Scott Perry's Blog, page 27

Thank you for the difference you make.

Institutional education and occupation don't encourage difference-making or decision-making. They're designed for conformity and compliance. Keep quiet, do what you're told, don't ask questions, and follow the herd are implicitly and explicitly baked into most schools and jobs.

It takes courage and discipline to define, develop, and deliver an endeavor that makes a difference instead of succumbing to the status quo. Thank you for doing the work required to make meaningful change happen.

Work that matters embraces and leverages curiosity, courage, collaboration, and creativity. These skills are seldom taught or encouraged in our curriculums or corporate manuals.

If you're reading this, you've decided to act on an aspiration to advance in making things better in work that matters. This is human work that builds identity and forges meaning. It's the real work of finding fulfillment and joy through work that serves others.

Thank you.

Thank you for deciding to develop your potential and deliver on your promise in an enterprise that enhances your life by elevating the lives of others. Thank you for your care, consideration, and compassion. Thank you for serving from the inside out.

Legacy isn't the money or monuments you leave behind. It's the difference you're making right now. Thank you for deciding to make a difference. Thank you for living your legacy.

I am grateful for the work I get to do because I get to do it with you. Let's keep flying higher together.

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

The Perils of Resulting

Are some decisions better than others? I think so.

But let’s be clear, decisions are different from outcomes...

A bad decision can lead to a desired outcome, and even the very best decision cannot guarantee a result.

If I speed through a red light unscathed, that doesn’t mean I made the right decision. It means I got lucky. If I stop at a red light and get rear-ended by the driver behind me, that doesn’t mean I made the wrong decision. It means I was unlucky.

Conflating a desired result with a good decision and an undesirable result with a wrong decision is dangerous and it has a name, the “resulting fallacy.”

That resulting is false is good news. Your identity, status, happiness, and worthiness are not tied to whether or not you achieve a goal. The resulting fallacy is called a fallacy for a reason!

Who you are is less about what results you get and more a function of the quality of your intentions and the integrity of your effort in pursuing them.

Ancient wisdom and spiritual tradition support this.

“We have a right to our labor, but not to the fruits of our labor.”—The Bhagavad Gita

Difference-makers like us who want to make things better MUST become better at decision-making. But we must not be seduced and confused by the resulting fallacy and conflate outcomes with our decisions.

How do you cultivate greater fulfillment and prosperity as a difference-maker? Become a more conscious, disciplined, and skilled decision-maker.

How?

The Trust Yourself guide provides a simple 3-step decision-making approach to power past imposter syndrome and your inner perfectionist. In this guide, you’ll learn and practice this approach to the art of better living by making better decisions.

It’s a process based on time-tested ancient wisdom that informs modern techniques practiced by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists and Positive Psychologists.

Are you ready to make a bigger difference by making better decisions? Click here to grab a complimentary copy of the Trust Yourself guide.

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

 

Good decision or bad?

Are some decisions better than others? I think so.

But let’s be clear, decisions are different from outcomes...

A bad decision can lead to a desired outcome, and even the very best decision cannot guarantee a result.

If I speed through a red light unscathed, that doesn’t mean I made the right decision. It means I got lucky. If I stop at a red light and get rear-ended by the driver behind me, that doesn’t mean I made the wrong decision. It means I was unlucky.

Conflating a desired result with a good decision and an undesirable result with a wrong decision is dangerous and it has a name, the “resulting fallacy.”

That resulting is false is good news. Your identity, status, happiness, and worthiness are not tied to whether or not you achieve a goal. The resulting fallacy is called a fallacy for a reason!

Who you are is less about what results you get and more a function of the quality of your intentions and the integrity of your effort in pursuing them.

Ancient wisdom and spiritual tradition support this.

“We have a right to our labor, but not to the fruits of our labor.”—The Bhagavad Gita

Difference-makers like us who want to make things better MUST become better at decision-making. But we must not be seduced and confused by the resulting fallacy and conflate outcomes with our decisions.

How do you cultivate greater fulfillment and prosperity as a difference-maker? Become a more conscious, disciplined, and skilled decision-maker.

How?

The Trust Yourself guide provides a simple 3-step decision-making approach to power past imposter syndrome and your inner perfectionist. In this guide, you’ll learn and practice this approach to the art of better living by making better decisions.

It’s a process based on time-tested ancient wisdom that informs modern techniques practiced by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists and Positive Psychologists.

Are you ready to make a bigger difference by making better decisions? Click here to grab a complimentary copy of the Trust Yourself guide.

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

 

Jessica D. Dickson - “You were created perfect, whole, and complete."

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 Jessica Denise Dickson, Coach, trainer, and Consultant. Tune into this entire conversation here.

[JESSICA] You are inherently valuable.

You are inherently worthy of all good things.

You were created perfect, whole, complete.

And if you can embrace that, if you can embrace that outside of what white supremacy and capitalism tell you, then you can live a truly, truly beautiful life.

And that there's more for you in your enoughness that is already there.

There is nothing that you have to prove.

Jessica delivered a powerful framing around your worthiness. How are you leveraging your inherent value 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 what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

Navigating What's Next

As the year winds up, I’m reflecting on the past 12 months and planning for the next.

What about you?

How have things gone this year? What’s next for you and the difference only you can make?

Leveling up and making a living by making a difference is fraught. The age of pandemic we’re navigating brings significant challenges and opportunities. How do you decide what to pay attention to, where to spend your time, and when to engage?

More than I can ever remember, I’m reaching out to my old friend, Marcus Aurelius, for counsel and encouragement as I develop and deliver Creative on Purpose’s programs and offerings.

What can a dead Roman emperor teach us about better living through making better decisions? 

Plenty.

During his reign, Marcus Aurelius navigated famine, plague, natural disaster, and endless war. He approached all of these challenges with a remarkable level of equanimity, gratitude, and generosity.

How? By practicing 3 simple disciplines.  

“Objective judgment, now, at this very moment.
Unselfish action, now, at this very moment.
Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events.
That’s all you need.”

Marcus’ quote lays out a pragmatic approach to decision-making. 

Acknowledging what is genuinely happening.
Defining and deciding what to do next with integrity and intention.
Accepting what destiny determines and finding fulfillment in the journey, not the outcome.

Marcus’ quote was also the inspiration for my last handbook, Onward: Where Certainty Ends, Possibility Begins. The same approach still informs modern psychological techniques like Positive Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. 

Over the last year, I presented a distilled version of this process as a mini-workshop to groups of healthcare professionals, military spouses, and other groups. Here’s a screenshot of a presentation to a group of over 250 teachers in the Philippines.

As the year ends, there’s a COVID19 variant making its way around the globe. It appears we’ll need to continue to navigate overwhelm and burnout while we make things better in endeavors that make a difference.

Could you use some help making better decisions with greater clarity and confidence? Here are three ways you can access the time-tested and scientifically vetted approach I’ve been sharing.

Grab your complimentary copy of the Make Better Decisions guide.
Enroll in the last Make Better Decisions mini-workshop for this year.
Host a Make Better Decisions workshop for your group or organization.

It’s never been more important to lean into the difference only you can make with greater clarity, courage, confidence, and decisiveness. Whether or not my approach resonates with you, I’m encouraging you to find one that helps you keep flying higher. We need you and the difference only you can make!

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

Tell Me a Story

Story is how we humans have always made sense of ourselves, our situation, and each other. To be a human being (and a difference-maker) is to be a storyteller.

What story are you telling yourself about yourself and what's happening today?

Stories provide the way in when you want to develop your potential and deliver on your promise as a difference-maker. You begin with a narrative about who you are (and are not), what you do (and don't do), and why it matters (or doesn't matter).

When you succeed in your quest to level up in the difference only you can make, story also provides the way out. You leave behind the old story about yourself that no longer serves you and cross the threshold into possibility.

In between, there is more storytelling. Lots of storytelling. Some stories are healthier and more accurate than others. Many of the stories compete or are in conflict with each other.

Sometimes you drive the narrative. More often, it drives you. But in the end, where you end up is up to you. You get to decide how you frame yourself and your situation and which way you go next.

Choose your story, choose your future.

It sounds simple because it is simple. The problem is that simple is seldom easy. That's what makes it worth your time, attention, and effort.

Are you choosing to live into a better story about yourself or about making things better today?

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

Chris Gill - "Realizing our ideal."

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 Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter. Tune into this entire conversation here.

[CHRIS] I think that the Stoics, what I think, the Stoics suggest two things. One is that this art of living is a matter of realizing our ideal. It's a matter of identifying and constantly working at thinking about what your ideal is.

And then, I think, it's realizing that we all have the potential to realize our ideals. We all have this creativity, this potentiality, this capacity to work towards it. Perhaps not always to realize it, but to work towards it.

I think those two things, the sense of the importance of the art and the capacity that we all have to realize our potential. Those two things.

 Chris delivered a powerful framing of how creativity plays into the art of living well and realizing our potential. How are you consciously leveraging your creative capacity 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 what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

The Conscious Creative

How do you define creativity?

For me, it’s simply the act of bringing something into the world that didn’t previously exist. A bird building a nest, a plant bearing fruit, a volcano spewing ash and lava—all are creative acts.

We witness creative activity throughout nature and the cosmos. Human beings, however, can bring something novel to their creative endeavors—consciousness. You and I can be creative on purpose.

This matters. It matters a lot.

That you and I can explicitly employ our creativity on, with, and for a purpose has an implicit responsibility attached to it. Creatives break things. Things are as they are, and then the creative brings forth something new. Suddenly what was is no longer what is.

And that can be a good thing. Deliberately destroying by design is how the conscious creatives make things better.

Conscious creatives have developed better products, businesses, and services, of course. Being creative on purpose has also inspired people to craft better art, communities, and causes.

How can you bring greater consciousness to your creative enterprises? Here are a few ideas that leap to mind.

Awareness - This is the very definition of consciousness. You must first see and accept your power as a creative.

Attention - Along with time and energy, one of your most precious resources. What you pay attention to tells us everything we need to know about who you are.

Trust - A creative’s most precious asset. Earning others’ trust begins when you trust yourself and your process.

Permission - Creativity is always collaborative. You can’t create meaningful change for the better without consensus.

Enrollment - Making things better isn’t a destination. It’s a process. Everyone involved must be enrolled in the journey.

Investment - You can’t think or learn your way into a better way of being. Everyone involved must have skin in the game and be willing to do the real work.

What is the creative endeavor in which are you engaged? How can you bring a little more conscious creativity to that effort today?

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

Enough

Do you ever catch yourself wanting more and better? Not just wanting to have more and better but wanting to be and do more and better?

I know I sure do. Isn’t this the promise of the pursuit of happiness?

But how often does the pursuit of happiness result in a sustained feeling of being happier? In my experience, almost never.

Psychologists call this dynamic the hedonic paradox. Happiness doesn’t come from achievement. Instead, happiness is a side effect of decisions made with intention and integrity regardless of results.

The onset of the pandemic crystallized this for me. Like many, I was saddened by the suffering and loss experienced by millions across the globe.

It was painful to not exchange hugs and high-fives with family and friends. It was challenging to figure out how to make a living when I couldn’t do my work in person.

But these challenges also revealed how much privilege and goodness I’d been taking for granted. That I wasn’t entitled to all the bounty and opportunity I unconsciously enjoyed (and, if I’m honest, expected) every day was a revelation.

And then something amazing happened. I began to start appreciating all that I had taken for granted and all that I already possessed.

Of course, there was still the challenge of remaining connected with loved ones and making a living doing meaningful work with and for people I cared about.

Turns out, the pandemic wasn’t done teaching me the lessons of gratitude.

Powerful online tools enabled me to keep my guitar students and coaching clients. The beautiful constraints of social distancing helped me lean into new edges with these tools to make these online connections more human and empathetic.

I began to appreciate the challenges of life and making a living in the age of plague. I was grateful for the wicked problems I needed to solve and that the situation required I see and do things differently.

Leaning into the struggle of navigating a very different world also encouraged me to double down on the lessons learned from Stoicism, a philosophy born of and dedicated to thriving through hard times.

I repeated a favorite quote from the diary of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, daily.

“Objective judgment, now, at this very moment.
Unselfish action, now, at this very moment.
Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events.
That’s all you need.”

This quote reminded me that everything I already possess everything I need. I can choose the story I tell myself about myself and my situation. I can define my choices and decide which one to act upon. And I can remain unattached to my desires and accept with gratitude whatever destiny determines.

I repurposed Marcus’ quote into a simple 3-step process that was easy for me to weave into the life I was already living and easy to teach others. An approach that cultivates equanimity and joy in any circumstance and encourages feelings of fulfillment and joy in any situation.

Sufficiency is different than settling. Any life worth living will present moments of pain. But I wonder if suffering is a choice?

What happens if you start with sufficiency and acknowledge that you already possess everything you need? That you are enough? What if you are sufficient, even as you strive?

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

If what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.

Janis Nakano Spivack -"Worthiness is the center."

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 Janis Nakano Spivak, co-founder and Chief Navigator at BRITE Catalyst. Tune into this entire conversation here.

[JANIS] Worthiness is probably the center. The center of where we begin. Am I my worth taking time? Am I worth spending, you know, quality effort on increasing my value to myself?

Fist and foremost my confidence in myself, first and foremost. And investing in myself, which is why you call it self-investment.

Because if we don't invest in our own well-being and who we are in our worthiness, then how do we give? How do we receive actually is really the question. How can we receive if we don't believe that we are worth whatever we are being given?

Janis delivered a powerful framing of what worthiness is. How are you leveraging your worthiness 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 what you just read resonated, please share it with a friend.