Can you be lazy AND hard working?

If there are two words that have been used to describe me a lot during my 19 years of life, they would be "hardworking" and "lazy". They have been used in many different scenarios and by very different people. Sometimes even the same people use these two opposite words in the same sentence to me. So am I a lazy people who can work hard, or a hard worker who sometimes can be lazy?

I am usually called a hard worker when I am doing a particular task such as completing a series of tasks at work which needed to be done quickly, or for revising and completing an essay to a good standard. It is these sort of tasks which I do put everything into and knuckle down to get them done. The quicker they are done, the quicker I can get on with something I would rather do and answers the following question which is, why am I lazy?

I love to do nothing. Nothing gives me better joy than sitting in my bedroom, with a book, or my iPad, a cup of tea, and basically not doing anything to a great amount of productivity. I've never been an active person, I hate participating in sports and would rather curl up in my bed and sleep. I also love to sleep, I am that person who will sleep until 1pm if they could every day. I love being confined in my room alone and just being me. I feel most comfortable doing that, nothing is out of my comfort zone or ability in there. I am myself in that room, which to my parents when my room is not tidy or I haven't come out of it for days is what being lazy is all about.

It's like I have a split personality, teachers at school and people I work with would never call me lazy and find it hard to believe that I have that trait within me to just do nothing. In their eyes I am golden, I get things done quickly and to a good standard. I am a different person to what I act like in my spare time when I am working, but isn't everyone?

Most people do act differently in different parts of their lives, many do lie about who they are at work so that they don't know who they really are in their own time. We all have a mask, but some people really are just one or the other. We've all come across people who are lazy in every aspect of their life and then the latter who just don't stop and work too hard. Neither are a good trait to have in my opinion all the time.

The more aspects of you personality you use in your life, the more interesting you are and the less stress or lack of accomplishment you feel.

If you feel like you are working yourself too hard, take a break! Go travelling, see the world, and find ways to use your hard working trait in a more fun and relaxing way.

If you feel that you are too lazy and haven't accomplished anything, find one thing to do and complete it. Then do something else, and another thing after that etc. The small steps you take will then allow you to feel more accomplished and less lazy. You can still be lazy in the evenings or weekends, but allow some time to work, meet people, write, read, explore, its so liberating after your first success.

To answer my initial question, yes you can be lazy and hard working and its okay to be both! Its great to be able to work hard and play hard or do nothing hard! Enjoy who you are, and if you feel like you are slipping more onto one side of the seesaw, then do something about it. But always be yourself and no one else.

How do you "Adult" Correctly?

Many people my age are struggling with this question, we never were taught at school how to do taxes, find places to live, progress in our chosen careers, so how do we do it?

Is it guess work? Luck or a case of faking it till you make it? People on social media seem to look like they've got the "adult life" sorted, you see pictures and posts of people on FaceBook and Instagram purchasing their first flat, being promoted, doing their taxes and having enough money to be comfortable in life by their mid twenties to early thirties.

So how do they get to that point? Where are the pictures of the hardships of not making rent, being unemployed and dealing with stress of relationships. You don't see that on social media as much as the fun side of life people always portray.

I do not own this picture.

I believe social media is causing many people to have false pretences about how life works once you "flee the nest and make it on your own"
. You see programmes like "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" where Kylie Jenner who is born in the same year as me (1997) buying a mansion before she is 18 and moving out on the day of her 18th birthday. That to me is something thats a mere twinkle in the eye of realistic outcomes for me. I can barely afford to move out of my family home and so have to wait another year to do so comfortably. Is it right that the rich show off their early independence to the not so rich kids who still have curfews? Is it right that we only show our successes on social media and not the flaws and downsides to independence. 

Unlike some of my friends I didn't go to university (see why here) and so I will be learning how to sort out taxes and bills in different ways, no student grants or housing deals for me. 

I was discussing this with my brother, who did go to University and has just got his own flat in London. He expressed the point that he is just learning as he goes along and through friends who are ahead of the game, but he did say that he didn't realise how much money goes towards having a place of your own. Bills, fees, taxes take over your life and before you know it, you're back to asking your parents for extra cash which just adds to the stress of dealing with a student loan at the same time. 

But what if we did get taught how to "adult" at school? Would we be any the wiser at putting our classroom tricks to the test in real life? Can it be examined? How can one persons view on how to "adult correctly" be correct for a whole population of young people, it simply can't work. So are we all doomed to learn the hard way on how to do taxes and pay bills and "adult correctly" etc. 

I am hoping my travelling will help to prepare me for the world I wish to be part of next year, I've learnt how to save and budget effectively through this experience and so hope I know what I am doing. However, even if I do not know what I am doing and make a fool of ones self, then I still have my family to look after me. So I guess there isn't much to be afraid about going in the real world. I just hope I am as ready as I believe I am.