For years as a writer, I believed the path to earning more was simple: write more articles, faster. I was focused on the physical act of writing.
It took me a long time and a lot of hard lessons to realize that the most valuable work I do isn’t the writing itself. It’s the thinking that happens long before my fingers touch a keyboard. This is the story of that mindset shift.
The key to significant growth, I’ve learned, isn’t about increasing physical effort. It’s about migrating your mindset from valuing physical labor to valuing the leveraged output of mental work. This post breaks down that migration.
The Economic Gap: A Personal Case Study in Leverage
As a freelance SEO writer, my income is often tied directly to my time. One article equals one payment. It’s a form of high-skill physical labor—the more hours I spent writing, the more I earned. But there’s a hard ceiling on how many hours I have to write.
As an SEO consultant, the game changes. I’m paid for my thinking. My strategy, my insights, and my ability to solve a complex problem. A single, one-hour strategy session can often be more valuable and earn me more than 20 hours of pure writing.
Same person, same brain. The only difference is the type of work. One is a task; the other is leverage.
The Principle in Every Field
This principle isn’t unique to creative fields. It’s a fundamental economic truth visible everywhere.
Consider the construction industry.
The man physically driving a caterpillar on a construction site is engaged in vital, high-skill physical labor. But the civil engineer who planned the entire road network is engaged in mental work. Their one design is leveraged across the entire project, creating value at a scale no single machine operator ever could.
Think of a restaurant.
A talented chef in Ibadan can make an incredible plate of amala. Their income is tied to the number of plates they can physically prepare in a day. But the person who creates a unique food concept, builds a brand, and franchises the restaurant is engaged in mental work. Their system can serve thousands of plates a day without requiring them to cook a single one.
If It’s So Simple, Why Is It So Hard?
The evidence is everywhere, in every industry. The rewards for migrating to mental work are undeniable. Which brings us to the real question: If this is so obvious, why doesn’t everyone do it? The answer lies not in economics, but in psychology. We are often afraid of deep thinking.
1. Thoughts Are a Tangled Mess
Our thoughts often feel like a chaotic web of tangled wires. We don’t fear the act of thinking itself; we fear the daunting, mentally exhausting task of bringing order to that chaos to find clarity.
2. Mental Work is Uncertain
Physical work has a clear result. You lay a brick, and a wall gets higher. Mental work is filled with uncertainty. You can spend hours on a strategy only for it to fail. We instinctively fear this “wasted” mental effort.
3. Our Brains Are Wired for Energy Conservation
Our brain is the most metabolically expensive organ in our body, consuming about 20% of our energy. Because of this, it has evolved to be incredibly efficient, defaulting to shortcuts, habits, and autopilot whenever possible. Psychologists call this System 1 thinking.
Deep, analytical thought (System 2 thinking) is hard work. It requires forging new neural pathways and consumes a massive amount of glucose. Your brain, in an effort to conserve energy, will almost always prefer the smooth, paved highway of a familiar distraction (like scrolling through Instagram) over the difficult, jungle-trekking effort of solving a complex problem. This isn’t a moral failing; it’s a biological feature.
4. We’re Afraid of What We Might Find
Sometimes, we don’t avoid thinking because it’s difficult, but because of where it might lead. Deep, honest thought can force us to confront uncomfortable truths that demand change.
- Thinking deeply about your career might reveal that you’re on the wrong path, a realization that would require a scary and difficult pivot.
- Thinking about a recurring problem in a relationship might lead to the conclusion that a tough, vulnerable conversation is unavoidable.
- Thinking about your finances might force you to acknowledge habits you’d rather ignore.
In this sense, staying busy with physical or shallow work is a form of sophisticated procrastination. We use the shield of “busyness” to avoid the truths that would compel us to take risks and change.
5. We’ve Trained Our Brains to Crave Distraction
Our modern world is a battlefield for our attention, and deep thinking is losing the war. Every notification, every like, every new video provides our brain with a tiny hit of dopamine—a cheap, easy reward.
Deep thinking, on the other hand, offers a delayed, long-term reward. It requires sustained focus in a world that profits from our distraction. We have, in effect, trained our brains like junkies, constantly seeking the next small, easy hit. The quiet, focused, and sometimes “boring” state required for deep thought feels unnatural and uncomfortable to a mind accustomed to constant stimulation.
How to Cultivate a High-Value Mental Work Ethic
1. Think Like a Great Professional, Not Just a Good One
Here’s a truth that applies to every field:
Good professionals spend most of their time doing. Great professionals are exceptional thinkers who also happen to do.
The breakthrough strategy or innovation isn’t born from frantic activity; it’s the result of deep, focused thought. The physical ‘doing’ is just the final expression of that thought.
2. Schedule Time to Think
To become a great thinker, you must treat thinking as a primary task. Block out two 30-minute “Strategic Thinking” sessions per week in your calendar. No distractions. No “doing.” Just thinking. Protect this time as fiercely as you would your most important meeting.
3. Build Assets, Not Just Complete Tasks
This is the most powerful shift you can make. It’s the difference between writing an article for a client and building a writing course. I’ve done both. The article pays me once. The writing courses I’ve built continue to sell on demand, earning income long after the initial work was completed. One is a task I performed; the other is an asset I built from mental work.
4. Prioritize High-Leverage Skills
To multiply the value of your thinking, you must constantly upgrade your mental toolkit. Dedicate time to learning skills that scale: communication, sales, systems thinking, and negotiation. This is the most effective way to invest in yourself.
From Hands to Mind
To change your financial reality, you must change how you value your effort—from the physical act of doing to the leveraged act of thinking. This is not about disrespecting physical labor. All honest work has dignity. It is about understanding the economic engine of leverage.
This migration from valuing my hands to valuing my mind is a journey I’m still on, but it’s the single most impactful shift I’m making in my career. And I hope you will make the shift too.
What is one ‘physical labor’ task you do, and what would the ‘mental work’ equivalent look like for that same goal?
