“Why are you not doing anything?” Don’t be lazy!”
The appearances of not doing anything or reluctance to do something is often perceived of as being lazy. Sometimes the judgment of laziness goes down to a personal level when people say that a person is lazy, suggesting a character flaw. The resultant emotions of shame and fear drives many to do things even if it is not what they really want to do.
The above phenomenon is problematic for several reasons. I shall take the stance in this article that there is no such thing as a lazy person but only a unaligned person.
I will focus on an Asian context as there are additional cultural factors that worsen the problem. In East Asian cultures, the traditional virtues of hard work, discipline and perseverance are deeply instilled in one’s upbringing.
From my perspective, laziness is a resistance to unaligned work. It is a natural reaction from deep within when one sees no point or meaning in the work that they are supposed to do.
A Life of Unalignment
Laziness is a phenomenon that is more common than we would like to admit. Why? It is because we have largely been conditioned to engage in unaligned work throughout our lives.
Stu-dying
When I was a student, I frequently experienced bouts of resistance. On the outside, I was a diligent model student who “loved” to study. The truth could not be any further from that. On the inside, I was filled with dread towards my academic obligations. I would leave my homework and revision until the last minute if I could. I just wanted to get every project work, test and examination over and done with.
Why?
Firstly, I did not sign up to be in school. Secondly, imagine having to cram a megaton of information or to wreck your brain over equations that you do not care about.
To be fair, there were some subjects that I was genuinely interested in. However, the educational system is overall structured in way that does not encourage students to explore what interests them in an enjoyable manner.
Doing Unfulfilling Work
A study among Singaporean workers recently revealed that only 42% of workers reported high engagement at work. Furthermore, one out of four workers are not satisfied with their work.
When one does not feel aligned with the work that they do, that is a total of 40 hours spent on grinding through work in a week. (Assuming that one works a 9-5 job during the weekdays) After the end of work, one hardly has energy to do anything more. After all, it takes up more energy to resist than to be in flow. Leisure then leans towards inactivity which is probably the only time when laziness is socially approved.
The unaligned worker lives in constant anticipation for the weekends. When Monday nearly arrives again, we hear the familiar laments of “I don’t want to go to work…”.
Overwork
On top of unalignment, there is another issue concerning overwork which worsens the pain of unaligned work.
This problem seems to be more severe in Asian countries. For example, Japan is known for its strict work culture and is one of the nations with the longest working hours. In some extreme cases, people literally die from overwork in what is known as Karoshi.
In China, there is the rise of the 9-9-6 work culture where employers work from 9am to 9pm for 6 days a week, mostly in the hypercompetitive tech industry. Even if one had real passion for tech work, I suppose it would be difficult to sustain that passion under such working conditions. What more for those who are unaligned with their work?
Cultural Implications
People persist in their work despite such conditions for a number of reasons. While economic reasons are definitely one of them, I would like to talk about about cultural ones. There are certainly some beliefs that keep people doing things that they do not like. They may believe that they have no choice or they believe that it is the right thing to do. For instance, East Asian cultures place much importance on the traditional virtues of hard work, discipline and perseverance. Displays of laziness would be easily met with criticism. Furthermore, individuals in a collectivist culture tend to be more concerned about how they are perceived by the group.
As a result, many of us overlook the underlying meaning of laziness.
Far from indicating a character flaw, I believe it indicates unalignment between a person’s internal and external reality. If you truly think of yourself as an entertainer but the role that you actually carry most of the time is a serious professional, then there is an unalignment. If you truly want to do work that touch people’s lives but the work that you actually do deals with machines all day long, there is an unalignment.
Displays of Resistance
What happens when there is unalignment? It shows up as resistance, be it consciously or subconsciously. The most common form of resistance is procrastination. We all know how it feels like. The more you think about what you should do (which you do not really want to do), the more resistance you feel.
Laziness in Popular Culture
These experiences are shared on such a mass scale that the theme of laziness has even made its way into popular culture in parts of Asia.
Take this cute character from Japan for example. It is called “Gudetama” (derived from the words for lazy and egg in Japanese) its characteristic features are being lazy, melancholic and musing about existence most of the time.
Gudetama quickly exploded in popularity since its creation in 2013 and was ranked as Japanese company Sanrio’s third most profitable character behind Hello Kitty (1974) and My Melody (1975) in 2019. What is the reason behind its success? Rather than just cuteness, I believe that the true reason is how relatable it is to many people in the present age.
In China, a cultural phenomenon around laziness also recently emerged in 2021. Called the “Tang Ping movement” (Lying flat), it is labelled as a resistance movement against growing social pressures on the youth to work hard and keep up with the impossible rat race.
Contrary to popular beliefs that each new generation gets lazier as a result of being more privileged, I believe that the youth have a valid reason to choose to lie flat. If material wealth or status are not what they ever wanted in the first place, why work so hard? If they do not feel aligned with the work they do, why do it just for the sake of work?
These are propositions that have always held true but are only emerging to the forefront of consciousness in the present generation.
Aligning The Way Forward
Therefore, the message I wish to say is this: You are not lazy, just unaligned.
A Different Reality
If one were aligned, reality would be experienced on a different level. Firstly, the desire to work would be coming from intrinsic motivation instead of extrinsic motivations like fear. The latter is a real problem as the same study above cited that 30% of Singaporean workers aged 16 to 24 are motivated by “fear of not being able to do as well as my peers”. Secondly, work would feel more effortless as one enters a state of flow when engaged with work. Laziness or resistance would hardly appear, unless there are other internal areas of unalignment.
Redefining Laziness
To conclude, let us attempt to redefine laziness again. Laziness should not be used to describe a person’s character but as a resistance to unalignment between one’s internal and external reality. It is a natural reaction to circumstances that are unconducive to the development of one’s true potential.
If we really want to define laziness by the level of effort and determination, we can. Tim Ferriss, the New York Times best-selling author of the 4-Hour Work Week, defines laziness in this way – “to endure a non-ideal existence, to let circumstances or others define you”. If you dislike what you are doing, you are free to change it. But it is sometimes far easier to stay with the status quo than to find new ways.
Fortunately, it is never too late. Finding out which areas are misaligned is the first step to alignment.
