Intellectual laziness is more common than you think and it involves staying in your comfort zone for longer periods rather than choosing growth and knowledge.
It happens for several reasons such as lack of motivation or not knowing what you want, but it happens to even the best of us.
Intellectual laziness can also be seen in avoiding interaction with people wiser than you or choosing to spend your time on social media and playing video games instead of broadening your knowledge. However, it’s not impossible to overcome.
In this article, we’ll be discussing ways to overcome intellectual laziness.
Tips on Overcoming Intellectual Laziness
1. Question your negative thoughts
When you’re in a state of intellectual laziness, there’s a huge tendency to have all these negative thoughts that are doing more harm than good. The best thing you can do to overcome it is to question your thoughts and go in the opposite direction instead of dwelling on them.
If your thoughts are making you question your self-worth and abilities, counter each one because frankly, your thoughts aren’t always valid. Learn to question your thoughts to cope and overcome intellectual laziness effectively.
2. Choose motivation
Most people believe that motivation is something you naturally have or feel, but it’s not an accurate fact. Motivation is more of a choice and you choose to get up in the morning and become a better version of yourself.
Even when the last thing you want to do is get up, you do it anyway because motivation is all about having the right mindset. When you tell yourself to choose motivation and to choose activities that stimulate your mind rather than spend your time on social media, that’s how you overcome intellectual laziness, instead of waiting to get motivation.
3. Decide what you want
Intellectual laziness stems from not knowing what you want to achieve in life so by knowing your career goals and everything you want to accomplish, you’re a step closer to overcoming intellectual laziness.
Not everyone is lucky enough to know who they are and what they want so if this is you, it might be time to find your life purpose and the thing that makes you feel accomplished.
If you’re not at all on the path that makes you happy, you can always change your life anytime you decide to. At the end of the day, you hold the steering wheel on how your life is going to turn out.
4. Reduce distractions
Distractions are the most common reason why it’s easy to be intellectually lazy, given that we have several distractions around us. Even when you have the intention of doing something productive and mentally stimulating, that isn’t how things end up, when you let yourself get distracted by social media and video games.
You need to reduce the distractions or at least, have the discipline to avoid engaging with them if you want to overcome your intellectual laziness. Realize that these distractions and forms of entertainment will always be there, but you won’t always have the mental capacity to learn and expand your knowledge.
5. Take it one activity at a time
Instead of overwhelming yourself with several plans at tasks for the day, take it one step at a time. You can start with reading a novel and increase your mentally stimulating tasks from there. You can’t overwhelm yourself with doing several productive tasks at a time because most often than not, it doesn’t work.
Multitasking triggers absent thinking and that’s the opposite you want if you’re overcoming intellectual laziness. You need to present in your tasks and feel yourself becoming better with each activity, even if it’s taking you longer than expected.
6. Find activities that motivate you
There are several activities that can trigger motivation in you and your mental stimulation, whether it’s exercise, meditation, or spending time around your passions. Whatever it is, find the activity that keeps you motivated enough to move forward instead of staying where you are.
Overcoming intellectual laziness requires going out of your comfort zone so find a task that pushes you just enough to accomplish that. As mentioned earlier, motivation is a choice and there are several activities you can do that pushes you to be motivated.
7. Leave self-destructive habits behind
It’s not always easy to leave destructive habits behind, but it’s a necessary part of overcoming intellectual laziness. You might be thinking that habits are simply just habits and don’t affect our personal growth, but that’s the opposite of true.
Habits like drinking or even something as mundane as oversleeping can encourage a lack of motivation in your life, which is one of the causes of intellectual laziness. If you want an extraordinary life, it starts by building the right set of habits and you can’t be complacent about this.
8. Meditate
Meditation is one of the underrated ways to overcome intellectual laziness because since we’re dealing with problems of the mind, it all starts there.
This is especially true if you’re dealing with a lot of stress and overwhelming emotions lately as meditation can help you gain control over your life and incorporate more peace and calmness in your life. It clears your head in a way that allows you to figure out what you want and most importantly, it can help you let go of the negative thoughts you tend to dwell on.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I hope this article sheds insight into ways on how you can overcome intellectual laziness in your life. Even when it’s not easy, you can’t stay in the same place for the rest of your life otherwise, that isn’t really living.
You need to get yourself outside familiarity and comfort, even if it means engaging with people better than you or letting go of destructive habits. By making the effort of overcoming intellectual laziness, you’re gradually getting yourself closer to choosing personal growth rather than complacency. Overcoming intellectual laziness is the best decision you can do because this means you’re actually moving forward in life.
