How Being Lazy Will Get You Your Next Promotion

You may be asking yourself how this is possibly true, and for all the high achievers in the world this would seem like the most abhorrent thought possible. But, hear me out and you will understand how being lazy will be one of your life’s greatest achievements.

I had a coaching session with my client last week. She is incredibly driven, motivated and career-orientated. She has a high-level job in corporate and has always been a high achiever. This is what we would call having a strong high achiever part of your personality. This part of your personality would base its life around getting results. But the thing is, the results are never enough. Once the carrot has been achieved, the carrot gets set a little bit further. There is never any stopping to smell the roses and enjoy the ride. 

At the root of it all, a high achiever bases all their self-worth on getting results and feeling the significance of achieving the result. It is how, unconsciously a lot of the time, a high achiever feels they get love and attention. Any high achiever will have been taught to be this way at some point in their life. They got taught that if they achieve something, if they drive a little harder, they feel good about themselves and they get love and attention.

What does it mean though if they don’t achieve, or get results, or feel the rush of achieving the next goal? They would start to feel their deep low self-worth. Because not achieving = being useless, being not good enough, being a failure and BEING LAZY. The antithesis of all they have ever done their whole lives. 

But what happens when the high achieving is no longer enough? What happens when the high achieving leads to burn out? What happens when you are exhausted and you just want to ENJOY LIFE? The work life balance becomes the work-work balance. You have lost the passion for your career or your business, and you have no passion at home either. Stuck in a never-ending rut. 

When a high achiever is in this place, the way to get the next promotion is to be LAZY. That’s right. You heard it. Being lazy is the place where all the energy starts running back. Do you know why? Because being ‘lazy’ is allowing yourself to spend a Spring afternoon with your family and loved ones. It is laying out in the sun and allowing yourself to soak up the rays and smell the fresh air. It is going on holiday and having FUN with no distractions. It is vegging out on the couch and reading a book or watching TV because THAT is what you feel like doing. 

But, a high achiever does not know how to do this. They run away from it. They couldn’t start if they tried. 

They need to learn the inner tools and skills that it takes to ALLOW themselves to become this person. Because not only will they start to love life and work again, they become more present with the ones they love the most, they feel life rushing through their veins, they feel self-worth that is based on the QUALITY of their life, not just the results they achieve.

That is something worth working for.

Leading from the front,

Gab D 

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