Lethargy: 3 Causes That Bar You From Being Active
A short tale of 3 brothers who went to achieve something but ended up doing nothing.
Three brothers were sitting around, doin’ nothin’.
“I gotta do somethin’!” the first brother said, and off he went.
Just a little later,
he who went to be a maker
was coming back,
leaving his newly chosen track.
“Did you do somethin’?” the second brother asked.
“No.
I just wouldn't know what to do
and didn’t wanna ending up doin’ somethin’
my longing for wasn't true.”
The other brothers nodding in mutual agreement.
“Well, brother, I also feel like
overdoin’ doin’ nothin’ ain’t doin’ any good to me anymore.
But other than you, I know what I wanna do.
Soon we’ll know how far I’ll go.”
Like that,
off the second brother went
but in the end
nothing less,
then a little while he spent.
His other brothers
dutifully engaged in
doin’ the good ol’ nothin’
when the first one began
“How went the doin’, man?”
“Very well, brother!
I quickly found somethin’ I wanted to do
but starting the doin’ I found asking myself,
whether I was actually able to.
Doin’ somethin’ I cannot do
wasn't what I thought would be of any help.”
To explore the limits of what's possible to him,
for the second brother, it’s been the surest thing
to sit back down and start doin’ nothin’ again.
“I know very well what I want and also what I can.
For sure, I’ll show you how to do somethin’,
for I’m really an extraordinarily capable man.”
Carried by his boundless confidence,
the third brother towards action went.
After waiting very actively for quite a while,
the remaining brothers grew somewhat curious
about their extraordinary brothers' whereabouts.
Not so far away but still a way to go,
they found him sitting before somethin’
that looked as somethin’ that someone
like him could have actually done.
“What's the matter, brother?
Kind of looks like you succeeded
with what for you were heeded.”
“Oh boy, I’m tellin’ ya, brother.
I was doin’ as I never did before
when suddenly I could not stand the effort anymore.
Doin’ somethin’ turned out to be tiring for sure
Doin’ nothin’ really I like much more.”
And there again they were,
three brothers sitting around, doin’ nothin’.
Every action has three essential prerequisites:
Firstly, there must be a desire.
Secondly, there must be firm determination and
Thirdly, one must possess the necessary stamina to carry through
with one's action until it's properly finished.
How to garner those qualities?
Desires are mostly not something we actively cultivate. On the contrary, they seem to be imposed on us, and we can do very little about it but accept that we want something.
The difficulty arises when one has no clarity about what one actually desires. If, for example, the goal is earning money (which in today's society it all too often is the case), and some activity — may it be writing, or building, or studying or anything else — only seems like an adequate means to reach one's monetary ends (and nothing more), one will likely not enjoy the said activity and will therefore have a hard time to excel at it.
Earning money might be possible as economic reality pressures us to act. Yet, external motivation can never match internal motivation in its ability to make us act. We will stay a far cry away from becoming wealthy, as we lack the desire to put the hours in necessary to develop the relevant skill to a level of proficiency required actually to become rich (which isn't desirable anyways.)
Make sure you know why you do what you do and adopt the straightest path towards that goal. That way, you will want to do what you’re about to do.
The first brother's fate will spare you its paralyzing touch.
Decisiveness comes within the realm of willpower.
Hesitating, not being sure, trying — all are very human traits. Ultimately though, they’re paving the way for failure. As our second brother did, one can easily fall victim to one's own doubts and retrace from the realm of acting towards the realm of thinking.
Endless loops of thoughts like
“May it be better to this instead of that?”
or
“What if I’ll fail?”
or
“I don’t think I can do it.”
will unfold their crippling effects.
Instead, be decisive. Make it a willful act. Sit down for a minute or two, take a deep breath, and merge your whole self into the thought.
“I can do it. I will do it. No matter what.”
That way, you can prevent any self-laming train of thought from captivating your mind. Instead of thinking about how not to do what you want to do, you’ll be doing it.
That approach would have served our second brother much better than sitting down, brooding over his own doubts again.
Had he not given up, our third brother would have certainly reached his cherished goal. Instead, overwhelmed by his task, he gave up.
A way to avoid that is by focusing on small sub-tasks. Do not focus so much on the mountain in front of you. Just do the next step instead.
Instead of thinking about how to finish a whole text, just sit down and write a headline. If you like it, keep it. If not, play with it. Once you are satisfied, proceed just to write the first word, followed by the first sentence.
Get yourself going and just continue. Whatever you might not like, you can change afterward—step by step. Action sits at the root of creation, and small steps, taken relentlessly, one after another, can carry us to any height.
If the third brother only knew about that. He could have moved the world from its angle, one degree at a time.
As we see, lethargy doesn't need to be. Approach your actions in an intelligent style, knowing about your inner mechanics working behind them.
This way, you’ll conquer anything. Inertness will fade away, never to haunt you ever again.
