Pride, Healthy Addictions, and The Miracle of Life

Haruki Murakami, Mark Manson, and Robert Greene

Confidence versus Pride

This episode of the Founders podcast covers Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Around 48 minutes into this episode the following book quote was read, in which Murakami reflects on his failure to run a marathon after having done so in the past:

Without knowing it, I’d developed a sort of arrogant attitude, convinced that just a fair-to-middling amount of training was enough for me to do a good job. It’s pretty thin, the wall separating healthy confidence and unhealthy pride.

I thought that was a simple but very profound reflection by Murakami. It seems like many people struggle with that same issue — learning how to navigate that “thin wall” between confidence and pride. It is a life lesson that we all need to learn (and probably relearn) at some point.

Healthy Addictions

Right at the beginning of this episode, Mark Manson shares an intriguing perspective on addiction:

What if self-discipline is simply developing addictions that are good for you? Like, what's the difference? If I feel compelled to run every day to keep myself happy, and if not running every day makes me noticeably unhappy, how is that, psychologically speaking, any different from needing to have a drink every day to be happy? …I'm slowly arriving at the view that one doesn't necessarily get rid of addictive or compulsive behaviors so much as steer them into healthier addictions and compulsions.

It was interesting to connect this to the previous podcast, because how Murakami talks about running sounds very similar to what Mark Manson expresses here. I think almost everyone has compulsive tendencies, and maybe the key isn’t trying to eliminate those, but rather steer them into healthy and productive habits.

The Miracle of Life

I highly recommend listening to the entire segment, which starts here at about 33 minutes in. Robert Greene shares a powerful take on gratitude:

The idea that our planet has life on it is incredibly strange...an accident totally fortuitous...billions of other planets have no life. Something snapped three billion years ago...we don't understand. Then life evolved in this weird fashion. The fact that you are here, the odds against it, are so astronomical…you must think is so strange it is so miraculous that I'm so grateful that I am who I am, it is incredible.

I think we get so caught up in the routine of daily life that we don’t often pause and reflect enough on the cosmic miracle of our existence. It truly is incredible to be alive, and it is against such incredible odds that we are here at all.