November 9, 2018

What is hard work anyway?

There’s only one thing that makes work ‘hard’ for me – any task that I don’t want to do right now.

I love having fun. Who doesn’t right? Doing activities that you enjoy is, pretty much, life’s goal. So Hard Work sucks. But I can’t describe an activity or set of activities that I find consistently hard work. Even the ‘classic’ hard work ones like, ‘doing a million drafts of an illustration’ or ‘answering a million emails’, isn’t hard for me if I haven’t done those things for a while. I enjoy the change.

Matt Shanks painting a mural
Painting a mural is fun. But it was also physically demanding and I was sore for a week after completing it. Was it Hard Work?

The problem with describing hard work is that it’s subjective. Take, for example, shovelling cow manure. Now, if I had no choice but to shovel cow manure every single day – the drudgery, the repetition, and let’s be truthful the smell, will eventually get me down. But, if I have to shovel cow manure for a few days at a time because I’m feeding my fruit trees and I want some lovely pears this season, then it’s not “hard” work. It’s just Work.

My mum often tells me that I don’t work as ‘hard’ as my brother. My brother is a plumber, and yes, his job is physically demanding. Often, more physically demanding than mine. But what is hard for him is sitting on a cramped train for an hour a day with complete strangers. It’s consulting with clients, answering emails, and dealing with harsh criticism about work he produces. For him, that’s torturous. But I’m OK with that, most of the time.

I’ll admit it, there are days when I’m sitting in a week full of meetings, really struggling with mental exhaustion and I crave nothing more than to pick up a shovel and spend a few days with nothing but my thoughts while I dig a trench to lay some new drainage pipe.

If hard work is subjective, then knowing what constitutes ‘hard’ for you personally (and when) will be helpful in creating a schedule and a plan for you to avoid it if that’s the goal.

The curious thing about engaging in any work that’s ‘hard’ is that we feel more rewarded when we’ve finished it. Easy work, after all, is easy. So, maybe avoiding hard work isn’t the goal. Hard work, in moderation, can be good for us. What we need to recognise is when it’s hard work, and when it’s just work.

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