Why does it sometimes take so much more energy and will power of fighting yourself mentally to do it than when actually doing it?
Eg. Very hard to get up to go to work or start cooking but once you’re getting into it, it ain’t that even bad.
Edit: I generalized too much on this question. It’s not as common/normal of an experience for the majority as I assumed. My bad.
Comments
What you’re describing might be executive dysfunction – or in some cases the PDA profile in autism.
PDA is pathological demand avoidance. If something feels like a demand, the nervous system and mind resists. Even if it’s something the person wants or has to do (like holding your pee for very long all the time because you don’t want to get up, for no reason)
Executive dysfunction is common but at some degree it becomes not normal if it’s genuinely interfering with your life. Lots of conditions, from depression to ADHD experience ED.
It’s a thing a lot of people experience – but if it’s starting to overshadow parts of your life it might be a neurodivergence thing.
Your question has a false premise. Many people aren’t like that. Many people enjoy taking on a new challenge, looking for the next things to do, starting a new project, entering into a new experience. Others have issues with motivation and initiating, but your broadstrokes question is overly-simplistic.
Change happens when the pain of the change is less than the pain of remaining the same.
I don’t think there’s any one cause, but sometimes it’s important to remember that despite our relative intelligence, we’re still animals with a huge evolutionary history that we’re a part of.
For many of the earlier animal ancestors that we’ve evolved from, food and energy was often scarce, and as a result many animals are reluctant to spend energy unless they really have to. Lots of animals spend huge portions of their day sleeping, or at least just laying around not doing much.
So in some sense, laziness can be instinctual.
That’s not to say that laziness is always good or beneficial or excusable, but rather that sometimes it might be understandable even if the thing we’re avoiding isn’t likely to be all that bad.