The Seven Deadly Sins: SLOTH

Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 09:45 am

Shortly before heading off on a blog hiatus for my honeymoon, I’d worked on the editorial calendar for the blog, deciding that I’d not only try to make sure that I had enough content for the time I was gone but also that I’d have some topics for when I got back.

Didn’t come up with much.

But what I did have was The Seven Deadly Sins. Our world is full of the craziness that’s all around us—war, greed, poverty, famine—if it’s bad, you name it, we’ve got it. Heck, I just did a post to start discussing the topic two days ago!

It all revolves around the fact that there’s too much of a broken, busted and deteriorating world around us. To simplify what’s up, let’s take a look at the Seven Deadly Sins:

• sloth
• wrath
• greed
• pride
• lust
• envy
• gluttony

To understand why these are seen as the deadliest of sins, I’ll take a quote from Wikipedia:

The Deadly Sins do not belong to an additional category of sin. Rather, they are the sins that are seen as the origin (“capital” comes from the Latin caput, head) of the other sins. A “deadly sin” can be either venial or mortal, depending on the situation; but “they are called ‘capital’ because they engender other sins, other vices.

Each of these plays a significant role in what’s wrong with our world—I’m going to spend the next week taking a look at them all and how you might be able to combat each of them if they’re playing too large a role in your life.

DAY ONE: SLOTH

Laziness sucks.

It keeps us on our butts instead of going out to experience the world. It constantly sucks the energy out of us, rending s both ineffective and inefficient. It hollows us out, making us only the shells of the people we’d really rather be.

But as much as laziness eats away at us, it’s just as hard to avoid.
What causes us to be lazy?

• being too tired
• our to-do lists being too hard or too onerous… or both
• the pain that is what we call “routine”
• people just don’t like working hard

Sure, we tell ourselves that these are perfectly good reasons for not getting things done, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle—what are the ramifications of being lazy?

The world’s a big and bust place—by succumbing to sloth, you’ll never get to experience everything out there! While you might not necessarily be missing our on something exciting ALL of the time, you’ll never know unless you go out and make an effort.

We all have lists of things that would make us happier if we just got them done, but very few of us are willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears necessary to make them a reality.

So what can we do to combat laziness?

• Envision the end goal—by imaging what life would be like if we only got our tasks done, it may be a far better version of life than the one we’re currently living
• Read inspiring literature—not only will you learn things, but you’ll have a better understanding of the obstacles, work and effort required by others who are seen as “overnight successes” to get where they are
• Confide in people—perhaps there are many out there who can help you achieve whatever it is that you’re trying to do
• Rid yourself of the things making you lazy—if it’s video games, an unhealthy diet, or horrible relationships, get rid of whatever it is that’s holding you back. You only have one life to live—use it WELL!

Try your hand at some of these and see if it doesn’t make a difference! It won’t be easy, but it’s something that will at the very least get RESULTS.

And now that I’m getting my juice back, I look forward to tomorrow’s post on wrath, where we’ll look at some of the few times in life I’ve gotten angry (I’m generally a pretty happy guy!), and the lessons we can all learn from these encounters.

Until then!

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