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Why is the lifelong goal for so many to be fat and lazy?

I always hear the word retirement. TV, news, work, school, etc.

Anecdotally, I know people who take retirement to contribute back to society in a way they could have never done before. They make retirement a joy to behold in how they enrich their lives as well as the lives of others. They make up less than 10% of the people I know.

The rest? 12 hours of TV a day, eating out, and maybe travel a bit to eat out somewhere else. They may also get involved in some community project who's main purpose isn't to enrich the community but to make the 12 hours of R&R into 13 hours of R&R by making all the young kids do all the work for them.

If they aren't retired, I talked to enough people to find out that the above is their goal in life.

Why is this? Why is the lifelong goal for so many people to be fat, lazy, and doing absolutely nothing?

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Vijay surana
- 0
Aug 9 2012: I've heard - A Man Retires when He Dies.
I hope, I live by this!
Andrew Hu
- 0
Jul 28 2012: I think there is a better way to express it : people's lifelong goal is to have more leisureful time for themselves to do what they truly love . Not so many people want to get lazy or even fat which do no good to improve their quality of life . And I think this is the tendency of socity where people have more freedom and have less worry about their material life .
Daniella Piccioni
- +1
Jul 28 2012: You'd be an odd duck if your lifelong goal were to be fat and lazy. Also, doing absolutely nothing once in a while may not be such a bad goal for people in busy, stressful environments common today. It doesn't have to be denoted as a negative thing necessarily, consider it meditation.

Perhaps a lot of people look at it in the sense that they've been working so hard their whole lives that it would be nice to do nothing for a while, which could lead to being lazy. Laziness, of course, leads to being overweight.

Depending on the circumstances it's possible that some people are simply burnt out and don't feel they have the energy to do anything else. Though I'm sure they may have pictured the outcome of their lives to be different, who's to say.

I feel people are like this even off the subject of retirement. Those that do, and those that do not. The problem is that a lot of people don't realize their true potential and/or lack self motivation.
Tanka Poudel
- 0
Jul 28 2012: IN MY VIEW:
Becoming fat or lazy is an achievement of goalless not the one with goal.
Robert Winner 50+
- 0
Jul 28 2012: We each set goals that are achievable. In this case you have over achievers.

All the best. Bob.
Feyisayo Anjorin 50+
- +1
Jul 27 2012: Some people lack passion for their work, and hence passion for life. When passion is lacking, it would seem as if one is stuck in a rut, and there is then resignation and a search for an avenue of escape. TV or the media provides some escape.
I dont think most people dream of ending up like this. But some people just give up easily.
Colleen Steen 500+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: Hi W R,
Wow! I have never met a person whose goal in life is to become fat and lazy. I have, however, met lots of people who are simply not aware of the food they put into their mouth on a daily bases, and what the ramifications are of diet and exercise. You have touched on awareness in a comment below where you say..."I'm talking about the person's true goals whether they themselves know it or not."

Sometimes, perhaps people DO have a true goal to be healthy, and are not aware of how to achieve that goal?

Illness, is the absence of good health. I don't think there are any guarentees in life, but our life can be greatly enhanced by being as healthy as possible, so it's a gift I give myself:>)
edward long 100+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: As a fat, lazy person I challenge your asssertion that it was my lifelong goal to be such. My goal, early on, was to pitch for the Dodgers. It turned out that my throwing arm was better suited to drawing pictures of stuff. I did not doggedly pursue some goal to become a fat. lazy man. So, my answer to your question is, "It isn't."
Edwin Nazarian 10+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: Hi W R

do we have free choice? do what we choose to do and do what pleases us most, Aren't we here for this?
some choose to watch 13 hours TV, other choose to sleep 12 hours a day, and some others choose to work.

people are not lazy, they simply have goals that don't inspire them.
people work perfectly well, we do what best for us ( and sometimes what best of others).

set a goal that inspire you!
Gerald O'brian 50+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: We've had this goal for millions of years. I guess we never expected that it could be reached.
Random Chance 30+
- +1
Jul 27 2012: "Why is the lifelong goal for so many to be fat and lazy?"

Because you have to live like a rat, and the future is so hazy.
James Zhang 30+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: Perhaps, being "fat and lazy" wasn't the intended effect of their true intentions. I know some lazy people out there, but they're not lazy about EVERYTHING, they're only lazy about the things they don't want to do.
Sym !
- +2
Jul 27 2012: I think it wasn't like this long time ago. Life now is much easier than it was. So, people used to live easily in so many parts of their life which made them want to make other parts easy to live with also. And you know the more you got something the more you wanted more of it! I believe.
I noticed that most of old people love to work, they enjoy it. While new generation don't like it, they just used to live an easy life. That life full of easy technologies.
pat gilbert 50+
- 0
Jul 27 2012: This philosophic maxim covers my generations life goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK-Dqj4fHmM

Many that I have known that subscribe to this idea are dead. If you do not create a future you will not have a future.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
- +1
Host

Jul 26 2012: I don't know anyone who aims for a fat and lazy retirement. In fact, I don't know anyone at any age with the goal of being fat. I do know many with goals to be healthy and fit.
- Debra Smith 200+
  - 0
  Jul 26 2012: Yes, I agree Fritzie! I do know some who are demoralized and try to find comfort in life. Further attacks never seem to help with that, though.
- W R
  - 0
  Jul 27 2012: "I do know many with goals to be healthy and fit."
  
  I also know a lot of people who SAY their life goal is to be healthy and fit yet still aren't. I can see it for a few months but after years upon years of saying the same thing, it's pretty obvious that isn't their goal. After looking at a person's life for a decade, it's obvious what their goal was for that decade and it wasn't being fit.
  
  I'm talking about the person's true goals whether they themselves know it or not.
  - Debra Smith 200+
    
    +1
    Jul 27 2012: I am glad that all the peolple in my life are allowed to live their lives as they see fit. If someone "wants" an MBA like mine and decides after a course or two that it is not really their own dream, i am just happy that they know themselves because I picked them as a friend because they were who they are NOT because I expect them to be like me. Just as taking courses and learning is not apparently for everyone - maybe the rewards of fitness are either not real enough or not important enough for some people to go out of their way.
    Just because I have 5 kids and breast fed them does NOT mean that I think you should. Just because I have kids at all does NOT mean you should either. I liked it. If you don;t - please don;t do it. I think it propelled my human development but I do not think it is the only way. As to breast feeding = this is a team activity and if it is NOT good for the mother it is NOT good for the baby no matter how good breast milk can be. A mother who hates feeding her kid is going to outweigh any benefit. Brow beating people into fitness does not work either. In the schools of carrot or stick we need to introduce carrots early so people develop a taste for them.
    - James Zhang 30+
      
      +1
      
      Jul 27 2012: *agreed*
      
      As cheesy as this may sound to some, people shouldn't be someone they are not, they should and can only be who they are. It should be everyone's job to accept everyone else for who they are. And to not accept someone else for who they are is like denying their thoughts and feelings, and denying their thoughts and feelings is basically denying that they exist, and if you're being denied of your existence, even though you know you exist, you can feel really lonesome... And really, I don't think anyone wants to feel that kind of loneliness.
    - edward long 100+
      
      0
      
      Jul 27 2012: Carrots good, sticks bad.
- Edwin Nazarian 10+
  - +1
  Jul 27 2012: hello Fritzie
  
  I want to gain some weight (not fat) - but I can't.
  
  Is it because I am vegetarian? is it because I spend a lot energy doing walking and cycling?
  is it because my mind works day and night, sometimes I sleep less then 6 hours.
  
  Now you know someone wants to get some weight, but can't. this isn't a goal but just a wish.

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