Character, not as a bank account. Rather, an investment portfolio

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You just spent 90 minutes at the gym -- an hour-long Pilates class followed by half an hour on the elliptical. Your workout clothes are soaked through, and you're still basking in the glow of an endorphin high.

Driving home, you spot your favorite ice cream store up ahead. Time slows down as fantasies of a large chocolate-strawberry milkshake dance through your mind and shift your salivary glands into overdrive. You start feeling a bit lightheaded, an irrefutable symptom of dehydration and hypoglycemia brought on by the intensity of your workout. Your body is crying out for replenishment.

Yogurt or hummus would be a healthier option. But after such a grueling session, you're entitled to a little reward. In fact, you've earned it. What's more, after burning all those calories in the gym, you can afford a little indulgence. You park your car and sashay into the ice cream parlor.

But here's the problem. In a 90-minute workout, you might expect to burn between 400 and 800 calories. An ice cream store milkshake, however, can easily clock in at 1000 calories or more. For 10 minutes of pleasure, you've not only undone an hour and a half of exertion; you've moved the needle backward.

You've also fallen prey to the latest entry into the Ethical Lexicon: Licensing (li*cens*ing/lahy-suhn-sing) verb

Rationalizing indulgent or immoral behavior as permitted by previously disciplined or virtuous behavior.

It's common practice for us to evaluate our own ethical rectitude in accounting format: we add deposits by doing what we should do and take out withdrawals by doing what we shouldn't, all the while trying to keep our balance out of the red.

But what if we saw character not as a bank account but as an investment portfolio? By withdrawing our deposits immediately after putting them in, we forfeit the opportunity to earn interest from them. We may stay in the black, but we end up with little profit to show for our efforts. A recent study reveals the unwelcome news that employees are more dissatisfied with their jobs than ever. If so, it's worth pondering whether employers might be contributing to the problem by indulging transactional thinking:

I let my employees work from home, so I can expect them to do extra work on weekends. I let workers take time off when they need it, so I'm allowed to ask them to do jobs they aren't trained for and that don't challenge them.

It's remarkable how reasonable these justifications sound inside our own heads. But spoken out loud, they sound as vapid as they truly are.

When employees perceive a lack of consistency and fairness in job demands and work expectations, they naturally lose trust in their bosses, feel unappreciated and find little meaning in what they do. It's not surprising that efficiency and productivity plummet to the point that employee disengagement costs businesses hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the United States and trillions worldwide.

Ironically, indulging our desires erodes our sense of agency and personal autonomy by leaving us feeling like slaves to our impulses. Conversely, it is self-discipline that fills us with a spirit of control over our lives.

Moreover, when employers give themselves license for inconsistent management in the workplace, they encourage their employees to do the same:

My boss doesn't value my time or effort, so I don't need to apply myself to my job. I can't count on reasonable treatment in the office, so I shouldn't be expected to produce quality work.

Inevitably, the great resignation is not so much about employees walking out the door as it is about them becoming resigned to unfulfilling careers, expending minimal effort, and aspiring to mediocrity. A licensing mindset will spread through a culture as swiftly as false promises at a political convention.

Whether in the workplace or in our personal lives, justifying counterproductive behavior sabotages success and leaves us unfulfilled. Conversely, self-discipline promotes self-respect, leading us along the path of productivity toward genuine happiness.

A rabbi once told his students that they would never have any shortage of legitimate excuses for not doing their best work. Rather than erasing every victory by surrendering the next battle, allow each win to drive the next one on a campaign of unremitting success.

Rabbi Yonason Goldson graduated from the University of California at Davis with a degree in English, which he put to good use by setting off hitchhiking cross-country and backpacking across Europe. He eventually arrived in Israel where he connected with his Jewish roots and spent the next nine years studying Torah, completing his rabbinic training as part of Ohr Somayach's first ordination program. After teaching yeshiva high school for 23 years in Budapest, Hungary, Atlanta, Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri, Rabbi Goldson established himself as a professional speaker and advisor, working with business leaders to create a company culture built on ethics and trust. He has published seven books and given two TEDx Talks, is an award-winning host of two podcasts, and writes a weekly column for Fast Company Magazine. He also serves as scholar-in-residence for congregations around the country.

Previously:

• Are We Programming Ourselves Out of Existence?
• The bigger they come, the harder we try to make them fall
• How to Transform Fallacies Into Actionable Reality
• How to make life worth living --- no, REALLY!
• What Do Opposites Attract? Truth and Wisdom
• Groucho Marx and Embracing Tension
• Toward a more civil civilization
• Break Down Barriers of Thought to Build Towers of Innovation
• 'Tis the Season for Reflecting Beyond your Reflection
• Why Antisemitism Is Not Just a Jewish Problem
• The rank stupidity of 'Just let it go'
• To create a functioning, biblically-based civilization
• The difference between optimism and hope
• The Next Piece of the Puzzle Might Fill the Hole in Your Heart
• Self-Esteem Isn't Given -- It's Earned
• Remember the Past to Promote a Successful Future
• Are We Making Failure the Price of Success?
• Demoralization Is More About Culture than Feelings
• The Lesson We're Missing From the Death of Charlie Kirk
• Invest in Your Own Success by Building Up Others
• The Most Valiant Heroes Fight on a Different Battlefield
• How Pundits Came to Give Punditry a Bad Name
• The Wisdom of Knowing What You Don't Know
• Success Thrives in the Light of Purpose and Passion
• When Seeking Peace, Don't Release the Dogs of War
• Greta Thunberg Sails Toward Moral Hypocrisy
• Checking More Boxes Is Not the Solution
• Why Sometimes NOT Seeing Is MORE Believing
• A Healthy Diet for the Brain Promotes Ethical Clarity for the Mind

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