How do I fight slothfulness?

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danielsisk619

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Since I can remember I have had slothful tendencies. Recently however these tendencies have become more and more pronounced. It almost feels like I’m addicted to sloth. I try to fight it but have had little success.

My biggest problem is getting up in the morning when I don’t have to go to work especially on Sundays when I have to go to Mass but end up sleeping in too late to go.

I’m trying to fight I don’t know how. Could anyone give me some advice and or point me in the direction of some material that could help. I’d prefer a website or something I can get for free since I’m broke.

Also any prayers would be appreciated.

Thanks and God bless.
 
Besides being lazy, which is what most people think of when they think of slothfulness, it also means procrastination.

St Expeditus helps with that. 😃
molossia.org/stexpeditus.html
The prayer of St Ephram is wonderful in that.

cin.org/images/ephrem.jpg
O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth,
*of despondency, of lust **or of vain talking; *
*but bestow on me thy servant a spirit of chastity, *
of humility, of patience and love.
*You, O Lord and King, grant to me to see my own errors
and not to judge my brother, *
for blessed art thou unto ages of ages.
 
danielsisk619 said:
Since I can remember I have had slothful tendencies. Recently however these tendencies have become more and more pronounced. It almost feels like I’m addicted to sloth. I try to fight it but have had little success.

My biggest problem is getting up in the morning when I don’t have to go to work especially on Sundays when I have to go to Mass but end up sleeping in too late to go.

I’m trying to fight I don’t know how. Could anyone give me some advice and or point me in the direction of some material that could help. I’d prefer a website or something I can get for free since I’m broke.

Also any prayers would be appreciated.

Thanks and God bless.
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Oh boy…do I need help with this too. Sometimes I wonder if it’s sloth or something else? I’m sleepy…a lot:shrug:, or it could be my active 2yo:blush:…who knows:p.
 
I think that this is a really tough sin to overcome because the way to do it, is by doing the exact opposite (work). But who says you need to work alone? Wasn’t it easier when your mom helped you put your toys away with you as a kid. So here I would suggest you find someone to help you. Get your loudest and most annoying alarm clock for Sunday morning and someone to go with you to mass. Also check the mass times, there may be some available on Saturday/Sunday evenings instead.
 
Daniel,

Are you really into the sin of sloth or are you possibly depressed about something that makes you sleep and avoid doing tasks?

My gma sent me a cute article called “eat the frog” that I wish I could send you. Basically, it said that we need to tackle the things that we really don’t want to do first thing and get it over with like eating a frog. If we can start the day with the worst task, then it is almost like coasting downhill for the rest of the day.

If a person hates to clean house, they can get up and clean before they even shower for 20-30 minutes and ta-da it is done for the day.

If you have trouble rolling out of bed for Sunday morning mass, then perhaps you need to go on Saturday evening if it is available? I have not made it to 8am mass in more than a year, but I can make it on Saturday evening or noon on Sunday while still sleeping in regularly!
 
I wish I could help, but I’ve got the same problem. I have trouble staying focused on the task at hand. My mind wanders and everything takes twice as long as it should.
 
It sounds like this is a challenge for a lot of us!

I really like the prayer to St. Ephram and the idea of “buddying up” with someone. I also have a suggestion based on the spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva, articulated particularly well in a book I’m reading now ("Raise Happy Children Through a Happier Marriage," by Mary Ann Budnik; follow this link for more information).

It’s simple (but not easy! :)): Offer each prayer and task of the day to Our Lord and Lady for someone else so that the labors you have to do take-on a spiritual meaning. I like to offer my labors for the salvation of whomever I’m working for. For example, when I change a toddler’s diaper, I offer it up for her, or when I feed the baby during the night, I offer my sleepiness up for him.

Maybe this will help…

Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, please pray for us!

Kristen
 
the advice I have been given during spiritual direction about this problem is to cultivate the opposite virtue, which is charity.
 
there was an article about this in last month’s “This Rock” but oddly enough, it equated being a workaholic with being slothful and proceeded to deal mostly with the problem of being a workaholic. interesting, but that’s the least of my problems.

by the way, how is charity the opposite of slothfulness?
 
Are you really into the sin of sloth or are you possibly depressed about something that makes you sleep and avoid doing tasks?
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I just wanted to repeat the earlier advice, which is so important. For decades, I could not get enough sleep. I woke up tired, was tired all day, and went to bed tired. Turned out there were two things at play – depression and “light issues.”

The depression has been treated and, at my doctor’s suggestion, I invested in one of those “like dawn” gizmos that you attach to a lamp next to the bed, set the timer like an alarm, and for about 45 minute prior to when you want to get up it very slowly raises the level of light. Just a if the sun was coming up. Makes SO MUCH difference in my life. I don’t get jolted out of a sound sleep with an alarm, by the time my regular alarm goes off I am awake and ready to face the world.
 
Kristen said:
It sounds like this is a challenge for a lot of us!

I really like the prayer to St. Ephram and the idea of “buddying up” with someone. I also have a suggestion based on the spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva, articulated particularly well in a book I’m reading now ("Raise Happy Children Through a Happier Marriage," by Mary Ann Budnik; follow this link for more information).

It’s simple (but not easy! :)): Offer each prayer and task of the day to Our Lord and Lady for someone else so that the labors you have to do take-on a spiritual meaning. I like to offer my labors for the salvation of whomever I’m working for. For example, when I change a toddler’s diaper, I offer it up for her, or when I feed the baby during the night, I offer my sleepiness up for him.

Maybe this will help…

Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, please pray for us!

Kristen
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I know this is not the right thread for a discussion on this. But I saw this quote and I’m a little confused. I didn’t think that we were suppose to pray “to” anyone but God. I thought we were only to ask for there prayers. This is one of the things that protestants criticize us for. I hope this was just a typo. Otherwise can you explain.🤷
 
srferdave said:
I know this is not the right thread for a discussion on this. But I saw this quote and I’m a little confused. I didn’t think that we were suppose to pray “to” anyone but God. I thought we were only to ask for there prayers. This is one of the things that protestants criticize us for. I hope this was just a typo. Otherwise can you explain.🤷
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To help explain: Protestants, since they typically only pray to God, equate praying with worship. Catholics typically see praying as talking to anyone in heaven (or purgatory, the porch of heaven). But, when we do pray to someone in heaven, we are asking for their prayers to God. So in common speech people will say they prayed to St. Suzie for whatever. Hope this helps. Back to your regularly scheduled program…
 
I, too, am inclined to have the “weekend sloth” problem. But I found that it can be overcome if a person sets himself up with some form of work that one actually enjoys, to be the first activity of the day, or perhaps the activity of the entire day. Frequently, that work will have no relevance to one’s job, cleaning the house or things like that.

For some time, my device was raising strawberries. They can take almost as little or as much attention as one wants to give them. I like strawberries, and that work has nothing to do with any duties I have, other than perhaps the duty to give strawberries to others, which I do.

Then this. My birth family has a farm that is essentially recreational. It means more in a way to my siblings, children and grandchildren than it does to me, because they use it recreationally more than I do. I bought a used bobcat (skid steer) and get more needed tasks done out there in one day than the whole rest of the tribe could get done in three weeks. (which they don’t have to spend on it) Roadbuilding, brush hogging, fence building, clearing the creek, tree cutting, picking up deadfalls. On and on. Big boys have big toys, I guess, and I know I’m playing with a big toy. But I do get a lot done, everybody is glad I do it, and I get up on Sat morning all primed and ready to go run the bobcat. But I imagine if I operated a bobcat for a living, I would want to do something else on the weekend, and the last thing on earth I would want to do on Saturday is operate one.

A few years back, I decided to paint the house. Didn’t know how to do it, but I learned as I went. It’s a two-story house and the upper parts were truly thrilling. I had a CD player with me, and it was actually fun, Saturday after Saturday. Took me a long time. If I was a house painter by trade, I am sure it wouldn’t have seemed pleasant.

I think maybe it’s important to do something that really is a “break” from the things your obligatory routine,year after year after year, has made tedious in your life. Some of the hardest work imaginable can be a “break” from your regular job, and quite enjoyable.
 
St_Gabriel said:
I think that this is a really tough sin to overcome because the way to do it, is by doing the exact opposite (work). But who says you need to work alone? Wasn’t it easier when your mom helped you put your toys away with you as a kid. So here I would suggest you find someone to help you. Get your loudest and most annoying alarm clock for Sunday morning and someone to go with you to mass. Also check the mass times, there may be some available on Saturday/Sunday evenings instead.
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What great advice! Very practical.

One thing that really helped me with my sloth was meditating on the Annunciation. I was praying about it one day asking Mary to show me something new about this mystery. And, I “felt” her tell me, "All my little yeses prepared me for this big ‘yes’. "

After that, when I don’t feel like getting up, I will mentally say, “yes.” Then push myself off my lazy rump.

I’m prone to laziness too, but by saying yes to the little things that I don’t want to do, I’m hoping that I will be better able to say yes to bigger things.

Also, I think you should go to Adoration with this question. I am sure that Jesus will give you the answer. 🙂
 
I had another idea of how to fight morning slothfulness. I placed a Crucifix attached to a Miraculous metal on the off button of my alarm. When I hit the off button I touched the Crucifix and thought if Jesus could go through that I could suffer not going back to bed. We’ll see how well it works over time.

Also the opposite of:

Pride … Humility
Covetousness… Liberality
Lust … Chastity
Anger … Meekness
Gluttony … Temperance
Envy … Brotherly love
Sloth … Diligence

Thank you for all the advise.
 
my problem isn’t so much sloth, because i’m not naturally slothful on my “own” time (i.e. when i’m not at work). my problem is i don’t work well when i’m completely left to my own devices. i need to have a boss who sets priorities for me and keeps at me to finish my work. if there are no adverse consequences to not getting things done, then i tend to procrastinate and accomplish little.

unfortunately for me, i’m in a very independent, unsupervised work situation at the moment and it’s a real struggle for me not to dawdle, procrastinate, or engage in non-work related activites in the office.

i suppose i need to find a new job, but that’s easier said than done.
 
I second the advice about relying on a friend to help you overcome this problem.

I find it’s really difficult to bring myself to exercise. I love it when I do it, but I just can’t drag myself out the door. I found a solution that works for me: here in Korea, most gyms have a driver who’ll pick you up at your door at an appointed time every day. I signed up for the program. The driver picked me up at 8:30pm every weekday, and I got my exercise. Since I had to call the driver and explain (speaking Korean) if I didn’t want to be picked up, it was easier just to go to the gym.

You could adjust that to your own needs. I’d say having a friend meet you to go to mass together would make it much easier. Don’t have them call you first, because that just gives you an opportunity to bail out. Just knowing that your friend will be on your doorstep at 8am (and will probably be :mad: if you aren’t up and ready) will probably be enough to get you out of bed. Or if you don’t have any friends who go to mass at the same time as you, why not offer to drive an elderly person to mass? If you have a responsibility to get somebody else there, you’re unlikely to skip mass. Or at least I hope you would be!
 
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