Hard Work Is Not Everything, But Hard Thinking Is

Working hard without thinking well and hard is fruitless and without reward. The key to creative movement is thinking well and hard and acting with reason, and not just "following orders for pay".

For instance, today, I was at my "day job" which I volunteer to do or want to do of course at the senior center. With the paid employees, I saw this: They are following instructions purely for pay, there are not any creative movements beyond that paid work. There is not any striving to better a situation or really think deeply about what is being done after a certain point. It is just a paycheck, not any passion. When you genuinely volunteer, it is a passion, it gets creative and more. Step beyond the phase of "purely for pay" and what do you get? That is when the real rewards happen.

I also volunteer with my local libraries. For those who work there, they usually just handle the knowledge and get paid. But for a rare one like me who loves to read and creatively use the knowledge and use it well, it is more, much more.

I acknowledge the need to make a living and totally understand it. But, to genuinely foster growth, something more needs to be done than to "make a living". Creativity needs to be acknowledged like a plant or flower gets watered or it dies or "nobody can live on bread alone, but by the fruits of the labor they shall be known." I know, that last part sounds a little like an old wives tale. Indeed, sometimes reality and universal principles come in that form because they are universal principles and facts. Think about what works for a moment and what does not work genuinely for a moment, and you will understand what I mean by "universal principles and facts" like what makes heavier than air machines such as airplanes fly or creating water from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Think about this fact a moment and you will capture what I am writing about in the purest, most realistically applicable way.

So, hard work is not everything, but hard thinking is. Hard or easy work, creativity is the best in it, because it helps things genuinely grow. Why does anything work better? Because, creatively better ways are found to do what needs and wants to be done. Without creativity, everything, easy or hard is just fruitless work.