Listen, first figure out what you're actually trying to do. Then be honest about your own nature and what you can handle. If you're a wrestler, look at your shoulders, your thighs, your back — different people are built for different things. Do you think you can keep doing what you do every day and still be a philosopher? Do you think you can eat the same way, drink the same way, get angry and moody the same way? You'll have to stay alert, work hard, and conquer certain desires. You'll have to leave your family behind, be looked down on by your servants, and be laughed at by people you meet. In everything, you'll be at a disadvantage — no political office, no honors, no influence in court.
Man, consider first what the matter is (which you propose to do), then your own nature also, what it is able to bear. If you are a wrestler, look at your shoulders, your thighs, your loins: for different men are naturally formed for different things. Do you think that, if you do (what you are doing daily), you can be a philosopher? Do you think that you can eat as you do now, drink as you do now, and in the same way be angry and out of humor? You must watch, labor, conquer certain desires, you must depart from your kinsmen, be despised by your slaves, laughed at by those who meet you, in everything you must be in an inferior condition, as to magisterial office, in honors, in courts of justice.