You may be an intelligent soul, but if you’re also inherently lazy, it can be a major obstacle to achieving what you really want in life. So, how do you snap out of laziness and become more diligent?

From his decades of experience as a personal coach in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marty Remko, Ph.D., has discovered a few tactics that have helped his clients overcome laziness in different areas in life. Perhaps they can help you too.

Contribution: Foundationally, it helps to keep reminding yourself that a life’s value is primarily in contribution. Until you believe that, you’ll be unlikely to want to be more productive.

Work life: At work, aim for jobs in which your work doesn’t require you to be a self-starter, and is closely monitored. One psychology-related example: employee-assistance professional, in which calls/emails come in and you’re expected to address a certain percentage each day.

Responsibility: Even most lazy people care what others think of them. If you show even moderate responsibility, you’ll get more respect and friendship from responsible people, and that, in turn, will motivate you to act even more responsibly.

Choose a non-romantic partner: Lazy people may have other attributes: looks, intelligence, integrity. Show those and you may attract the sort of partner whose diligence will rub off on you.

Be an exemplary parent: As a parent, remind yourself that kids—for genetic and environmental reasons—tend to take after their parents. Of course, you don’t want your child saddled with the burdens of laziness.

Tactically, this involves doing the following: In an age-appropriate way, explain that, yes, all people have worth merely by virtue of being human, but we have more worth to the extent we’re responsible and productive. The game isn’t how to get away with doing as little as possible. It’s how to do the most possible. Of course, what you do impacts your child more than what you say, so make sure you do your best to model reasonable behavior.