Work nourishes noble minds.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.5
You know that feeling you get when you haven’t been to the gym in a few days? A bit doughy. Irritable. Claustrophobic. Uncertain. Others get a similar feeling when they’ve been on vacation for too long or right after they first retire. The mind and the body are there to be used—they begin to turn on themselves when not put to some productive end.
It’s sad to think that this kind of frustration is an everyday reality for a lot of people. They leave so much of their potential unfulfilled because they have jobs where they don’t really do much or because they have too much time on their hands. Worse is when we try to push these feelings away by buying things, going out, fighting, creating drama—indulging in the empty calories of existence instead of finding the real nourishment.
The solution is simple and, thankfully, always right at hand. Get out there and work.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman