All three of my kids are lazy.
Like, won’t even bend over to pick up a sock lazy. My son, The Peanut, will kick the sock until it’s close enough to the hamper. Then he’ll pick it up with his toe so he doesn’t have to bend over.
What kind of healthy 9 year old doesn’t have the energy to pick up a sock? We laugh at this stuff at my house but you could learn a lot from The Peanut.
You need to be like him. You need to learn to be lazy.
And I’m not talking about binge-watching Stranger Things and eating bon bons either. Check out this passage from Richard Koch’s book, The 80/20 Principle.
“There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm… Second, there are the hard-working intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent lazy ones. The are suites for the highest office.”
General Von Manstein on the Geman Officer Corps
I learned me and my kids are intelligent and lazy. My kids had to get it from somewhere, right?
After college I thought I needed to work hard. Do, do do. Go, go, go, go, go. Sleep is for wussies. Look at my goals, look at what I wanna do! Blah, blah, blah.
Eventually I came back to my natural state of being intelligent and lazy. Why? Because this is where the GOOD creation happens. When your energy isn’t split juggling, the good ideas come to you and you figure out how to do things smarter with less effort.
Don’t wanna be lazy with me? It’s more common than you think.
What is Uber other than a lazier way to get a taxi? You can call a cab company, get stuck on hold, and endlessly wait for it to show up. Or you can use a smartphone app and know everything within about 60 seconds.
Sounds lazy to me.
When Apple released the iPod they marketed 1,000 songs in your pocket. You no longer had to look for CDs or exchange MP3’s in your digital music player. Having 1,000 songs in your pocket allowed you to upload all your songs ONCE and never touch them again.
Sound lazy to me…
Lazy=simplifying. What could you do away with from your practice, process, or way of doing your service that would make your life AND your client’s life better?
Go for a walk. Think about it.
Adam
P.S. My wife is a hard-working intelligent one. WE, drive her crazy. She’s learning though. 😉