Rich Dad Poor Dad Overcoming Laziness | How to get rid of Overcoming Laziness? Best Answer

Overcoming Laziness

Busy people are often the laziest. We have all heard stories of a

businessman who works hard to earn money. He works hard to be a

good provider for his wife and children. He spends long hours at the

office and brings work home on weekends. One day he comes home

to an empty house. His wife has left with the kids. He knew he and

his wife had problems, but rather than work to make the relationship

strong, he stayed busy at work. Dismayed, his performance at work

slips and he loses his job.

 

Today, I often meet people who are too busy to take care of their

wealth. And there are people too busy to take care of their health. The

cause is the same. They’re busy, and they stay busy as a way of avoiding

something they do not want to face. Nobody has to tell them. Deep

down they know. In fact, if you remind them, they often respond with

anger or irritation.

 

Rich dad believed

that the words

“I can’t afford it”

shut down your brain.

“How can I afford it?”

opens up possibilities,

excitement, and dreams.

 

If they aren’t busy at work or with the kids, they’re often busy

watching TV, fishing, playing golf, or shopping. Yet deep down

they know they are avoiding something important. That’s the most

common form of laziness: laziness by staying busy.

So, what is the cure for laziness? The answer is—a little greed.

For many of us, we were raised thinking of greed or desire as bad.

“Greedy people are bad people,” my mom used to say. Yet we all have

inside of us this yearning to have nice, new, or exciting things.

 

So, to keep that emotion of desire under control, often parents

find ways of suppressing that desire with guilt. “You only think about

yourself. Don’t you know you have brothers and sisters?” was one of

my mom’s favorites. “You want me to buy you what?” was a favorite of

my dad.

 “Do you think we’re made of money?

 Do you think money grows on trees?

 We’re not rich people, you know.”

It wasn’t so much the words, but the angry guilt trip that went

with the words that got to me.

Or the reverse guilt trip was the “I’m sacrificing my life to buy

this for you. I’m buying this for you because I never had this advantage

when I was a kid.” I have a neighbor who is stone-broke but can’t park

his car in his garage. The garage is filled with toys for his kids. Those

spoiled brats get everything they ask for.

“I don’t want them to know the feeling of want”

are his everyday words. He has nothing set aside for

their college or his retirement, but his kids have every toy ever made.

He recently got a new credit card in the mail and took his kids to visit Las

Vegas. “I’m doing it for the kids,” he said with great sacrifice.

Rich dad forbade the words,

“I can’t afford it.”

In my real home, that’s all I heard. Instead, rich dad required his children to say,

“How can I afford it?”

He believed that the words

“I can’t afford it”

Shut down your brain. It didn’t have to think anymore. “How can I afford

it?” opened up the brain and forced it to think and search for answers.

But most importantly, he felt the words, “I can’t afford it,” were

a lie. And the human spirit knows it. “The human spirit is very, very

powerful,” he would say. “It knows it can do anything.” By having a

lazy mind that says, “I can’t afford it,” a war breaks out inside you. Your

spirit is angry, and your lazy mind must defend its lie. The spirit is

screaming, “Come on. Let’s go to the gym and work out.” And the lazy

mind says, “But I’m tired. I worked really hard today.” Or the human

 

Rich dad believed

that the words

“I can’t afford it”

shut down your brain.

“How can I afford it?”

opens up possibilities,

excitement, and dreams.

 

spirit says, “I’m sick and tired of being poor. Let’s get out there and get

rich.” To which the lazy mind says,

“Rich people are greedy. Besides it’s too much bother. It’s not safe. I might lose money. I’m working hard enough as it is. I’ve got too much to do at work anyway. Look at what I have to do tonight. My boss wants it finished by morning.”

 

“I can’t afford it” also causes sadness, a helplessness that leads

to despondency and often depression. “How can I afford it?” opens

up possibilities, excitement, and dreams. So rich dad was not so

concerned about what we wanted to buy as long as we understood that

“How can I afford it?” creates a stronger mind and a dynamic spirit.

Thus, he rarely gave Mike or me anything. He would instead ask,

“How can you afford it?” and that included college, which we paid

for ourselves. It was not the goal, but the process of attaining the goal

that he wanted us to learn.

The problem I see today is that there are millions of people who

feel guilty about their desire or their “greed.” It’s old conditioning

from their childhood. While they desire to have the finer things that

life offers, most have been conditioned subconsciously to say, “I can’t

have that,” or “I’ll never be able to afford that.”

When I decided to exit the Rat Race, it was simply a question

of “How can I afford to never work again?” And my mind began to

kick out answers and solutions. The hardest part was fighting my real

parents’ dogma: “We can’t afford that.” “Stop thinking only about

yourself.” “Why don’t you think about others?” and other similar

sentiments designed to instill guilt to suppress my “greed.”

So how do you beat laziness? Once again, the answer is a little

greed. It’s that radio station WII-FM, which stands for “What’s In

It For Me?” A person needs to sit down and ask,

 

“What would my life be like if I never had to work again?”

“What would I do if I had all the money I needed?”

 

 Without that little greed, the desire to have something better, progress is not made. Our world progresses because

we all desire a better life. New inventions are made because we desire

something better. We go to school and study hard because we want

something better. So whenever you find yourself avoiding something

 

you know you should be doing, then the only thing to ask yourself is,

“What’s in it for me?” Be a little greedy. It’s the best cure for laziness.

Too much greed, however, as anything in excess can be, is not good.

But just remember what Michael Douglas said in the movie Wall Street:

“Greed is good.” Rich dad said it differently: “Guilt is worse than greed,

for guilt robs the body of its soul.” I think Eleanor Roosevelt said it best:

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized

anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

Conclusion:

My point is that it’s those doubts and cynicism that keep most

people poor and playing it safe. The real world is simply waiting for

you to get rich. Only a person’s doubts keep them poor. As I said,

getting out of the Rat Race is technically easy. It doesn’t take much

education, but those doubts are cripplers for most people.