Rules to Live by Archives - Corey Pemberton

Sometimes I find myself caught in the most beautiful trap in the world.

That’s one of the most insidious things about it. It doesn’t look like a trap. Chasing comfort is like wandering into a hot tub after a night stranded in a frozen forest.

In other words, it’s freaking tempting.

Who in their right mind would refuse?

Here’s what happens. You let out a big sigh as your muscles go slack. Surrounded by shiny objects, you sink into all the soft spots and lose the will to get up.

By the time you realize it’s a trap (you’ve probably discovered this in the past, but this lesson has a way of being forgotten), it’s damn near impossible to move.

Comfort is sleeping in when you should wake up. It’s the flicker of the TV screen, blue and relentless. It’s every time you accept less from yourself when you know you should have given more.

I was listening to Haruki Murakami’s incredible memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running the other night.

It’s a quick read (or listen.) And it’s an absolute must if you’re a writer, runner, or (like me on my better days), both.

As I pounded the pavement on my piddly little three-mile run — at least it seemed piddly after hearing about the dozens of marathons Murakami has completed — a single sentence struck me as especially insightful:

“The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.”

I nodded when I heard this. Slowed down to rewind the audiobook a bit just to hear it again. In a single, pithy sentence, Murakmi articulated something that had lurked in the corners of my mind like a shadow.

I always did well in school. But looking back on it once you’re out changes your perspective. I learned names and dates, sure, and regurgitated them fairly accurately on all the quizzes and exams.

But what had I really learned about how to live?

Comfort Is a Lie (Rules to Live by)

Writing, Running, and Life’s Most Important Things