Hard things are valuable.
Easy things aren’t worth much.
But there’s no universal distribution
of easy and hard.
As a graphic designer, I do things every day at work that would be difficult or impossible for my colleagues. My work impresses them because what I do seems very hard. Most of the time though, my work is not hard for me. My talent, skills and experience make it easy.
(I’m not coasting. I take my work seriously. I push myself to make my work more creative and effective, but there’s an ease to it.)
Because I’m the one doing work that feels easy, I have a tendency to undervalue it. That’s a mistake. My work has high value because
most people can’t do it and
I create things that my company needs.
There are things that are easy for you but hard for most other people. Are you undervaluing those things because you are looking from your own point of view instead of the majority’s?
i.e.
You: [Thing I do] is really quite easy. Most Everyone Else: How does she do that? It’s really freaking hard!
Are you making those easy-for-you/hard-for-others things visible so that people will ask you (and pay you) to do those things for them?
Note: Creating the visibility is a little harder right now because of AI hype that says anyone can do everything with no effort. But the hype is much bigger than the substance and you are very clever.
This is an unexpected cover.
If you didn’t figure out Friday’s PUNZLE, you’ll get another whack at it with the next one.
Grow slowly
Jeff
I love to teach yoga. It comes naturally. I could read and study about it and do it all day and not get tired of it. I think that says something.