I've realized that somebody who's tired and needs a rest
and goes on working all the same
is a fool.
Carl Jung
I'm pretty sure my own tendency to just push on (and on, and on), working long past the point of feeling tired, has many times led to a kind of exhaustion that's really not good. Still...
"I've realized that somebody who's tired and needs a rest
and goes on working all the same
has a job."
Ron Reed
I understand what Jung's saying. That said, if I hadn't spent a good part of the past thirty years doing the opposite of what Mr Jung prescribes, there might very well be no Pacific Theatre. I would have written no plays. I would have left rehearsal halfway through, many days - and, most other days, I would have had no one to rehearse with, because one or another of my fellow actors would have called it quits, depending on their own levels of energy. No grants would have been written, few budgets balanced. How many appointments would I have cancelled without notice, and how many others would I have walked out on midway through?
Muscles get built when you continue working them once they've tired. Character gets built when you do what needs doing, even though you'd rather do something else (like resting, for example). People get cared for in hospitals, artistic breakthroughs occur, crops get planted or harvested, children get fed and cleaned and loved, when people continue to do what they need to do even when they are absolutely bloody exhausted.
I'm glad I wasn't one of Carl Jung's patients. "Oh, doctor Jung won't be seeing you today. He prefers to have a rest."
