The Hidden Obstacle of Emotional Labour

Don't underestimate how difficult it is to sit down and start typing the first sentences of your new screenplay into the computer, or something similar. That involves a ton of emotional labor. 

Or the act of going to the government office and registering your business and finally telling yourself, "okay, my business is registered, and here I am, I'm starting business tomorrow." That decision right there involves a ton of emotional labor, especially if you have to quit your nine-to-five job to do that.

So what's laborious for you in your life? Be honest and open with yourself about it. Don't deny that there will be labor. 

One of the things I don't like about movies like The Secret or people who are very into Law of Attraction, some of the New Agers, is that they tend to dismiss the idea that labor is  involved with achieving anything of major significance in your life.

I think that's just completely wrong. It's the exact opposite of that. There's gonna be a ton of labor involved and you need to brace yourself for it.

Sometimes that labor will feel like it flows smoothly and you won't have too much resistance to it, and that's great. And at other times that labor is gonna feel very grindy and very painful and you're gonna suffer through it. But you'll get through it and then the pain of it will die off over time as you keep laboring more and more at it and develop yourself.

Godin also says, "...as your work gets better and your art becomes more important, competition for your gifts will increase and you'll discover that you can be choosier about whom you give them to." 

You're gonna want to get more and more choosey about how your gifts get shared with the world. How much you get paid in return, how much publicity you get, all that kind of stuff.

So you do that by pumping out greater and greater work. As you become more masterful and become a master of emotional labour, demand will increase for you and your value will increase in the world.