“I Thought I Was Lazy”: 50 People Who Took Laziness To Infuriating Levels (New Pics)

Being lazy is a feeling no one is immune to. With no rhyme or reason, it can make us suddenly unable to lift out of our chairs to grab the remote and change the channel or fold the laundry that’s been calling our name from the dryer for two days straight.

But laziness, which often seems to strike us completely out of the blue, does not actually overtake us for no rhyme or reason. According to a licensed psychologist specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy, Dr. Daniel Marston, laziness is linked to how "worthwhile" the action—that we might feel we’re too lazy to do—is in our minds.

In a piece for Psychology Today, Dr. Martson pointed out that laziness is related to the level of motivation people feel regarding one task or another, and which behaviors they consider to be worth exerting energy for.

“It may very well be that ‘laziness’ is not the result of a specific personality trait but more that the situations itself do not present the person with sufficient motivation for exerting needed energy. These are the situations that do not cause the parts of the brain that start energy exertion to ‘kick in’,” the expert wrote.

(Now you have an excuse for the next time you're too lazy to do something – it’s not your fault; your brain simply didn’t think the task was worth the effort.)

Dr. Martson continued to point out that sometimes, when people are asked to do something, they might not think that ‘something’ is worthwhile. Consequently, they might be deemed lazy by others, to whom the same task would not be a big deal, hence they wouldn’t be too “lazy” to do it.

“If there is no direct connection between doing something and the importance of doing it, then it becomes less likely that a person will do it,” Martson noted, adding that individuals who do not see any benefit to what they are being told to do are often the ones most likely to be considered “lazy."

Bearing in mind that it usually means avoiding things we don’t feel like doing, moments of laziness are often viewed quite positively by many. A survey carried out by the furniture manufacturer La-Z-Boy found that close to nine in ten respondents believed that being lazy is a form of self-care.

In addition to that, nearly every single one of the respondents (98%) agreed that being lazy can have a positive effect on one’s well-being, with reduced stress and improved mental health being the main benefits.

While there are clear benefits to being lazy every once in a while, “everything in moderation” is a known phrase for a reason. The positive effects of being a couch potato sometimes shouldn’t be used as an excuse to stop doing or caring for your tasks. The pictures on this list clearly show that people being lazy can make others’ lives needlessly difficult or cause situations that are simply annoying (and sometimes even unsanitary—ugh).

In addition to being annoying, laziness can be expensive, too. Forbes delved deeper into all the ways that laziness can negatively affect us and our wallets and found that being too lazy to do a quick Google search, for instance, can cost them thousands of dollars. That happens when people don’t put in the effort to look for the best rate for a savings account.

According to banking expert Justin Pritchard, people are creatures of habit. "If their money is somewhere, and they're busy doing other things, they don't necessarily try to do better,” he told Forbes.

Another way laziness can be quite costly is the detrimental effect it has on our health, and consequently, our wallets, too. Forbes notes that many people fail to take advantage of corporate wellness incentives, for instance, which could help them save on personal expenses. In addition to that, it emphasizes that oversleeping—a pastime favored by many lazy people out there, including yours truly—can get expensive, too, due to the detrimental effects it can have on one’s health in the long run.