Just the other day while painting, I realized that all work can be a work of art.

Not just the art-kind of work, but YOUR work as a marketer, as an engineer, or a lawyer or an entrepreneur…the kind of work that you do to pay the bills, buy a house and raise the kids. You know the work that you often refer to as the-four-letter-word kind of work that is hopefully, yet painfully getting you to that paradise island in the sun you call retirement.

Yep, that’s the work I am referring to and I believe your work can become a work of art.

But, there is a hitch. You have to put your heart into it.

You see, too often we think of work and art as two separate ends of a spectrum. One is the practical work the other not-so-much. We also think of artists as those who can draw, paint, choreograph, sculpt or create beautiful works of art. In his new book, Linchpin: Are you Indispensable,  Seth Godin helps redefine it for us: “Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.” He goes on to say, “And I think it’s art when a great customer service person uses a conversation to convert an angry person into a raving fan. And it’s art when Craig Newmark invents a new business model that uses the Internet to revolutionize the classifieds.”

This kind of work, like art, takes heart. Seth Godin refers to this new type of work as “emotional labor.” He states that emotional labor is needed in order for you to be an artist in your work and to create works of art that can create change.

Is your work a work of art?

If your heart is in it, most likely it is. But if you are like most people, you don’t bring your heart to work.

I don’t know at what point in time most of us started to separate work and life, as if life ever existed without work. Yet we separate it so much so that our hearts stay comfortably at home while some part of us charge off to work. And when things like “layoffs” and “downsizing “and “involuntary dismissals” start occurring, your skin grows even thicker as do the walls around your heart.