You’re Not Lazy; You’re Just Living on Other People’s Agendas

Hi friend,

If you feel scattered or unmotivated, I want to offer a reframe:

You’re not lazy.
You’re just stuck responding to other people’s priorities.

It’s easy to confuse exhaustion with laziness.
But most of the time, what drains us isn’t the work itself;
it’s not having a clear direction in the first place.

Here’s what I’ve realized:

🔹 When you lack clarity, everything feels urgent.
Your inbox becomes your to-do list.
Your day gets filled by other people’s requests.

🔹 When you lack structure, everything feels chaotic.
You scroll. You multitask. You react.
But deep down, you feel misaligned.

🔹 When you lack ownership, even success feels empty.
You hit goals… that weren’t even yours to begin with.

This week, I’ve been thinking about systems again.
How even in our personal lives, just like in organizations or the bigger systems,
the absence of clarity invites manipulation.
If you don’t know where you’re going, someone else will choose the path for you.

So today, one question for you (and me):

🗓️ Whose agenda are you living on?
And how can you reclaim just one hour for your own?

Until tomorrow,

Selim

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