Ways to Overcome Laziness, Mostafa Malekian

I believe, regarding myself, that I can do more than I actually do. But concerning myself, there are a few points that, whenever I have paid more attention to them, have reduced my laziness to the same extent:

1_ Contemplation of Death

I do not think anything dispels laziness as much as the contemplation of death. Contemplation of death may have some negative effects, but whether it does or not, it has several positive effects, and one of the most important is the matter of dispelling laziness. Whenever I have become more death-conscious, whether due to external or internal matters, and have thought more about my dying, my laziness has subsided... Not, of course, regarding what happens at the end of life, but rather what is happening now, or in other words, these very moments in which I am dying.

Whenever I have thought about this, it has greatly helped me in dispelling idleness. That is, whenever I have conscientiously reached the point that I really might not be here next year, or in five years, therefore I am now in the process of dying, meaning I am approaching death. This has been very effective for me, and the more I grow attached to life, and the stronger the remembrance of life becomes in me while the remembrance of death weakens, it has had a negative effect and I become lazier. It is narrated: *Live for this world as if you will live forever, and for the Hereafter as if you will die tomorrow. If I can imagine that I will die in a not-too-distant day, this helps me greatly. Whenever I can cultivate this imagination within myself, I become more serious and active.

2_ Reducing Preoccupations

Having many preoccupations means you are thinking about your job, thinking about science, thinking about politics. You are concerned with what is happening in art, cinema, etc., or what is happening in the world of music, and also, let's say, you are interested in a sport. If this is the case, I call this having many preoccupations.

The more a person's preoccupations increase, laziness increases for two reasons: Firstly, the more a person's preoccupations increase, the less successful they are in any single one. When a person is not successful, for instance, in a film, they gradually become lazy. If I only think about science, I progress in science, and when I progress and feel I am moving forward, this motivation makes me work more, and then even more and more. But when I have ten preoccupations—in sports, science, politics, and art—I do not progress, and because I do not progress, my motivation to work diminishes, and this means laziness. A wise saying is narrated from Sheikh Bahai, who reportedly said: There was no science whose scholars I could not enter into a discussion with, and I entered no discussion except that I was defeated.

This means I knew enough of the terminology of that science to enter into a discussion, but after ten minutes had passed, I would be defeated. This lack of success reduces a person's motivation and makes them lazy. I have said many times that a person must be like a needle, their entire being drawn in one direction. But we are like a ball, sinking in nowhere; yet if we are drawn, we become focused in one direction.

The second reason is that when a person is interested in several things and goes to do one task, they do not go to that one task with their whole being. Their mental preoccupation is in various places; their body is here, but their mind is elsewhere. When a person is engaged in one task and their heart is in another, they gradually tend toward laziness. A person's felicity lies in engaging in the field they are interested in. I myself, whenever I reduced my preoccupations, was more successful, and this has happened in my life: for seven years, my preoccupations were very few, but today my preoccupations are scattered, and I do not feel good. So, one must sift through mental preoccupations. We should carry out one sifting based on our interests and a second sifting based on our talents... and from among all of them, one or two preoccupations should remain for us, as a result of which our laziness diminishes.

3_ Competition

The third point is competition. I have said many times that a person should never engage in theoretical comparison or practical contest with themselves. But if one does so, this contest is an antidote to laziness. Like children for whom it is very important to become the top student, they are less lazy than those who may be talented but do not feel a sense of competition with anyone. The best antidote to laziness is the feeling of comparison that you can have, but alongside it, it has a thousand harms, yet it pulls you out of laziness. A person becomes lazy in a task for which they have neither interest nor talent, or lack one of these. So one must turn to a task where either interest or talent definitely exists.

4_ Planning

The final point is planning. Lack of planning induces laziness. In any area where I have planned, my laziness has been less. And even when I elaborated on the planning and with more details, I performed better. So planning is very effective in reducing laziness. If a person has a sense of propriety before themselves and feels shy before themselves, and definitely fulfills the appointments they make with themselves, it will be much more effective. Unfortunately, this trait is very rare in us. Have self-esteem before yourself, meaning that same sense of propriety; the more propriety a person has before themselves, the more valuable they are. I recall a saying of Buddha who said that those who value themselves do not sin. If a person values themselves, they will never sin and will not break the promise they make to themselves. If you do a task well in its due time, you will enjoy it greatly afterward, and the things you had to cancel because of your schedule will taste even sweeter, and you will do them with peace of mind.

But unfortunately, we have many preoccupations. We are interested in politics. We are interested in most aspects of art. We are interested in science. We are interested in socializing and mingling, and also following the news, etc. If we could reduce them a little, it would be very good. And if a person arrives at this realization, they will benefit greatly.

5_ Abandoning the Habit of Staying Up at Night

And another point is that this recent habit of staying awake more at night and sleeping during the day is very wrong. Perhaps one reason for the progress of the ancients was that they slept at night and woke up at dawn. In a period of my life when I experienced this kind of lifestyle, it proved to me very much that this method is very beneficial. But well, today, the computer, television, news, and virtual networks... can be very time-consuming, and one must exercise control over these.

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. *«‌اِعْمَلْ لِدُنْيَاكَ كَأَنَّكَ تَعِيشُ أَبَداً وَ اعْمَلْ لاِخِرَتِكَ كَأَنَّكَ تَمُوتُ غَداً» (مستدرك الوسائل ج1 ص146) Translation: Act for your worldly life as if you will live forever, and act for your afterlife as if you will die tomorrow.»

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Ways to Overcome Laziness

An Oral Conversation with Mostafa Malekian in the 2010s

Source: Mostafa Malekian's Channel

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