Inner Complexity vs The Role

If you only awaken your will and intellect, then you work can become your identity. This is summed up in the rather humorous epitaph on a gravestone somewhere in London: 'Here lies Jeremy Brown born a man and died a grocer.' Often a person's identity, that wild inner complexity of soul and colour of spirit, becomes shrunken into their work identity. They become prisoners of their role. They limit and reduce their lives. They become seduced by the practice of self-absence. They move further and further away from their own lives. They are forced backwards into hidden areas on the ledges of their hearts. When you encounter them you meet only the role. You look for the person, but you never meet him. To practise only the linear external side of your mind is very dangerous. Thus, the corporate and work world now recognizes how desperately they need the turbulence, anarchy and growth possibilities from the unpredictable world of the imagination. These are so vital for the passion and force of a person's life. If you engage only the external side of yourself, and stay on this mechanical surface, you become secretly weary. Gradually, years of this practice make you desperate.
-John O'Donohue, Anam Cara, Chapter Four