Do not run from your internal battles

Aug 09 2025|Written by Slimane Akalië|good life

The Lebanese poet Elia Abu Madi wrote a powerful verse in his masterpiece “أيهذا الشاكي وما بك داء”:

وَالَّذي نَفسُهُ بِغَيرِ جَمالٍ … لا يَرى في الوُجودِ شَيئاً جَميلا

He whose soul lacks beauty … sees nothing beautiful in existence.

If you can’t appreciate beauty, it won’t matter whether you’re skiing in the Swiss Alps or surfing on San Diego’s beaches, you’ll see nothing beautiful.

The danger comes when we search for external fixes instead of starting from within, especially when facing our insecurities and darker traits. Many people run from these internal battles.

Our brains are wired to save energy, always leaning toward the path of least resistance. Faced with the choice between confronting our inner struggles or masking them, we almost always choose the mask.

Drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling, video games, social media - all are human inventions to escape ourselves. They’re addictive and destructive in the long run.

But there’s another escape tool, harder to spot because society rewards it: Work.

Work is vital for human well-being. Yet when it’s used to avoid facing your inner world, it stops being a badge of honor and becomes a badge of avoidance - a socially acceptable drug with the same long-term damage.

Norm Macdonald once said:

“I remember a psychiatrist once telling me that I gamble in order to escape the reality of life, and I told him that’s why everyone does everything.”

Overworking doesn’t necessarily lead to better results. Your insecurities seep into your work whether you notice them or not. Mark Zuckerberg was a shy programmer when he started Facebook, but to become the CEO we know today, he had to face his introversion. Had he just written more code instead of working on himself, he wouldn’t have come this far.

Even if avoiding your internal battles doesn’t harm your work, the monsters you ignore only grow stronger.

Whenever you feel like all you have time for is work, stop and ask yourself: What am I running from? What am I hoping success will give me?

Yes, there will be times when you must embrace imbalance, extraordinary results require extraordinary effort. But make sure you’re unbalanced for the right reasons.

If you hate yourself, a billion dollars won’t fix it. Van Gogh wrote once:

“If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning..”

If you think happiness will come when you get X, remember how many times you’ve been disappointed after getting what you wanted.

In the documentary The Weight of Gold, Olympic athletes speak about life after the Games. Michael Phelps, the most decorated swimmer of all time, said:

“I thought of myself just as a swimmer, not a human being. That’s why I was just like: why don’t I end it all?”

Imagine, the top 0.1% of the top 0.1% in his field, ready to end his life after reaching the very peak of success.

Bottom line: Fight your internal battles. Don’t use anything, even work, as an excuse to run from them. If you work hard, do it for the right reasons, and build a life outside of work with meaningful relationships and hobbies.