I Don’t Care What You Say, You’re Being Lazy

This post was originally published in July 2012.

Have you realized it yet? That you’re being lazy, that is.

Almost everyone I know is being pretty lazy these days, and that’s saying something given the group of entrepreneurial friends I have.

It’s cool, I’ve been lazy too.

Actually I hadn’t realized it until recently, and it was a harsh reality to face, but one I’m extremely grateful for.

Early in the weekend of the World Domination Summit I was talking to my friend Andy, someone I have incredible respect for – and he called me out. You know what he said?

He said the following 4 words:

“You’re being f***ing lazy.”

Whoa, hey there, no need to be mean.

“No really. You’ve built something incredible, but you’re back isn’t against the wall, and you’re not taking it to the next level.”

Wow.

That hit me.

This is the most important thing I’ve learned all year:

You can be both busy and lazy at the same time.

Yes, we’re all familiar with “busy work”, and in many ways that’s what the last six months have represented for me.

I’ve been traveling all over the place, writing some blog posts, keeping up with friends, but generally I’ve been living the retired life.  I’ve been coasting and doing maybe not the minimum amount of work I need to, but I’ve probably only been running at 50-60% of capacity.

Location 180 has been great, but the fact is, I’ve been maintaining and not growing.

Later in the weekend another person who is much more successful than I am told me this:

“You have an incredible $300 product, with killer testimonials, you know it works, you have all the resources in the world, so why haven’t you capitalized on that?  You could be providing more value to the community, changing more lives, and making way more money if you just focus on that rather than all the extraneous stuff.”

Derek Halpern told me if I didn’t increase my sales and subscribers by 20% by the next time I saw him he’d punch me in the stomach.

Scary thing is, I don’t think he was lying…

So here I am publicly admitting that I’ve been lazy.

This blog was about acountability and honesty from day one – that’s not going to change.

But now it’s your turn to be honest.

As my friends have done for me, I’m calling you out. Yes you. No not the dude next to you, you right there.

You’re being lazy.

Once again, I’m not saying you aren’t busy you’re just being lazy.  To me that means you’re getting bogged down in life and not focusing on the things that matter.

Let’s say you want to quit your job and start a business.  How much of your time and mental energy are you really investing in doing that?

Better question, is that really what you even want to do?  Is it easier and more fun for you to tell your friends and family about all of your lofty goals rather than actually working to achieve them?

Of course it is. You get the majority of the benefit and ego stroking without having to do any of the work.

So maybe it’s not the lack of progress towards your goal that’s making you lazy.  Perhaps you’re putting off even thinking about what you really want to get out of life.

It’s a seriously hard question. I don’t blame you for putting it off. But you’ve gotta stop doing it sooner or later.

Solving the Epidemic

So how are we going to solve this together?  No one wants to be known as the lazy one or the one who is all talk and no action, so let’s take some action.

Here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to lay out the key ways I’ve been lazy, and I want you to share your top 3 lazy tendencies with us in the comments.

• I’ve been maintaining a business, not growing it
• In the very literal sense I’ve been lazy and not working out like I should (sorry to everyone at Crossfit SW)
• I’ve let me own fear and insecurity get in the way of approaching bigger name people to help grow the business

I’ll be updating my progress in the Location Rebel Academy forums and helping each person in there with their own accountability.

Now, it’s your turn:

1. Tell us how you’re being lazy in the comments
2. Include one actionable step for how you’re going to stop doing it
3. Get accountability. Tell a friend, write a blog, join a forum, or donate money if you dont reach your goals.  Whatever it’s going to take get you to get off your ass.

We’re done wasting time here. If you’re being “lazy”, this is your wake-up call.

Sean Ogle

Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.