By  Aditi Raman Shridhar
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 Where there is a will, there is a way’is the absolute truth of life. The opposite is also true that when a person loses the willingness to live well, nothing good can come to him. Today’s column is inspired by Richard Edward Turner, a blind magician or popularly called the Card Mechanic who doesn’t consider his eyesight as a disability but his lack of willingness to work from time to time. “You know what I consider the worst disability of all? Procrastination and laziness,” he famously says.

There are plenty of famous people around the world just like Turner who refuse to define themselves by their obvious and most visible disabilities, instead they recognizebigger obstacles in their lives and overcome them. Hardly do they consider their physical problem as a disability because the physical, they say, can always be superseded by the mind.

World famous physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who has authored several popular books on science, including The Brief History of Time, passed away in March 2018. He was diagnosed with ALS, a rare motor neuron disease that chained him to a wheelchair at an early age of 22, making him lose nearly all body functions including his voice. Hawking’s computer-generated voice is famous world over. “My advice to other disabled people would be to concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit.”

People such as Hawkings or Ludvig Van Beethoven (who was completely deaf but considered the most influential music composers of all time) or Hellen Keller (noted speaker and author who was blind and deaf) are just a few examples who remind us that the only disability that can exist is in our mind and spirit.

THE DISABILITY OF LAZINESS

Not all of us, but most of us suffer from laziness and procrastinationin varying degrees and simply don’t know about it. In simple words, if you are disinclined to do any activity or exert yourself for long periods of time when you can in fact easily do activities, then you can be called Lazy.

Psychologists say that laziness may reflect a lack of self-esteem, a lack of positive recognition by others, a lack of discipline stemming from low self-confidence, or a lack of interest in the activity. The advanced symptoms of Laziness are Procrastination (delaying the fulfilment of tasks), Aboulia (a neurological damage), Acedia (not concerned with one’s position in the world), Counter-ProductiveWorkBehaviour (harming workplace with bad ethics) and also Senioritis (decreased motivation to study amongst students).

Studies on laziness suggest that it may be caused by a decreased level of motivation, which in turn can be caused by excessive impulses or distractions. Distractions increase the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for reward and pleasure. The more dopamine that is released, the greater intolerance one has for valuing and accepting productive and rewarding action since it is available passively, without working for it. This desensitization leads to dulling of the neural patterns and affects negatively the anterior insula of the brain responsible for activity. Lazy people therefore, derive their happiness and excitement from distractions such as television, video games or other passive forms of entertainment rather than hands on activities.

ACEDIA is a symptom of laziness where the person doesn’t care anymore about their position in the world or their condition in life. This can lead to a state of being unable to perform one’s duties in life.Acedia was originally noted as a problem among monks and other ascetics who maintained a solitary life.

Acedia is indicated by a range of signs. These symptoms are typically divided into two basic categories: somatic and psychological. Acedia frequently presents signs somatically. Such bodily symptoms range from mere sleepiness to general sickness or debility, along with a host of more specific symptoms: weakness in the knees, pain in the limbs, and fever.The best-known of the psychological signs of acedia is tedium, boredom or general laziness. Author Kathleen Norris in her book Acedia and Me asserts that dictionary definition such as idleness and sloth, fail to do justice to Acedia. She believes that a state of restlessness, of not living in the present and seeing the future as overwhelming is more accurate a definition than simply laziness. She says this is especially present in monasteries, due to the cutting off of distractions, but can invade any vocation where the labor is long, and the rewards slow to appear. These can include scientific research and even long term marriages. Another sign is a lack of caring, of being unfeeling about things, whether about your appearance, hygiene, relationships, community’s welfare and the world in general.

PROCRASTINATION is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished and many of us are guilty of being expert procrastinators. It is a habitual and intentional delay of starting and finishing a task despite knowing the negative consequences. It is typically a negative trait because it hinders productivity and is commonly associated with depression.

Procrastination is essentially understood as a coping mechanism to stress. Procrastinators avoid negative emotions by delaying stressful tasks. As the deadline for their target of procrastination grows closer, they are more stressed and may, thus, decide to procrastinate more to avoid this stress.

The psychological root of procrastination lies in the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for carrying out impulse control, attention and planning. It also acts as a filter, decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions. Damage or low activation in this area can reduce one’s ability to avert diversions, which results in poorer organization of tasks and increased procrastination.

Psychologist Piers Steel says that Task or problem-solving seem taxing to a procrastinator. Therefore, procrastinaors work better with distant deadlines and little amount of work. It helps a procrastinator to know what their ‘power-hours’ are, such as if they are a morning person or a night owl.

If you are a procrastinator, a few behavioral changes and habits will help you tremendously. First, becoming aware that you are a procrastinator and how much it is affecting your life is the first step to bringing positive changes. Second, make a fair evaluation of your goals, strengths and weakness, and priorities. Third, structure your daily tasks better so that they do not cause stress, and Fourth, discipline yourself to starting a task and doing it only for 5 minutes daily till it becomes a daily habit.

5 PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T LET DISABILITIES DEFINE THEM

Franklin D. Roosevelt – The only American President to ever serve more than two terms, Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down by a form of polio or Guillain-Barré syndrome in 1921.FDR is known as one of the greatest presidents in American history leading the population through many tumultuous times, including the The Great Depression and World War II.

Albert Einstein – Believed to have Asperger’s Syndrome, Albert Einstein, a man whose name is synonymous to genius and mad scientist did not talk fluently until he was nine, failed his college entrance exam and had a hard time remembering simple things such as his phone number or how to tie his shoes. Rumored to be dyslexic, this Nobel Prize winner for Physics proved to be one of the most gifted minds in science and history.

Ludwig van Beethoven – Few musicians have ever made their mark when they are deaf. However, one Austrian/German composer and piano virtuoso did just that after losing most of his hearing from tinnitus at the age of 20. Ludwig van Beethoven used special hearing tubes and felt the vibrations of his piano to compose. He tutored under some of the other great composers in history, Mozart and Haydn. One of the most well-known composers in history, Beethoven’s accomplishments seem more spell-binding when takeninto consideration that he was never able to hear his own work.

Christopher Reeve – For most of his career, Christopher Reeve was known throughout the world as the movie version of Superman. However, after an equestrian accident in 1995 where he was left confined to a wheelchair, he became a household name once again as a crusader for research to cure spinal injuries. Like Fox, he became an advocate of stem cell research in hopes of finding a cure. However, long before his accident Reeve had been an advocate for causes such as the Make a Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics. That advocacy continued with the creation of his namesake Foundation as well as the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center. Reeve truly proved that no matter what he was a Superman.

Nick Vujicic – An international motivational speaker of our generation, Nick Vujicic was born in 1982 without any arms and legs. He is one of seven known individuals who are diagnosed with the syndrome called Tetra-amelia syndrome. According to his autobiography, his mother refused to see him or hold him when the nurse held him in front of her, but she and her husband eventually accepted the condition and understood it as “God’s plan for their son”. Vujicic thrived in his teenage and young adult years despite being bullied. Nick is a YouTube sensation and his videos feature him engaging in fun activities such as swimming, surfing, horse-riding. He is married and also has children.

MAKE A PLAN, GET A LIFE

Physical disabilities are challenging and they make finishing a task harder, but if you are in excellent health, yet you are complaining about not achieving your goals then chances are that you are plain lazy.

I am not encouraging you to make a 50-page business plan with maps or checklists, but a simple summary of moments and milestones you will like to have in your life. A simple collection of thoughts and ideas about what will satisfy you is necessary so that there is a direction to life and also a goal that you look forward to achieving. Most of the goals that we human beings have are common – having good health, falling in love, having children, having a good set of friends, enjoying socializing with like-minded people, having a vocation that we love, earning sufficient amount of money to fulfil material desires, taking out time for activities we love, and feeling free.

The list of goals, therefore, fall under five categories – Health, Relationships, Vocation, Time-Money-Freedom, and Experiences. So, it is not so hard to make a plan after all.

Until Next Week.

Aditi Raman Shridhar is an Indian journalist, therapist and health instructor.