Plato's Workout

Welcome to Plato’s Workout !

We must not train the body while neglecting the soul. Rather, just as the body is strengthened through exercise, so too must the soul be hardened through trials, discipline, and study. - Plato, Republic 410b

Plato’s Workout is a newsletter focused on a classical approach to personal growth.

I offer you a philosophy of human excellence, aka Virtue - moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical excellence. Inspired by Plato and the great books of the Western Tradition.

My goal is to share ancient wisdom and modern insights to help you flourish, in leadership and life.

Think of this as a philosophy (and program) for high performance, health and happiness, ancient Greek style.

Who is Plato’s Workout For?

If you are into postmodern self-help, pop-psychology, chasing materialism and new age spirituality, this newsletter is NOT for you.

I have created Plato’s Workout for those that have a different worldview and are dissatisfied with what passes for popular personal growth and leadership advice.

Plato’s Workout is for:

Traditionally-minded leaders. Traditionally minded leaders are those who value time-tested wisdom and the pursuit of excellence. They understand that great leadership is not about chasing fleeting trends but about anchoring oneself in enduring principles that have guided Western culture and civilization for centuries.

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.’’ Gustav Mahler, Austrian-Bohemian conductor

Followers of Christ. For those shaped by the Christian faith, Plato’s Workout offers a program that respects your spiritual worldview while integrating classical wisdom. If you find that modern self-help feels too self-centered, relativistic, or spiritually hollow, you’ll find a more rooted and meaningful alternative here.

“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” Pope Benedict XVI

Stoic high performers. If you’re someone who draws inspiration from Stoic wisdom and the disciplined mindset of Ancient Roman culture, Plato’s Workout is built for you.

“Romans had been content to practice virtue; all was lost when they began to study it.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences

Best Content!

Still not sure if Plato’s Workout is for you?

Check out our best content and learn how to exercise virtue - moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical excellence.

What I offer inside Plato’s Workout

And I call on all other people as well, as far as I can – and you especially I call on in response to your call – to this way of life, this contest, that I hold to be worth all the other contests in this life. - Plato, Gorgias 526e

Think of this as a modern training plan for high performance, health and happiness inspired by Plato and the entire classical Western Tradition.

1️⃣ Plato’s Workout newsletter (Free)

If you enjoyed Plato’s Protocol Series you’ll love my continuous exploration of cultivating virtue, in leadership and life.

In my weekly Plato’s Workout newsletter you will receive the following:

A weekly essay on great ideas, great men (and women), and great events—offering lessons that educate, encourage, and inspire us to cultivate virtue.
A weekly dose of deep wisdom in the form of aphorisms, maxims, and passages from the classical Western tradition to amplify your day.
Classical wisdom for the digital age—a curated selection of classical insights, quotations, and reflections discovered in today’s online conversations and brought together for thoughtful reflection.

Promise: Learn and get inspired how to integrate ancient wisdom and modern practices to help you flourish, in leadership and life.

2️⃣ Virtue Notes - Deep dive on lessons in human excellence from the Great Books - Classic and Contemporary (Coming Soon)

For serious high achievers who want to go deeper on applying the timeless lessons of virtue.

Here I follow C.S. Lewis’ advice on reading and learning. In his introduction to St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation he passionately advocated for alternating old and new texts, rather than relying solely on contemporary books:

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. - C.S. Lewis

With that as inspiration I have created Virtue Notes. I read and summarize Great Books - classic and contemporary - through the lens of virtue. I ask:

What can we learn about virtue, leadership, and human character?

I extract all the important lessons of human excellence and share how you can apply them to your life.

Here are the first two Virtue Notes, where I take a deep dive on learning about the Homeric virtues:

Classic - The Iliad by Homer, Richard Lattimore translation [coming soon]
Contemporary: The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss [coming soon]

Promise: Get a modern, updated version of your own Mirrors for “Princes,” aka Virtuous Leaders, every month in your inbox.

Why listen to me

Who am I and why should you listen to me?

Plato’s Workout is a resource created by Tom Pappas.

I’m a West Point grad, Army veteran and international technology executive working and living in Europe for more than 25 years. Here is my LinkedIn profile.

My Origin Story

When I finished my military service and entered the business world, I began to develop my own ideas on leadership growth and personal excellence. I combined hard-won experience from West Point and the US Army, and a growing world view living and working overseas with the health wisdom of my brother Dr Sam Pappas.

Here are the 2 major life experiences that inform my perspective:

1. Son of Hellenism: Ancestors of the Iliad, fighting alongside Achilles and Odysseus. I am the products of the modern Greek diaspora. My parents, like thousands of emigrants in history before them, left their homeland following war. If you’ve seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding you’ve got a good picture of our family life growing up as the sons of Greek immigrants.

But I also have proud ancient roots. Today our family’s ancestral village Thisvi, in the province of Boeotia, has less than 2000 inhabitants. This village is the location of ancient Thisbe. Near the sea and on the south side of the famous Mount Helicon, Thisbe is featured in the Catalogue of Ships, Book II, in Homer’s Iliad.

Leitos and Penelos were leaders of the Boiotians….

Kopai, and Eutresis, and Thisbe of the dove-cotes; …

Of these were fifty ships in all, and on board

each of these were a hundred and twenty sons of the Boiotians.

--- The Iliad, Book 2, 494 – 510

I often thought as a youth, not too modestly I must admit, that I was the product of two of the greatest civilizations in history: The ancient Greeks and the modern Americans. This cultural experience inspired my early love of the Greek classics - in literature, philosophy, history, and military strategy.

“Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its’ origin.” – Lord Acton

Experiencing the world’s greatest leadership training institutions: West Point and the US military. West Point and the U.S. Army transformed my admiration for the heroes and thinkers of the Greek tradition into a lived discipline. They taught me that leadership is a form of moral responsibility, that freedom requires self-command, and that excellence is not achieved through inspiration alone but through sustained training, sacrifice, and service.
Those years formed the foundation of my approach to leadership and personal growth. They convinced me that we must develop the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—and that the highest aim of leadership is not simply to achieve more, but to become better while helping others do the same.
That conviction lies at the heart of Plato’s Workout: a continuing effort to recover the wisdom of the classical tradition and apply it to the challenges of leadership, character, and human flourishing today.

“Body and spirit I surrendered whole to harsh instructors – and received a soul.” - Rudyard Kipling

Thanks for being here!

I look forward to being a valuable and trusted resource for you on your personal path to grow and flourish.

Yours in excellence and virtue,

Tom

Subscribe to Plato's Workout

Join my weekly newsletter to learn the classical lessons of human excellence, in leadership and life. Inspired by Plato and the great books of the Western Tradition. Read deeply. Train wisely. Live virtuously.