It may come as a relief to many reading this to learn that laziness is part of our human nature.
Whaaaaat? That can’t be true… But, it is.
It wasn’t so long ago that our ancestors were all roaming the wild looking for our next meal. A meal that wasn’t necessarily a given by any means.
Our hunter gather ancestors had no guarantee that they would have a lunch, a dinner, or a breakfast the next morning. Life was much more unpredictable.
This meant that our ancestors had to be very conservative in the energy they expended looking for food. That undoubtedly led us to evolve a natural laziness to conserve energy.
In hunter gather times this was a survival benefit. You didn’t want to expend all your energy searching for food if there wasn’t any to be found, if you were smart, you waited for a sure thing.
Nowadays laziness is not a survival benefit (no surprise there). Laziness in fact is quite the opposite.
In our modern world of convenience, comfort, and abundance laziness becomes sedentary and that leads to a higher number of comorbidities. This of course results in a much lower life expectancy.
Our world has changed much too fast for us to evolve the laziness out.
So what do we have to do?…. Fight human nature.
It’s not easy going against human nature.
Though we do have one trick up our sleeves that can help: habit formation.
Habit formation is one tool we have to fight laziness.
People that exercise routinely often feel like they “have to” exercise. As if there would be something missing from their life if they didn’t.
This is because exercise for them has become such a habit in their life that their world feels off without it.
Think about a coffee lover who one day couldn’t start their day with a nice hot cup o’ joe. I’m sure they would feel like their day was off.
How about a news junkie who couldn’t get their daily news fix. I’m sure they would feel pretty disconnected.
That is all because of habit, the more you do something, the more it becomes automatic and the more it becomes a part of you.
Good habits and unfortunately bad habits work the same way.
So how can you use habit formation to fight laziness and lead a healthier lifestyle?
Start small
Remember we want to make long term, lasting changes. Starting small and gradually progressing over time is a great way to ensure a habit sticks.
Start with 10 minutes of exercise a day, or every other day for the first week and add a couple minutes on each week after that.
This will give your body a chance to properly adapt to your new activity and won’t get you too overwhelmed with your new habit.
Do something that you like
If you have never really been interested in running but think that it’s the best way to get in shape, don’t do it! It’s a recipe for failure!
Pick an activity that you like.
If you like basketball, awesome, grab a ball and go shoot around for 10 minutes. Maybe after a couple months you can start to think about joining a league.
If you like dancing, awesome, cut a rug at home for 10 minutes. Maybe after a couple months you can look into dance meet ups.
There are so many options for exercise out there, find something that appeals to you. Don’t just do something because you think it will get you in shape.
The more you enjoy it, the easier it will be for your habit to become a part of your life.
Give it time
The old saying is that it takes 3 weeks to form a new habit. This may be true for some, but new research suggests that it may take anywhere between 2.5 months to 8.5 months for a habit to feel “automatic.”