I currently work as an accountant and spend most of my week looking at spreadsheets and crunching numbers. Like most American men today, I am disengaged at work and would rather do something else with my time.

Let’s take a look at two men on the job. One is a teacher and a coach at a local high school. He feels purposeful and fulfilled most days on the job. He looks forward to seeing young minds develop and being a part of the broader school community. His work makes sense to him. Over the years as he has taught, his students return to see him and he is thankful for how they have each paved their way into college and careers. He has helped instill a love of learning and curiosity into countless students.

“1 Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. 2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 4 Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. 5 The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. 6 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” — Ecclesiastes 4: 1-6

Discontentment is a difficult and burdensome feeling to hang over us all of our lives. Men are so accustomed to this feeling that sometimes it can be hard to notice we’re even doing it, but the effects of it are so much clearer than the act. We compete with every person that lives and breathes and it’s connected to our ego. It creeps into every situation.