Hello and welcome to Uplifted Living, the podcast for living uplifted. I'm Nick Gilbert, and I'm grateful you're here. This is a space for thoughtful conversations about growth, clarity, and living with intention without the pressure to have everything figured out. Let's begin. One of the most common beliefs people carry quietly and

"I'm lazy." They don't usually say it out loud, but they feel it. They see unfinished goals, inconsistent habits, plans that didn't stick, and the conclusion they reach is simple and harsh. Something must be wrong with me, but what if that conclusion is wrong? What if the issue isn't laziness at all, but overload? Most growth oriented people today are carrying more information than any generation before them. Books, podcasts, articles, advice, frameworks, morning routines, evening routines, and while all of it may be helpful on its own together, it becomes heavy. Not because you can't do it, but because you're trying to hold too much at once. Here's what overload looks like. You want to improve your health, your mindset, your career, your relationships all at the same time, so you create plans, and lists, and systems, but eventually you stall. Not from lack of desire, but from decision fatigue. Every choice starts to feel exhausting. Every habit feels optional. Doing nothing begins to feel easier than doing something imperfectly. This is where people mislabel themselves as lazy, but laziness is a lack of care. And if you're listening to this podcast, you care deeply. What you're experiencing is cognitive and emotional overload. There's a subtle but important distinction here. Lazy people don't feel guilty about not acting, overloaded people do. They feel frustrated, disappointed, quietly, ashamed, and that emotional weight makes forward movement even harder. So instead of asking what's wrong with me, a more helpful question might be: what am I asking myself to carry right now? When you're overloaded, the solution isn't more motivation. It's permission to simplify, to choose less, to focus narrower, to move slower on purpose. Progress doesn't disappear when you do this. It becomes possible again. Here's the gentle practice you can try this week. Take one area of your life where you feel stuck. Now, ask yourself, what's the smallest meaningful action I could take here without needing to feel ready, motivated, or confident? Not the ideal action and not the perfect plan. Just the next honest step. Then stop there. When we reduce the load, something interesting happens. Energy returns. Clarity improves. Consistency feels less forced. And, slowly, that old story, I'm lazy, starts to lose its grip. You're not lazy. You're human, and you've been trying to grow in a world that rarely teaches restraint. Simplifying isn't quitting; it's choosing sustainability. As you go into the rest of your day, I invite you to reflect on this. What might feel lighter if you ask less of yourself this week? Think about that. Journal it. Write it down if you need to. If this episode resonated with you, consider following or subscribing to the show and sharing it with someone who may need to hear this reminder. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing and continue to uplift both yourself and those around you. Thank you for listening.