Everyone can agree hard manual labor is work. Even the saying itself invokes difficulty. The word hard feels like it belongs there. It is difficult work, back breaking we might call it. Ever wonder why we do not hear the term hard creative labor? This is because it lacks the physical effort, the repetitiveness of the task, the feeling of physical exhaustion at the end of the day. It is because manual labor is hard, creative work is easy. This mentality is why so many creative projects fail. This is why we cannot put in the required hours and work through the difficulty and struggle of creative projects. When we encounter the feeling of work our creative project must not be on the right track and we abandon it. We “know” building a bridge will be difficult work, but our creative must be fun, and the second it isn’t we stumble and ultimately stop.

Where does this come from? As a society we value physical effort far greater than mental. Quick quiz, how many Nobel prize winners can you name compared to athletics? How many people dread planning, but cannot wait to execute? Ask anyone over sixty if typing on your computer all day is a good day’s work. We have hung onto this mentality from an industrial economy, and we continue to apply it to today’s pursuits. A good day’s work consists of something tangible; building a patio, fixing your car, commuting to work and putting in hours. This is still the paradigm. It is shifting and changing slowly and successful people today have been the early adopters. Creative types need to recalibrate their mentality about what constitutes a good day’s work. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m exhausted from all this hard creative labor.