2%

2%. That’s the percentage of people who take the stairs when an escalator is also available. 

I am sure there is evolutionary reasons behind that. After all, when you have to hunt for food and you are always hungry, why would you waste all those precious energy? 

Yet, we are now living progressively sheltered, sterile, temperature-controlled, overfed, under-challenged, safety-netted lives. When a new comfort is introduced, we adapt to it and our old comforts become unacceptable. Today’s comfort is tomorrow’s discomfort. We are addicted to comfort (addiction meaing continued attachment to comfort despite adverse consequences). Say for instance, supermarket brought inconceivable convenience to people of previous generations. Now, people don’t even have to leave their to buy their groceries. With one click on your iPhone, food will mysteriously appear in front of your door step. (I, myself, is a constant seeker of physical comfort. I need air conditioners to survive and I am not intending to change that.) 

Doing the more difficult things does not automatically give better result. One of the obvious examples, is always try to work smarter, instead of harder in works and careers. As Bill Gates once famously said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” (Thinking more about it, finding an easy way to a problem may actually be the difficult thing to do here.)

I am pledging myself to be the 2% of the person to take the stairs, both literally and metaphorically. In making a decision, instead of choosing the easier option, I wish to instead ask myself “Which choice will pay off more later than now?” The easy choice pays off right away. The best choice will pay off at the end.

Working out is definitely less comfortable than lying on a sofa. I don’t think I need to explain the benefits of exercise though. 

Writing is harder than reading, which is more challenging than watching random TVs. Writing challenges me to look deep into ideas I thought I understand, and to put it down in clear and meaningful language. I only “own” such ideas after writing them down.

Learning something new, a language, a sports, or any type of skill, and being a beginner is difficult. Yet, if we do not do that, we will always be my old selves and time flies by. 

Meeting people (new or old friends), opening up, and making real conversations are difficult. However, in this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make.

Scrolling our phones brainlessly and watching random clips, photos and texts are easy (which I do all the time). Directly facing our boredom, observing our mind is difficult. But, this boredom may be the rest which we all need to keep us sane. 

“There’s nothing worth getting in this world that you can get easily. But, when you put in that much time and effort, if you do achieve that difficult thing it becomes the cream of your life.” This quote from Haruki Murakami grows truer for me every day . I still do not grasp what is “the cream of my life”. I am sure we could all figure that out someday. 

P.S. Inspiration of this blog - Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter (Highly recommended!)