Scholars, Warriors

Daily Meditation #347–2/6/2023

Thucydides had a famous saying:

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

Whether or not it is misattributed to him or not, isn’t it spot on?

How can one claim they are wise and studied, yet deny the very temple that houses their mind?
How can one claim they are strong and devoted to their body while rejecting part of the body, that which animates it?

Anyone following the Eudaimonic Path, climbing our Infinite Mountain must exercise. Physical Wellness is, after all, one of the Four Tenets of the philosophy! Whether it’s getting in your steps each day or running a marathon or just going to the gym 30 minutes every morning, it is essential.
The body IS the mind.

Samely, we cannot reject the mind. We insist we “don’t have time” to read, yet we have all the hours in the world to enjoy Netflix or video games or even fiction.
The mind IS the body.

You don’t need to immediately go benchpress your bodyweight, today, and you don’t need to read a full Tony Robbins book, today…

Just do one minute of workouts.
Just read one minute of a motivational text.

Then, tomorrow? A minute and a half.
Then two.
Then three.

Do it, marking your calendar with a big “X.”

You don’t have to be the next Schwarzenegger or Einstein.

You only need to be a little better than yourself, yesterday.

Follow for daily philosophical meditations.

These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”