The Test Results Are In...

A good friend of ours recently told us a true story that made us laugh, but also made us think.

She started off by telling us about a friend of hers—who we’ll call Nate. Nate could never find the motivation to finish what he started. He also struggled to start new tasks. He was constantly complaining about his lack of effort and he was convinced that there was something physically wrong with him.

Finally, our friend became so frustrated she told him to get check-up with a doctor. After some arguing, Nate finally agreed to book an appointment.

During the check-up, the doctor drilled question after question trying to dig deep and discover what this “problem” was. Nate underwent a thorough examination and a series of tests including some blood work. Remember, this is a true story.

When the visit was over, Nate felt much better. He was confident that he would soon have an explanation for why he was so lethargic and never got anything done.

A week passed … then another. He was excited to finally have his test results arrive in the mail. As he read the test results, he couldn’t believe it. Everything came back negative. There was a brief note from the nurse at the bottom: “Nate, I have good news for you. All of your test results came back negative. You appear to be in good health. Keep it up.”

“Good News?” Nate said, “I wanted answers, not a pat on the back.” When he spoke with his friends about this, he was reminded that sometimes test results are not always accurate. He then booked another doctor’s appointment and insisted on being retested.

Once the tests were in for the second time, he arranged to discuss them with his doctor. As the doctor entered the room, Nate was eager to hear what he had to say.

The doctor sat him down and said, “Nate, you may not want to hear this…”

At this point, Nate knew that he was finally going to get some answers.

The doctor proceeded to say, “We continue to find nothing wrong. The results are still negative and I don’t know of any more tests I can do. Based on all of the informatio
I have collected, it looks like you have a case of chronic laziness.”

Well, you can imagine that Nate was not too pleased to receive that news. It sure was not what he was expecting, but it was something that he needed to hear. It’s all too easy to get caught in the trap of spending time looking for an excuse to justify a consistent lack of performance.

Sometimes in life we all need a similar wake up call so we can reassess ourselves on a deeper level. A helpful question to ask yourself is, “Why do I do what I do?” or “Why don’t I do what I should do?”

You might discover something interesting, because in many cases, the initial reasons we come up with for not taking action or not following through are not the real issues. The actual reasons (also known as “excuses”) usually have very little to do with our state of health, lack of time, flaky people, or poor weather conditions.

Sometimes we overanalyze our personal challenges and convince ourselves that these issues are much more complicated than they really are. Instead of looking for reasons why we shouldn’t do something, search for the reasons why you should do something. Like I always say, “Don’t let it happen, make it happen!” n