Scott Perry's Blog, page 16

Patrick Smith - "Establish the possible and move gradually towards the impossible."

Today I'm sharing some insight for finding fulfillment, forging meaning, and making an impact from an inspiring difference-maker living his legacy. Patrick Smith is a guitarist and composer. Catch our entire conversation here.

[SCOTT] "If there was just one final piece of advice or a quote, a maxim, a lesson that you've learned that would help someone tuning in right now fly a little bit higher in the difference only they can make and and step into their potential just half a shade braver, what would you share with them?

[PATRICK] What I would share with them is what was shared with me in Guitar Craft which is, "Establish the possible and move gradually towards the impossible."

So, whatever your vision, dream, hope, goal is, establish that and then keep taking those small possible steps.

And before you know it they amplify.

[SCOTT] I love that. It kind of also sums up great coaching or teaching of any kind. You're helping people build a bridge from where they are to where they want to be.

[PATRICK] Right. And if you don't know where you're going, you'll probably get there.

[SCOTT] Right! Know where you want to go. Yeah, if you don't know where you're going, any ship, train, or or pathway will get you there for sure. I love that.

Patrick succinctly summed up a process for stepping into possibility.How are you establishing the possible and stepping toward impossibility today?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach

(BTW, you can tune in to this entire conversation and EVERY other episode of The Art of Encore Living here.)

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Engineering Luck

Do you ever catch yourself chalking up an unreached goal, desired outcome, or misfortune to “bad luck?”

I know I do.

Being down on my luck has been just my luck more often than not.

Better luck next time, I guess.

When things go my way, it’s just the luck of the draw.

But of course, then I push my luck until my luck runs out.

What to do?

Luck is simply a story.

Too often, we tell ourselves a story that engineers an outcome opposite to what we really want.

What if we reverse-engineered this process?

Instead of crafting a narrative that disempowers us when things don’t turn out as we’d like, what happens if we define the essential, fundamental steps required to influence a desired goal or outcome?

For instance, if I want to make a bigger impact by getting my ideas in front of more of the right people, I might decide to increase the open rates of my weekly emails from 20% to 50%.

If I start with my luck story, I’d probably just keep writing the same stuff I’ve been writing and hope for a lucky break.

But what if I took a more proactive approach?

What do I need to increase my open rate? It’s pretty simple. All I need are interested subscribers and compelling copy.

Starting with those two fundamentals, I could prune my list and eliminate subscribers who haven’t opened any of my emails in the last month.

I could improve email headlines that hook subscribers’ attention and share ideas they find valuable.

And voila, my open rates start to creep toward my goal (averaging well above 50% now) and I 10X the response rate from readers.

There are, of course, additional tactical moves I could, perhaps even should, make. But that’s the point. It’s the strategy of defining the essential fundamentals first that helps engineer your luck in service of a goal worth pursuing.

Tactics can (and again, should) be tried, tested, and tweaked in service to a well-thought-out strategy.

What’s the difference you’re trying to make today? What happens if you engineered your own luck instead of waiting for luck to strike?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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The Perils of Half-Assing It

There’s a time and place for learning new things and taking risks.

After all, difference-making and growth occur at the edges of our current understanding and abilities.

By definition, developing our potential, delivering on our promise, and making change happen means engaging in activities that might not work.

This is how we build personal assets, like humility, patience, acceptance, resilience, and necessary skills, tools, strategies, and wisdom to help make meaningful change for the better happen.

As the assets we cultivate mature and improve, they move from being unproven, uncertain, and unreliable to becoming proven resources we can confidently rely upon.

Something I notice in myself and the change agents I coach is that in our desire to make a bigger difference, we begin building more and more new assets but don’t nurture them all the way to fruition.

Here’s the thing, you can’t fully leverage a skill or tool that’s only half-built or incompletely understood.

Too often, well-intentioned do-gooders (myself especially) get bogged down in what I call “the messy middle” —a place where we juggle half-baked items and ideas that can’t efficiently complete their mission because they’re not fully formed.

Again and again, I catch myself and those I work with and for half-ass their knowledge and skill development and then stop, drop them, and go back to learn and practice something new.

The messy middle keeps getting messier, and managing it becomes a full-time job that actually prevents us from making the change we wanted to make when we first started learning and practicing something new in the first place.

Here’s the thing, less is more.

It’s akin to the hedgehog and fox analogy first expressed by the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing.”

Not that there isn’t virtue in knowing many things. There certainly is.

The essential point is to know the thing you know well enough to engage and exploit it thoroughly before learning the next something (if a next something helps make the change we seek to make happen more efficiently and effortlessly).

What fundamentally must happen to make the difference you want to make? What essential knowledge and tools do you need to strategically make the change you want?

When you dial in the fundamental and essential, you’ll likely find you already possess all the assets you need and can start clearing out the cruft collecting in the messy middle.

 

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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Melissa St. Clair - "Walk humbly. Love mercy. Do justice."

Today I'm sharing some insight for finding fulfillment, forging meaning, and making an impact from an inspiring difference-maker living her legacy. Melissa St. Clair is the founder of Paper Chaser. Catch our entire conversation here.

[MELISSA] "I am going to draw on the verse that says to the effect, "Walk humbly. Love mercy. Do justice."

That kind of sums it up, I think for me, and to share that ripple effect."

Melissa succinctly invited us to remember three practices that cultivate humility, belonging and interconnectedness.How can you practice each today?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach

(BTW, you can tune in to this entire conversation and EVERY other episode of The Art of Encore Living here.)

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Do you feel lucky?

What is luck?

It helps to start with what luck is not.

What I notice is that luck is often confused with fate.

Fate is what is happening now. A moment predetermined by destiny (what's going to happen).*

Maybe luck is simply a story—a narrative we make up and tell ourselves about a fated moment.

Stories are how humans have always made sense of our situation, ourselves, and other people.

And narratives are emotionally freighted and quickly lead to value judgments.

Someone in line in front of us purchases the last cinnamon roll we really wanted. We get pulled over and ticketed for an out-of-date inspection sticker on our car. The client we were sure would pick us picks a competitor.

And with frustration, anger, and disappointment, we silently exclaim, "Oh, woe is me! Why doth fate so perniciously conspire against me? I'm destined to rot and ruin."

Okay, maybe I'm the only one whose internal dialogue sounds like it's spoken by a genteel middle English lord in a Shakespearean play...

My point is, while destiny may have bestowed fated moments upon us, we still have a role to play in our lives.

Could we not have planned to arrive at the pastry shop sooner? Did we really need that cinnamon roll, or were we engaging in unhealthy emotional eating? This moment may be an opportunity to practice acceptance or restraint.

Choose your story, choose your future.

What if, just for today, you stopped acting like luck was something that happened for or against you and instead accepted what is and planned and executed what's next with more integrity and intention? How might that change your luck?

* More on fate and destiny here.

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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Kathy Robinson - "The path is made by walking."

Today I'm sharing some insight for finding fulfillment, forging meaning, and making an impact from an inspiring difference-maker living her legacy. Kathy Robinson is the founder of Athena Wellness. Catch our entire conversation here.

[KATHY] "There are two brief quotes that are intertwined. And the first is, 'The life you live is the lesson you teach.'"

"I think the best way to make a difference is by living an integrated life. One that's congruent with your values. One that's brimming with vitality. What I call 'wholehearted living.'"

"And so, if you want to live your best life, figure out what that is. Start there."

"And then the second would be, it's a quote from poet Antonio Machado, and he said, 'Traveler there is no path. The path is made by walking. By walking you make the path.'"

"And so, only you know your next step. And I would offer that, as you continue on this journey, you're not going to have all the answers. But the clarity comes in taking action."

"And so what's most helpful, as we talked about, is the mindset of having curiosity; of wanting to explore, of wanting to discover, and learn something new."

"And so, I truly believe that our best years are ahead. And I wish you, Scott, and all of the listeners today, the best of health, and wealth, and vitality, and to stay and be well."

Kathy made a strong case for living an integrated life and learning by doing. How are you practicing both today?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach

(BTW, you can tune in to this entire conversation and EVERY other episode of The Art of Encore Living here.)

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Form Over Function?

What matters more, the way something looks or whether or not it achieves its intended purpose?

Based on the amount of time, attention, money, and effort being invested in the look of most brands' products, services, sites, and social media, the clear winner appears to be form.

Even independent coaches, freelancers, and entrepreneurs like you and me seem to be caught up in a frenzy to place looking good over doing good.

But a look at where the debate over form and function began illuminates there's a much better approach.

The argument over which matters more, form or function, began in the world of architecture when the "father of skyscrapers," Louis Sullivan, coined the term "form ever follows function."

What did he mean?

Sullivan actually derived his idea from an ancient Roman architect and engineer, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who asserted in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas — that is, it must be solid, useful, and beautiful.

The rise of form puts the last step first.

Don't get me wrong. Having a well-designed cover and spell-checked and grammatically correct content matters if you write a book. But if the ideas in that book don't connect with your intended audience and move them in the way you intended, your beautiful wrapper and pregnant prose are all for naught.

It's not that form doesn't matter at all. It doesn't matter if you don't have a solid offer that is useful for the intended user and gets the job done efficiently and effectively.

If you're trying to make a difference as an independent coach, consultant, or creative, your function is to make change happen with and for those you seek to serve.

Your time, attention, or effort in crafting your branding, site design, marketing funnel, and social media presence is about form.

Putting form ahead of function impedes your ability to make a difference and make a living (which only amplifies the difficulty you have making a difference).

Which are you spending more time, attention, and effort on, form or function? How much more? How can you do a better job getting form to ever follow function?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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The most important conversation you'll ever have.

The most important conversation you ever have is the one you have with yourself on your deathbed.

That moment is a reckoning—the time when you answer the question, “What meaning did my life have?”

After all, your life’s meaning is derived from what you did when it was yours to do something with.

However, you can’t know when that conversation will happen or even if you will get to have it.

What to do?

Better to have that conversation sooner rather than later.

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what is left and live it properly.”—Marcus Aurelius

Maybe suggesting that you imagine a conversation with your dying self lands as morbid? That’s partly intentional, a bit of what I call “empathetic antagonism.”

I want to get under your skin to encourage you to have this difficult conversation now, so you don’t have a regretful one later.

If today was your dying day, what would you celebrate? What would you regret?

Make a list for each, celebrations and regrets.

Now, what could you change right now to make your list of regrets shorter and the list of your celebrations longer?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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A Many-Splendored Life

Humans embrace a many-splendored life.

We crave comfort—a desire to know where we stand and what’s expected of us.

Societal, educational, and occupational institutions provide the external validation and rewards that encourage this monolithic, linear view of who we are and what we do.

But we also need to reach beyond our comfort zone—embracing chaos fulfills our need for adventure and to explore our undeveloped potential and undelivered promise.

Instinct and intuition inspire us to seek the internal validation and rewards that come from pursuing diverse interests and a holistic view of our identity.

To personalize this for each of us, Walt Whitman summed it up nicely in his seminal poetic work, Leaves of Grass.

“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
( I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

One way to resolve the contradiction is to toggle back and forth.

Too much comfort? Introduce some chaos.

Too much chaos? Seek comfort.

But maybe there’s also a “both-and” solution to be found and embraced.

Can we cultivate comfort within the chaos?

This is the role of your calling.

When you identify and engage your unique gift in service of your vocation, you nurture the purpose and passion that makes navigating the uncertainty in chaos AND the complacency in comfort possible.

I know that engaging the work I’m meant to do now, what I call “the difference only I can make,” reveals a hidden wholeness. Calling cultivates a sense of comfort within the chaos.

What about you? Does it feel like your life is careening between comfort and chaos? How might heeding the call of vocation help you accept and hold space for both and find stillness in life’s storms?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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Bridging the Knowledge/Wisdom Gap

During my 4 years as a head coach at Seth Godin's Akimbo Workshops, I was consistently asked the same question by students a workshop was winding to a close.

"Which workshop should I take next?"

My consistent answer was, "Are you sure you need another workshop?"

Students were often taken aback by my reply and sometimes even offended.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the workshop. I witnessed the transformation students who participated fully experienced.

But here's the thing, learning that does not lead to action is useless.

To take this a step further, learning leads to knowledge, but wisdom is gained through experience (applied knowledge).

Learning by itself may be interesting, fun, and even valuable. But the kind of change aspiring and advancing difference-makers want to make only happen by acquiring the wisdom from doing the work (not merely learning, thinking, or talking about the work).

In fact, knowledge acquisition (learning, thinking, and talking about the work) is often just a seductive way of avoiding or hiding from doing the work.

When you learn something worthwhile (AKA acquire knowledge), you actually need to fully embody, engage, and execute that learning into your daily routines and relationships (AKA, gain wisdom).

Simply learning something else only widens the gap between knowledge and wisdom and, more to the point, widens the gap between thinking about making a difference and actually making a difference.

And, of course, applying knowledge leads to wisdom more effectively and efficiently when you do it in community with fellow travelers and a trusted guide.

What's your real next best step? Do you need more knowledge, or would you be better served by applying the knowledge you already possess and turning it into wisdom?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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