Scott Perry's Blog, page 23

Imagine a world...

What does the world you wish to live in and are working toward look like? What is your vision?

Imagine a world that is undeniably better, waaaayyy better, than the one we live in now.

Can you describe it succinctly so we remember it? Can you articulate it in three sentences? Two? One?

Your vision isn’t your mission. Your mission is the unique way you’re positioned to help fulfill your vision.

Your vision is not a goal. Your goal is the next specific project you’re delivering to fulfill your mission.

Your vision is not your strategy. Your strategy is your means or plan to achieve your goal.

Your vision is not a tactic. A tactic is the smallest viable step you’re trying and testing for executing your strategy.

Your vision is a call to arms (and hearts, mind, and soul) that inspires us to step into possibility with you.

What’s the biggest, boldest, most audacious dream for us you can imagine? Where are you sharing it? Whom are you sharing it with?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

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Cheryl Johnson - "You are stronger than you think."

Insight and inspiration for flying higher in the difference only you can make from guests who have appeared on Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from a conversation with Cheryl Johnson, author of The Boxlunch Lifestyle. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[SCOTT] "If there was just one piece of advice, one encouragement, one insight or a bit of inspiration that you would leave those who are tuning in who are either aspiring to make a bigger difference or wanting to advance in the difference that they're currently making, what would you share with them?"

[CHERYL] "There are two things. First, as a boxer and a writer, and a strategic doer, I would say that everyone who is watching this kind of program, the kind of people who show up and want more, you are stronger than you think."

"You are stronger. I encourage you to remember that. That you were stronger than you think, and the things that you think are out of your reach probably are not."

"And also, I would say right now mark your calendar for your next workday lunch. Mark off that 30 minutes."

"It may be the hardest part of this for many of us because it's a concrete step towards this tiny bit rebellious statement of, "I'm going to take back part of my day for me. And it's 30 minutes nobody should be surprised to see this on your calendar."

"But if you don't make time then you won't have that space to see what unfolds inside it. So do that right away. You can."

[SCOTT] "Love that. I'm hearing the encouragement for people to see, step into, stay in, and share their power over their own journey and I think that is brilliant advice

Peg delivered a powerful call to action to invest in yourself and take care of yourself. How can you practice empowerment from the inside out today?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose.

(BTW, you can watch this and every other entire interview in the Creative on Purpose Broadcast Archive. To learn more and access for free, click here.)

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Conscious Excellence

Do you ever catch yourself making the same mistakes over and over or reacting poorly in certain situations?

I sure do. And even the most well-intended and properly motivated difference-makers I know do too.

Why?

The fact is, most of the thoughts and actions that we experience are subconscious or unconscious habit responses. It's not our fault. It's how we're programmed.

What to do?

Here's a 3-step process to bring more consciousness to how you negotiate the inevitable outer and inner challenges in your daily difference-making.

Notice - The first step is to bring your awareness to what's happening. This awakens consciousness and calls it in to help you process the situation.
Name - Acknowledge what's happening as plainly as possible (no value judgments, adjectives, or adverbs). This helps you work the situation instead of letting it continue to work on you.
Navigate - Now, you can reframe what's happening, unpack all your choices and then decide what to do next with greater integrity and intention.

What happens if you take a moment to notice, name, and navigate today's challenge opportunities? How might being more conscious make you a better difference-maker?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

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Ease

I'm embarrassed by how much I practiced a hustle and grind approach to my endeavor.

I was conflating productivity with progress and living up to my nickname, "Mr. Over Do It Man."

If grit is having purpose, passion, and perseverance, then I was as gritty as they come.

But for too long, I struggled to gain traction and momentum in the difference I wanted to make. The tipping point of connecting with enough of the right people willing to invest in themselves and my offer remained elusive.

How do you cultivate flow, ease, and intentional action in your pursuit of better living through work that matters?

As my aim, aspiration, and audience come into clearer focus, I find myself asking two questions more and more often.

"What's essential?"
"How can I do it more effortlessly?"

These questions help me clear the cruft of seductive distractions and shiny tactics that cause me to spin too many cycles that feel like the real work but are actually meaningless busywork.

What difference are you making? What small task could you execute with ease to move that effort forward the farthest and fastest?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

If this resonates, please share it with a friend!

Peg Stookey - "Develop a gratitude habit."

Insight and inspiration for flying higher in the difference only you can make from guests who have appeared on Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from a conversation with Peg Stookey, founder of Max Potential U. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[Peg] "Develop a gratitude mindset and practice. I think the skill of gratitude is one of the most important success skills that any of us can develop."

"I was thinking about when you were talking about getting the book formulated when I journal from a place of gratitude intention, which means I'm journaling about how grateful I am for the things that are coming, right, not just for what I have but for the things that are coming, that really clears my head about what is coming and how to get there and what do I really want and whatever."

"So for me, that kind of writing is super important and it's something I've passed on to hundreds of people and the feedback is 100% positive."

"I love that. Yes, gratitude is one of the fastest ways to boost your attitude for sure. Love that."

[SCOTT] "Love it, love it, love it, love it" 

Peg delivered a powerful call to action to adopt an attitude of gratitude. How can you practice gratitude today?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose.

(BTW, you can watch this and every other entire interview in the Creative on Purpose Broadcast Archive. To learn more and access for free, click here.)

If this resonates, please share it with a friend!

Watch your tone.

When I was nine years old, I'd sneak into my father's study, wrestle his old Olympia typewriter out of the closet, and type out stories.

Each page was one sentence that I would later add an illustration to and then staple all the sheets together into a "book."

At first, the stories I typed were mere summaries of stories I had read. I remember condensing HG Wells' War of the Worlds into an 8-page (and therefore, 8-sentence) "novel."

Why Reader's Digest never sought to hire me to author their ultimate "condensed" versions of classics is still a mystery to me...

One day, an original story came to me about a boy, a dog, and a scarecrow who build and fly a rocket to a star that had lost its light.

The intrepid heroes saved the day by installing a flashlight into the star, and they all lived happily ever after. 

I think that story took ten whole pages to tell...

That is the first time I remember experiencing what it feels (and sounds) like to sound like myself.

I lost touch with my love for storytelling and writing for a long time. School required me to write term papers and themes that didn't encourage or reward sounding like me. What was encouraged and rewarded was sounding like everyone else.

I eventually reconnected with my love of writing as a musician and songwriter and later as a blogger. During my time in Seth Godin's altMBA, I moved into writing and publishing handbooks on Amazon.

In both my song and prose writing, the experience was very much the same as my childhood efforts. At first, I sounded like those who inspired me. Eventually, I came to discover, define, and refine my tone and timbre—my voice.

What do I sound like when I sound most like me? Here are a few things that I notice or have had reflected back to me: pithy, crystalizing, and thoughtful (AKA empathetic antagonism).

How about you? How do you sound when you sound like you? Why not celebrate and share that more often?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

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"What's this d*mn thing about?"

It's the most important question any worthwhile story must answer.

Steven Pressfield defines theme as the answer to this question, "What's this d*mn thing about?"

What's theme? It's the single idea that holds a story together and provides it with meaning.

Don't confuse your story's theme with the genre of your life's story.

Theme tells us what your story's about. Genre is what category it falls under.

Every story worth hearing, telling, and living coheres around a theme.

What's the theme of your life's story? (AKA Your Story of Becoming). Is it coming of age? Redemption? Rebellion? Escape? Empowerment? Identity? Overcoming injustice?

How might defining your life's (and work's) theme help you better understand and execute what your life's story is for?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

If this resonates, please share it with a friend!

Mary Welp - "Be open and allow."

Insight and inspiration for flying higher in the difference only you can make from guests who have appeared on Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from a conversation with Mary Welp, founder of RISE Hypnotic Meditation. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[MARY] "Be open and allow.

Don't have a preconceived notion about anything.

Be a blank slate every day."

[SCOTT] "Love it, love it, love it, love it" 

Mary delivered a powerful call to action to surrender your attachments and expectations and become a possibilitist. How can you employ this antidote to judgment today?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose.

(BTW, you can watch this and every other entire interview in the Creative on Purpose Broadcast Archive. To learn more and access for free, click here.)

If this resonates, please share it with a friend!

The Virtues of Suffering

We live in an age where some capitalize on the false promise that you can navigate all of life's uncertainties and adversities without pain and suffering. 

What utter balderdash.

Pain and suffering are inevitable conditions that will be visited upon each and every one of us many times throughout our life's journey. Instead of ignoring or avoiding these moments, perhaps we should embrace them?

Pain is physiological. It's a call to address a hurt before it does you further harm. When pain arises, you should heed its call and address the source of your pain.

Suffering is a psychological affliction. I'd argue it's also a spiritual plight. Suffering raises questions about the meaning of your condition.

Pain is real. Suffering is a story. Choose your story, choose your future.

To be free of suffering is to be disengaged from the pursuit of finding purpose in all of life's richness and complexities. A life without suffering would also be a life without joy.

If suffering isn't required to live a good life, why do all humanity's spiritual and philosophical traditions spend so much time trying to help us learn from it?

Suffering is an invitation. It reminds us that certainty and reassurance are futile and asks us to embrace the fullness of life with wonder, curiosity, and awe and lean into sensemaking with integrity, intention, and rigor. 

To run or hide from suffering is to diminish ourselves and act the victim. To embrace suffering and lean into and through it is to expand our consciousness and engage our heroic soul.

I know. Heeding suffering's call is hard. I fail to heed its call more often than I care to admit.

However, ignoring or avoiding the inevitable risks and conflicts in a difference-maker's adventures robs us of the meaning of being on the journey in the first place.

How can you help yourself not forget the journey? A mission? A guide? Fellow travelers? What else?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

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What are you good at?

Skill and talent are often used interchangeably but actually refer to two distinct types of abilities.

A talent is an innate ability, naturally acquired and available to a few people. On the other hand, skills are learned abilities that can be taught and are available to many people.

To access and leverage talent, it helps to recognize it. It's hard to leverage a strength you aren't aware of.

And many talents can be learned skills. Whether we are natural-born singers or not, most of us can learn to sing and learn to sing well with practice and coaching.

Most of our educational and occupational systems are built upon a generalized skill development model and don't explore or exploit an individual's talents.

How unfortunate. What richness of experience and contribution are we missing out on by not answering the question, "What are you good at?"

Like many, I spent my young and young adult life building skills that my schooling and jobs required me to learn. It wasn't until I heeded my inner voice's call to investigate my talents that I was able to begin dialing in the difference only I can make.

Here are 3 practices and tools I used that I encourage you to consider if you're ready to discover what you're naturally good at.

Reflect - Think back to your childhood. What did you find joy in? What activities did you get completely lost in?

Some of my earliest memories are around drawing and coloring, making up songs, creating adventures with my cowboy and military figure sets, listening to my grandparents tell stories of their childhood, and long excursions in the woods.

Reflecting on these memories reconnected me with my love of writing, storytelling, and solitude.
Inventory - Connect with friends and family and ask them to share what they see as your top talents. Colleagues and peers at work and in your social circles can illuminate, as can more recent connections and even relative strangers.

My peers in the altMBA saw my potential as a coach long before I considered or embraced the idea. Had I not paid attention and relented to their insight, I would have missed out on a vocation that brings me joy and prosperity.


Assess - There are numerous tools for testing and surveying your talents. This article by Seth Godin may shine a light, and this free survey can help.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has been around for decades (I remember taking it in high school). More recently, I found insights in taking Gallup's Clifton Strengths Assessment. Many also find tools like the Enneagram helpful.

The critical thing about unpacking what you're good at isn't merely the discovery. Like values, talents' power and utility come from exercising and employing them daily.

So, what are you good at? How are you amplifying and leveraging your talents to deliver the difference only you can make?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose. 

If this resonates, please share it with a friend!