Analyzing Character | Page 5

so tired as the man for
whom the work is a burden.
"Victory in intercollegiate athletic events depends on will power and
physical endurance. This is particularly apparent in football. Frequently
it is not the team with the greater muscular development or speed of
foot that wins the victory, but the one with the more grit and
perseverance. At the conclusion of a game players are often unable to
walk from the field and need to be carried. Occasionally the winning
team has actually worked the harder and received the more serious
injuries. Regardless of this fact, it is usually true that the victorious
team leaves the field less jaded than the conquered team. Furthermore,
the winners will report next day refreshed and ready for further training,
while the losers may require several days to overcome the shock and
exhaustion of their defeat.
"Recently I had a very hard contest at tennis. Some hours after the
game I was still too tired to do effective work. I wondered why, until I
remembered that I had been thoroughly beaten, and that, too, by an
opponent whom I felt I outclassed. I had been in the habit of playing
even harder contests and ordinarily with no discomfort--especially
when successful in winning the match.
"What I have found so apparent in physical exertion is equally true in
intellectual labor. Writing or research work which progresses
satisfactorily leaves me relatively fresh; unsuccessful efforts bring their
aftermath of weariness.
"_Intellectual work which is pleasant is stimulating and does not fag

one, while intellectual work which is uninteresting or displeasing is
depressing and exhausting_....
"To restore muscular and nerve cells is a very delicate process. So
wonderful is the human organism, however, that the process is carried
on perfectly without our consciousness or volition except under
abnormal conditions.
"Food and air are the first essentials of this restoration. In-directly the
perfect working of all the bodily organs contributes to the
process--especially deepened breathing, heightened pulse, and increase
of bodily volume due to the expansion of the blood vessels running just
beneath the skin.
"Here pleasure enters. Its effect on the expenditure of energy is to make
muscle and brain cells more available for consumption, and particularly
to hasten the process of restoration or recuperation.
"The deepened breathing supplies more air for the oxidation of body
wastes. The heightened pulse carries nourishment more rapidly to the
depleted tissues and relieves the tissues more rapidly from the
poisonous wastes produced by work. The body, the machine, runs more
smoothly, and few stops for repairs are made necessary.
"In addition to these specific functions, pleasure hastens all the bodily
processes which are of advantage to the organism. The hastening may
be so great that recuperation keeps pace with the consumption
consequent on efficient labor, with the result that there is little or no
exhaustion. This is, in physiological terms, the reason why a person can
do more when he 'enjoys' his work or play, and can continue his efforts
for a longer period without fatigue. The man who enjoys his work
requires less time for recreation and exercise, for his enjoyment
recharges the storage battery of energy."
But the misfit can take none of this pleasure in his work. He is unhappy
because he cannot do his best; he is wretched because he feels that he is
being defeated in the contest of life; he is miserable because he hates
the things he has to do; he can take no satisfaction in his work because
he feels that it is poorly done; and, finally, all of his joylessness reacts
upon him, decreasing his efficiency and making him a more pitiable
failure.
So this is the vicious circle:
Misfit; Inefficient; Unhappy; More inefficient.

Rather is it a descending spiral, leading down to poverty, disease, crime
and death.
Now, consider the man who has found his work. To him the glorious
abandonment which is the way to achievement is possible. Such a man
does not merely exist--he lives, and lives grandly. His work gives him
joy, both in its doing and in its results. It calls out and develops his
highest and best talents. He therefore grows in power, in wisdom, in
health, in efficiency, and in success. All his life runs in an ascending
spiral. No task appalls him. No difficulty daunts him. He may work
hard--terribly hard. He may tunnel through mountains of drudgery. He
will shun the easy ways and leave the soft jobs to weaker men. But
through it all there will be a song in his heart.
Work to such a man is as natural an expression as hunger, or love, or
pleasure, or laughter. He returns to it with zest and eagerness. Such a
man's work flows out from his soul. It is an expression of the