According to the great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, you have the potential for greatness inside of you, but like most people, you will probably let it be destroyed by your own laziness. And you'll probably let your laziness destroy you because that's what the majority of people do, and from a purely statistical point of view, you're likely to fall into the majority. In Untimely Meditations, Nietzsche wrote, “When the great thinker despises mankind, he despises its laziness: for it is on account of their laziness that men seem like factory products, things of no consequence and unworthy to be associated with or instructed. The man who does not wish to belong to the mass needs only to cease taking himself easily; let him follow his conscience, which calls to him: ‘Be your self! All you are now doing, thinking, desiring, is not you yourself.’” As Nietzsche makes it clear, the way to avoid being one of the mediocre masses is to do

what might be considered the hardest thing
in the world to do: become who you are. Becoming who you are is the same thing as
growing as a person, but rather than becoming who we are, Nietzsche feared that most of
us would become what he called The Last Man—a person who has become so comfortable and lazy
that progress itself has become a burden. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he wrote, They still work, for work is entertainment. But they take care the entertainment does
not exhaust them. Nobody grows rich or poor any more: both are
too much of a burden. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both are too much of a burden. For the Last Man, everything and anything
that requires effort is a burden, and Nietzsche feared that we would become a population of
Last Men, so in love with comfort, leisure, and entertainment that progress itself would
be felt as a burden. So if you value pleasure and comfort above
everything else, you will inevitably lose

your highest potential and become a Last Man. This idea is captured nicely in a fable by
Aesop. All summer, a grasshopper spends his time
singing, dancing, and enjoying the sun. Meanwhile, the ants are hard at work, storing up food
for the winter. The grasshopper looks down on the ants and
says, “These ants work too much and don’t know how to enjoy life.” Then he lies back and takes a nap. He continues this routine all summer, but
eventually winter rolls around. The grasshopper realizes that he has no food
stored up for the winter, and he goes to the ants and begs, “Please, share some of your food with me.” “You looked down on us and didn’t want
to help us all summer. Now why don’t you see how much all of that
dancing and singing helps you this winter.” The ants turn their back on the grasshopper
and walk away.

This fable perfectly illustrates a timeless
condition of humanity. Many people are like the grasshopper, lazing
about in comfort and seeking pleasure, sacrificing their future for the present moment. And eventually, when a catastrophe happens,
they’re forced to beg the hardworking ants, or people in our case, for help. To avoid becoming the grasshopper, you have
to avoid making pleasure and comfort your highest value, because when pleasure and comfort
are your highest value, you become lazy, and when you become lazy, you begin to sacrifice
your future for the present. But laziness comes to an end when you see
the importance of productivity. Productivity is important because the more
productive you are, the more at peace you can be when trouble arises. The squirrel that gathers nuts in the summer
does not have to worry as much in the winter. The time to prepare for winter is in the summer,
and winter will always come, no matter how infinite the summer may feel at the time.

And although laziness is important to combat,
there’s another equally important extreme we have to fight against: slavishness. Just as it’s important not to spend all
our time in comfort and leisure, it’s important not to spend all our time working and slaving
away. What’s the point of making progress if it’s
not enjoyable, if it doesn’t lead us to our greatest potential? There’s a Brazilian story that pinpoints
the flaw of mindless progress. A fisherman is out on his boat, enjoying the
sun and catching fish. Not only does he make progress towards becoming
a better fisherman and providing for his family, but he also enjoys the progress he makes and
takes adequate time in the evenings to rest, so that he can fish some more the next day. He’s productive now, but he will also remain
productive in the future. One day, while out on his boat, he comes across
a businessman. “You need to think bigger,” says the businessman
to the fisherman.

“You need to hire someone to help you catch
the fish.” “Why is that,” says the fisherman. “Because then you will be able to catch
more fish than you do now.” “And then what?” “And then you will have a surplus amount
of fish, and you can sell that surplus for more money.” “Oh yeah, and then what?” “You can use that money to employ more fishermen
under you.” “And then what will come after that?” “Don’t you understand? You can use those fishermen to make even more
profits. Then you can use those profits to buy a bigger
boat with a net and a crew. And then you can use that team to catch a
hundred times more fish than you currently do.” “And then what,” said the fisherman. The businessman grew frustrated. “Then you will have so much money that you
can do whatever you want!” “But I am doing what I want right now,”
said the fisherman. This tale perfectly illustrates the idiocy
of mindless progress and overworking.

Focusing on progress for the sake of progress
can really distract us from achieving the meaningful life that most of us are truly
seeking. The solution to this problem, then, lies in
the middle between laziness and slavishness. I call that middle joyful productivity. Joyful productivity is about spending your
energy in a way that allows you to make meaningful progress each day and avoid the catastrophes
of laziness. Joyful productivity prevents you from being
the lazy grasshopper or the slavish businessman. To live a joyfully productive life, one must
take an important fact into account: we live in a world where each of us must depend on
one another for survival. No one can do and provide everything for themselves. The joyfully productive person must create
something valuable and exchange it with others for money, and they will use that money to
survive and thrive. That is how our world works. And the best way to create something of value
is to focus all your attention on one particular

area of expertise or mastery. As Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations, “…by reducing every man’s business to
some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole employment of his life,
necessarily increases very much the dexterity of the workman.” When you focus all of your attention on one
area of expertise, you can become a master in it. And when you become a master at your craft,
you can create things of value. And when you create things of value, you can
exchange them for money. And how do you pick a single area of expertise? It should be something that you are interested
in and passionate about, because only then will you be able and willing to spend the
immense amount of time and effort it takes to become a master in any field. A true master must have ultimate judgment
in his field. Miyamoto Musashi, one of the world's greatest
samurais, had to be able to judge which strike

was the next best one to perform with his
sword. Leonardo da Vinci had to discern which stroke
was the next best one to perform with his paintbrush. Mozart had to decide what the next best note
to play in his concertos was. A master develops his judgments and taste
to the point that he can discern between small details that the ordinary person doesn't even
think about, and developing this kind of discernment requires an obsession over the art. The end of both laziness and slavishness begins
with the discovery of your passions. And as Nietzsche said, “Let the youthful soul look back on life
with the question: what have you truly loved up to now, what has drawn your soul aloft,
what has mastered it and at the same time blessed it? Set up these revered objects before you and
perhaps their nature and their sequence will give you a law, the fundamental law of your
own true self.” Examine the things that spoke to you and captured
your interest ever since you were a child,

before the world told you what you had to
care about. The way forward lies within the examination
of those early interests. The path to a joyfully productive life goes
like this: 1. Expose yourself to lots of novel things and
analyze your childhood interests. Find out what you're habitually interested
and passionate about. 2. Solve a difficult problem in the area of your
passion. 3. Turn that solution into a product or a service. 4. Sell that product or service to others in
exchange for money. 5. Use that money to continue funding your life
and improving your skills. Become a master at your craft. 6. Repeat starting at step 2. Fight against laziness, otherwise the world
will destroy you. Fight against slavishness, otherwise you will
destroy yourself. Discover your passion, turn it into mastery,
solve a difficult problem, turn the solution into a product or service, sell it, use the
profits to get better at your craft, and then

rinse and repeat until your life is over:
That is the path to a joyfully productive life.

Nietzsche - Destroy Your Laziness, Before It Destroys You

Nietzsche - Destroy Your Laziness, Before It Destroys You