dedicated to mld
و خدمت مقدس ریاست جمهوری !
و خدمت مقدس ریاست جمهوری !
The Real School
After I closed the bar and began my life as a novelist, the
first thing we—and by we I mean my wife and I—did was completely revamp our
lifestyle. We decided we’d go to bed soon after it got dark, and wake up with
the sun. To our minds this was natural, the kind of life respectable people
lived. We’d closed the club, so we also decided that from now on we’d meet with
only the people we wanted to see and, as much as possible, get by not seeing those
we didn’t. We felt that, for a time at least, we could allow ourselves this
modest indulgence.
It was a major directional change—from the kind of open life
we’d led for seven years, to a more closed life. I think having this sort of
open existence for a period was a good thing. I learned a lot of important
lessons during that time. It was my real schooling. But you can’t keep up that
kind of life forever. Just as with school, you enter it, learn something, and
then it’s time to leave.
So my new, simple, and regular life began. I got up before
five a.m. and went to bed before ten p.m. People are at their best at different
times of day, but I’m definitely a morning person. That’s when I can focus and
finish up important work I have to do. Afterward I work out or do other errands
that don’t take much concentration. At the end of the day I relax and don’t do
any more work. I read, listen to music, take it easy, and try to go to bed
early. This is the pattern I’ve mostly followed up till today. Thanks to this,
I’ve been able to work efficiently these past twenty-four years. It’s a
lifestyle, though, that doesn’t allow for much nightlife, and sometimes your
relationships with other people become problematic. Some people even get mad at
you, because they invite you to go somewhere or do something with them and you
keep turning them down.
Haruki Murakami, What I talk about when I talk about running
