much of a fight. And you know what? A little laziness is okay, since we’re humans, not ants.
Mind you, it’s easy to mix up LAZINESS with IDLENESS.
Now, IDLENESS: That's a different beast entirely.
Idleness is waking up in the morning with absolutely NOTHING to do. It doesn't matter if you feel like doing something or not; you genuinely have nothing on your plate. Idleness can also be occasional or habitual, and it’s often seen as less of a negative trait compared to laziness, even though it’s worse.
I mean, you’re more likely to be fine with your younger sibling sleeping all day if they have nothing to do, compared to when you know they have something to do. This means, as humans, we are more irritated by lazy people than idle ones.
From how I see it…
It’s worse to be idle since laziness is a choice, and idleness is a circumstance. I can choose to return to work after eating my akara, or not. But if I was idle, there are no options.
Now, a lazy idle person is the worst, but that’s a topic for another day 😫
In the famous words of the elders, they say “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”, but let me leave you with the context in the video below 😅 😂 🤣