Can you motivate a lazy person?

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Today's daily dose: Can you motivate a lazy person?        
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In my honest opinion, you cannot motivate someone who doesn't want to be motivated. That includes those people we term "lazy". So, the quick answer to my own question is NO.

Now before you get all grumpy with me, consider this. I am like the energizer bunny - on the go ALL THE TIME. Compared to me, most people would appear lazy. So it is important to check your own levels of activity and decide whether or not you need to slow down a little or whether you need to advise said "lazy" person they really should pull their weight just a little bit more.

Take a good look at what you are doing, this is especially true for households. Are you constantly picking up after your younger people? Then don't. If they can't be bothered to put their dirty clothes into the laundry, then that's their hard luck when they run out of clothes.

Advise the people you share a house with (except very little people of course) they are to share in duties and if they are not done then there will be ramifications.

Take dinners and dishes as a good example. If your household consists of adults and teenage children, then there is nothing stopping you dividing up the days of the week with everyone taking their turn at cooking. Similarly those who are cooking, don't get to do dishes. If this breaks down, then no-one gets to eat.

With very little people, you can give them small tasks to do and they can "help" you prepare dinner. If you also stand a chair in front of the sink, they can be supervised whilst washing the dishes.

There are all sorts of ways you can get people to share the workload, but it generally has to come from them. Just like you can lead a horse to water, it is entirely up to the horse whether he/she takes a drink or not. So it is with motivation. If they don't want to be motivated - even when they know there will be serious ramifications if they don't do something, then that's up to them.

Take diet and exercise as a very good example. We all know that if we eat and eat and eat and take no form of exercise, we will end up like that gentleman who died of heart failure weighing half a tonne last week.

But I could go on and on and on....but that's the energizer bunny in me. So I shall leave you with one final thought:

Beware the self reference criteria.

We all have different things that motivate us. And what motivates us today may not motivate us tomorrow.


With many thoughts
Elle