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 timeless lessons in virtue - moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical excellence - from the best of classical and contemporary books. My goal is to share ancient wisdom and modern insights to help you flourish, in leadership and life.

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 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 we 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 our 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 People and Great Events educating and inspiring us to virtue.
AMP up your day: Doses of deep wisdom to AMP up your day. Inspiring texts of wisdom to include Aphorisms, Maxims and Passages from the classical Western Tradition.

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 we 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: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by John Krakauer [coming soon]

Promise: Get a modern, updated version of your own Mirrors for “Princes,” aka Virtuous Leaders, every week 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 Tom finished his military service and entered the business world, he began to develop his own ideas on leadership growth. Tom 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 his brother Dr Sam Pappas.

Tom realized that the combined wisdom of a leader and a healer was the key to his personal and professional growth.

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

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 experience of being a part of two worlds informed my future leadership and personal growth experiences.

“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. It was a fascination with the heroes of my Hellenic heritage that led me to my first career and initial leadership experience in the military. Inspired by the martial vigor, service to noble causes and the wisdom of the warrior-philosophers and warrior-statesmen of my ancient Greek ancestors, I was was called to begin my career path in the military. I was fortunate enough to attend West Point and become a junior officer serving in the US Army, Europe.

“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

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Learn a classical approach to personal growth. Discover a modern program to cultivate the classical virtues of human excellence. Inspired by Plato and the classical Western Tradition.

Plato's Workout