<p>H and D were having a discussion in the car last weekend. They were arguing if lack of motivation was just a nice way of saying someone is lazy. Opinions?</p>
<p>In trying to problem solve at least, I prefer “lack of motivation”, because it suggests there is a potential solution; to find motivation. “Lazy”, in addition to being pejorative, sounds like some inborn character flaw. In addition, I most often hear “lazy” in the context of not doing whatever the name-caller THINKS you should be doing, Like chores or homework. The fact that the same child expends a great deal of energy doing what they LIKE, does not fit my definition of “lazy”.</p>
<p>Lazy is a moral judgement. Lack of motivation is a neutral judgement, yes, pretty much for the same thing. But the point is, if you’re in a position to influence or help the person in question, it’s better to think about lack of motivation, because you might be able to change the lack of motivation. </p>
<p>On the other hand if, for example, you’re hiring, you don’t want to hire someone who won’t get the job done and you don’t want to have to do therapy on your employee, so you might as well think to yourself, Not going to hire that one because she’s lazy.</p>
<p>It could be a nice way to say someone is lazy, but it isn’t necessarily the same thing. </p>
<p>Someone who is lazy always wants to take the easy way out, they don’t want to make an effort, want everything handed to them, etc. </p>
<p>Lack of motivation could mean the person is not lazy, but simply doesn’t have it in them to make an effort at doing something; that same person, when given something that challenges them or gives them some sort of sense of achievement in doing, could go all out, make a stupendous effort and do something spectacular. Some of the brightest kids are often called lazy, because faced with schoolwork that some hack of a teacher piled on them that to them was a ton of stuff they mastered a long time ago, they don’t even try, procrastinate, etc. On the other extreme, sometimes people are faced with things that challenge them and while they really want to try it, go at it, they are killed by fears…I especially see this when a parent decides a kid should do something that they themselves would want to have done, like sports, a particular field of study, whatever, and when the kid does it half baked because they don’t really care for it, the parent calls them lazy. I also have seen people with clinical depression called lazy…</p>
<p>My husband had a stroke and clinicians have said he “lacks motivation” for organic reasons, because of the location of the stroke. However, he is not at all lazy and will work hard at doing whatever anyone asks of him. </p>
<p>An illustration of this would be that if the towel rack fell out of the wall and was on the floor, he would step over it. But if you asked him to fix it, he would, and he would keep working until it was done.</p>
<p>Lack of motivation can be observed for a number of reasons–laziness is one, apathy is another. Another is the fear of failure or judgment.</p>
<p>Both involve perception. Someone who is “production driven” might perceive someone who is less driven as having lack of motivation or lazy while others might perceive the production driven person as obsessive or something else.</p>
<p>I don´t see the difference. If someone is lazy then he lacks motivation in getting something done. Whether someone is lazy or lacks motivation, it is something a person could have control over. If someone is not capable of doing something, it is not something a person could change.</p>
<p>"Someone who is lazy always wants to take the easy way out, they don’t want to make an effort, want everything handed to them, etc. "</p>
<p>But how often is it THAT extreme; ALWAYS wants the easy way out. Wants EVERYTHING handed to them?</p>
<p>My father always used to say “easy way out…you always want the easy way out”. I always wondered why anybody would want the HARD way out, when there was an easier way to achieve the same goal. Anyways, my father worked REALLY REALLY REALLY hard, and we just worked REALLY hard, so to him, it was the “EASY” way out. </p>
<p>I also remember him saying “eat, eat, eat, every day you want to eat” ( like people who want to eat EVERY day are gluttons), so maybe my memory is not entirely accurate.</p>
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<p>Shrinkrap: I think your dad was making a dry attempt at humor when he said that. Maybe some of his other statements were meant to be funny also.</p>
<p>Don’t get on this board and try to say someone is lazy or unmotivated. Our members will have the person diagnosed with ADD, on medication and in therapy before you can snap your fingers ;)</p>
<p>^^ Yeah, well, I knew my dad. I may be exaggerating in terms of the “every day” part of the comment, but he was NOT kidding. </p>
<p>Another favorite; If I told him my nose was stuffed up, he would say “BOTH my noses are stuffed up!”</p>
<p>There was no complaining in my house, and my dad was a psychologist ( granted, in Rikers Island, a correctional facility in NYC), and my mom was a nurse!</p>
<p>It is possible for lazy people to be productive/efficient. I’m too lazy for busy work, so I like to automate things (spreadsheet “lookups”, etc). Side benefit - the results are more accurate… ha as long as you are not to lazy to validate the methods.</p>
<p>I’ve always considered “laziness” to be something of a self-fulfilling prophesy; if you call a child “lazy” often enough, you end up with a “lazy” adult ;)</p>
<p>‘Lack of motivation’ and ‘laziness’ are two different things. A person who doesn’t feel motivated to do a particular thing will be disinclined to do it while they might be will to work over 24 hours straight on something else they’re motivated to do. You can’t call someone who’s willing to work 24 hours straight on some ‘lazy’ but you can still call them ‘unmotivated’ to do something else. </p>
<p>The same kid who might be willing to spend hours and hours playing basketball, clearly not lazy, might not be willing to do his algebra HW since he’s simply not interested in it and thus unmotivated. Of course, if he’s restricted from bball and other things he’s interested in until the HW gets done - that’s motivation for him. Some kids are motivated to get good grades for the sake of the grades and all that goes with it but some aren’t.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why calling an un-motivated person ‘lazy’ usually doesn’t do any good because they know they’re not really lazy. The focus should be on why they’re un-motivated on the particular task(s) and work on that and leave the ‘lazy’ word out of it.</p>
<p>I am enjoying the different opinions.
My H and D have a wonderful close relationship and the discussion was done in a playful manor.My H falls into the lazy and unmotivated are the same camp . D explains it very much in ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad terms. Someone is not lazy if they can put effort and energy into something they enjoy. The same person can lack motivation to put in the effort and work to do well in things that just don’t interest them.
How does one motivate someone to perform a particular task when the person feels they are unmotivated to do it?</p>
<p>I believe that laziness stems from lack of motivation, but even the school Val can experience periods where he or she feels devoid of motivation. Some psychological disorders also contribute to lack of motivation, so it’s hard to judge.</p>
<p>The example I sometimes find myself using, is who is too “lazy” to get out of a burning house? Even a paraplegic would marshal what he has to, to get out of a burning house,. That might be the level of motivation required, when you only have two working limbs. </p>
<p>ALMOST impossible, but maybe not.</p>
<p>So sometimes you have to work on both motivation AND resources.</p>