Exhausted, Not Lazy
Change is tough because you are drained
Change is hard because getting from A to B requires a specific mindset or mental muscle. The mind settles into patterns to save energy. Asking it to build new patterns means rewiring how it works. Now that will take more than self-control or willpower.
When we attempt a significant change, we’re asking our mental muscles to work overtime. If you are already battling good habits, making new decisions, and resisting temptations, mental exertion is always depleting your self-control, leaving you drained and more likely to slip back into old routines.
You are not lazy, just mentally exhausted.
Chip Heath explains it beautifully in his book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard: “The bigger the change you’re suggesting, the more it will sap people’s self-control. And when people exhaust their self-control, what they’re exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they’re exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change. So when you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that’s just flatwrong. In fact, the opposite is true: Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the…
