“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 divine in him.

The almost universal cry for leisure is due to the almost universal unfitness of men and women for their tasks.  The wise man knows that there is no happiness in leisure.  The only happiness is self-expression in useful work.  And so we come again to the problem of fitting the man to his work.  Every man is a bundle of possibilities.  Every man has a right to usefulness, prosperity and happiness.  These are possible only through knowledge of self, knowledge of others, knowledge of work, and the ability to make the right combination of self and others and work.