Going Mental

There are many different kinds of work in the world, but all work can be conveniently divided into two types: mental work and manual work.

Manual work or manual labor can be very satisfying. There are very noble professions that primarily involve manual labor. Carpenters, construction workers, auto mechanics, and autobody specialists, to name just a few, all do creative, meaningful, and potentially rewarding work.

Equally important, though perhaps less appealing, are essential waste management and custodial jobs. Customer service is a growing field. Helping other people purchase their clothes and hamburgers takes a certain level of social skill, but is largely an endeavor in manual labor.

In addition to whatever enjoyment and financial gain you may get out of it, one thing that certain manual labor jobs have going for them is that they are harder to outsource. After all, you can’t drive to China to have your care repaired, and it doesn’t make sense to have your trash pick-up outsourced to India.

That said, this country has already lost many of the manual labor jobs that once formed the backbone of middle-class America. Jobs in the steel, auto manufacturing, and garment industries will likely never return.

Mental work, too, can be and has been outsourced. Nevertheless, mental labor has significantly more potential for earning you a significant income than most manual labor jobs. Furthermore, you are likely to have greater longevity in a field requiring mental labor than you are in one that demands manual labor.

The challenges you face to find meaningful and profitable work to sustain your career, your interests and your life are significant. The single most important thing you can do to help ensure your success in life is to equip your mind to think.

In our last post, Travis Greenwood, talked about the importance of critical and creative thinking in business. He linked both the development and demonstration of those abilities to writing. He’s not alone.

In 2004, the National Commission on Writing released a report entitled, “Writing: A Ticket to Work . . . Or a Ticket Out.” The report discussed the results of a comprehensive survey of businesses throughout the United States. Business leaders and human resources professionals were asked about the importance of writing skills in a wide variety of businesses representing both mental and manual work.

The Commission drew two conclusions from their study. “First, writing appears to be a ‘marker’ attribute of high-skill, high-wage, professional work,” and “writing is also a ‘gatekeeper’. . . . [O]pportunities for salaried employment are limited for employees unable to communicate clearly.”

The survey revealed that business professionals agree that good writing “consists of the ability to say things correctly, to say them well, and to say them in a way that makes sense (i.e., grammar, rhetoric, and logic [respectively])” (19, emphasis added).

One of the most important and consistent messages from business leaders in the survey were “comments equating clear writing with clear thinking” (19). One business leader expressed the consensus this way: “My view is that good writing is a sign of good thinking. Writing that is persuasive, logical, and orderly is impressive. Writing that’s not careful can be a signal of unclear thinking” (8).

The connection between strong writing skills and clear, logical, creative, critical thinking is clear. It’s equally clear that these very skills largely determine and define success as a professional.

Each writing assignment you encounter in school is an opportunity for you to develop and hone your thinking and writing skills. How you approach and value these opportunities will largely determine whether you end up working for a living or thinking for a living.

If you’re looking to advance into high paying career positions, my advice is Go Mental.