📚 Laziness Does Not Exist Book Club-Week 1️⃣

Sep 21

3 min read

Welcome back to Book Club, everyone! 🎉

I’m really excited about this book. Pretty much every therapist I know who has read it has highly recommended it… so here we go!

Thanks for being here. 💛

📖 Week 1: Sept 14–20 | Introduction + Chapter 1 (p1–36)

✨ The Introduction

Page 2 and BAM

This excerpt immediately got me:

“Most of us spend the majority of our days feeling tired, overwhelmed, and disappointed in ourselves, certain we've come up short. No matter how much we've accomplished or how hard we've worked, we never believe we've done enough to feel satisfied or at peace. We never think we deserve a break. Through all the burnouts, stress-related illnesses, and sleep-deprived weeks we endure, we remain convinced that having limitations makes us "lazy"-and that laziness is always a bad thing.

This worldview is ruining our lives.” (p2)

YES. YES. YES. TO ALL OF THIS.

And this:

“I also came to see how the thing that we call "laziness" is often actually a powerful self-preservation instinct. When we feel unmotivated, directionless, or "lazy, it's because our bodies and minds are screaming for some peace and quiet. When we learn to listen to those persistent feelings of tiredness and to honor them, we can finally begin to heal. I spoke with therapists and corporate coaches and learned about the steps a person can take to establish limits in their professional and personal lives. I found that by advocating for our right to be "lazy, we can carve out space in our lives for play, relaxation, and recovery. I also discovered the immense relief that comes when we cease tying our self-image to how many items we check off our to-do lists.

The laziness we've all been taught to fear does not exist. There is no morally corrupt, slothful force inside us, driving us to be unproductive for no reason. It's not evil to have limitations and to need breaks. Feeling tired or unmotivated is not a threat to our self-worth. In fact, the feelings we write off as "laziness" are some of humanity's most important instincts” (p10)

The brief discussion of Devon’s own story and their friend Max kept the introduction interesting, and I’m already very intrigued by where this book is going.

I also wish I could shout from the rooftops more often about just how messed up our current expectations around work are — particularly the standard people are expected to hold themselves to just to earn enough money to live.

Sigh.

👀 One thing I’m already thinking about…

There are definitely some parents of clients I wish would read this book. I would loveeeee it if we could all agree to ban the word "lazy" as an insult to others or ourselves - its not only untrue, its unbelievable unkind.

📕 Chapter One

As I started Chapter 1, I was mostly nodding along.

None of this was particularly new information to me, although I think a lot of people would find these ideas pretty eye-opening.

I really enjoyed the individual stories throughout the chapter — they made the information much more interesting and engaging.

This except was 👌 👌 👌

Overall, I'd say there wasn’t anything earth-shatteringly new for me in terms of the research or information, but I’m so glad Devon Price decided to write this book.

The world needs these messages. And definitely this work.

Again.... I’m very intrigued by where this book might be going…

💬 Want to chat as you read?

I set up a Buddy Read on StoryGraph to go along with the book club!

It’s probably my favourite feature of the app because you can leave comments attached to specific pages/sections, and then they “reveal” as everyone gets to that part of the book.

Basically: no accidental spoilers + built-in book club chat. 🙌

👉 Join the Laziness Does Not Exist Buddy Read on StoryGraph