The Difference between Self-Mercy And Laziness. Hello everyone, I hope you are well. In today’s post, I will be sharing the difference between self-mercy and laziness. We often get so occupied with work and responsibilities that we forget to take care of ourselves. When this happens, we attempt to find the time to cool off and pamper ourselves, which is where the concept of “self-mercy” comes in. However, some people believe this is to justify laziness…
For example, taking the weekend off work to binge your favourite Netflix movies is a form of self-love. While this may be the case, often, it is an excuse to procrastinate and be lazy. Though the line between self-mercy and laziness is thin, they are different concepts. Self-mercy is necessary and should not be confused with laziness, so let us dive further into this.
The Difference between Self-Mercy And Laziness
What is Self-Mercy?
Self-mercy is taking care of oneself and showing yourself appreciation and compassion. It is holding yourself in high regard and prioritizing your happiness and well-being.
This is not about gratification as in laziness. Instead, it motivates you to maintain practices that are beneficial for your physical and mental well-being.
It is the perfect way to ease stress and stay productive.
How To Practice Self-Mercy
There is no standard rule for this. It all boils down to preferences and that which brings out your best.
Do those things that spark your creativity, improve your mood and enhance your growth.
Here are some simple steps for you.
Identify Your Goals
Outline what you intend to achieve, as this will influence your ability to integrate self-mercy properly.
Divide these goals into long-term and short-term and brainstorm activities to move you towards them.
Make It A Habit
To become accustomed to self-mercy and make it effective, turn it into a habit.
Incorporate it into your daily and weekly routine, and soon enough, it becomes a part of you.
Pace yourself and start small so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Pay Attention to Your Mind
Tune out all forms of distractions and listen to your body. It will inform you when it’s time for resting and pampering.
(This is the purest form of self-mercy)
Remove Obstacles
You probably shy away from self-love because you believe it is exhausting. Understand that you deserve every form of kindness and find ways to make the process easier for yourself.
You could find an accountability partner to help with this.
What Is Laziness?
As stated earlier, it is easy to confuse laziness with self-mercy. Whereas self-mercy is a means to recharge for increased productivity, laziness avoids tasks you should be doing.
It reduces motivation and hinders us from reaching our goals.
If you still can’t differentiate between the two, here are the signs of laziness.
Procrastination
When you procrastinate, you constantly put off priorities and focus on less critical and non-beneficial tasks.
This is a challenge faced by many people, and they waste time on useless things that prevent them from accomplishing their goals.
A lack of self-discipline is one of the major causes of procrastination.
You Feel Guilty
Practice will make you know the difference between taking needed time off to recharge and avoiding essential tasks because you are not in the mood.
The latter is laziness and will leave you with a sense of guilt because you wasted time meant for more important activities, time you will never get back.
To avoid this, plan your self-mercy activities.
Feeling Fatigued
Doing nothing is a sign of laziness; you do not exercise, read, or do any other activity that can contribute to your growth.
Instead, you stay all day indoors, ignoring your assignments and things that add value.
It is easy to cross the line from just the appropriate amount of self-mercy time to getting fatigued from taking too much time off due to laziness.
Self-mercy is the innate ability to recognize the right moments to rest and recharge your batteries.
Nevertheless, that does not mean completely relaxing and not doing anything productive, but rather, opening up time for active recovery.
Self-mercy can be a challenge at first and may lead you to become lazy without realizing it. Still, once you’ve established a clear border between the two, your self-mercy will allow you to perform better mentally and physically.
I hope you enjoyed that.
Talk soon.
8 Comments
Clarice
I have always believed that we should be kind to ourselves. So, yes — binge watching on Netflix is self-mercy. Actually, I think that allowing myself to be “lazy” is being kind to myself. After all, we are not robots who need to work 24/7. Even machines have downtime.
Fransic verso
Informative! Some people might get confused between the two. This includes a lot to know the difference between lazy and self-mercy.
Monidipa Dutta
I become lazy after working in a stretch for a month or two but that’s only for a day or 2. But now my workaholicness is getting to me and as you said I need to learn self-mercy.
Ntensibe Edgar
Hhhhmmm…this is a very eye-opening view. Personally, I’ve always tied laziness to exhaustion from working too much or hard.
Debbie
Very interesting post explaining the difference between self-mercy and laziness. I think understanding the difference between the two helps to create motivation and grace when each is necessary.
Beth
This is SO IMPORTANT! Grace is important, but you have to make sure you don’ let yourself become complacent or turn grace into excuses.
Whitney Stewart
After reading this, I can tell it’s very easy to confuse self-care or self-mercy with laziness. Especially if we use it as an excuse to not doing something or postpone it til the last minute. This post does a great job in distinguishing the two and how to avoid lazy habits. Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll definitely hold on to this!
Afaq Ishtiaq
Self Love starts with a burning curiosity and spirals to upwards with search for inner peace and ‘Laziness’ it will manifest, as a complete disarray or disinterest in all avenues of ascension, such as ‘Knowledge/spiritualism/inner peace’ Both are polar opposites, but highly addictive