Scott Perry's Blog, page 29

Make America Create Again

It feels like we’re in an endless season of politics and division here in the United States. It seems like we’ve settled into an endless loop of hoping and waiting for one side or the other to win and to fix things.

But can you name any meaningful and sustained change that has happened through legislation or legal systems?

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”— Martin Luther King Jr.

For instance, legislation on gender equity and racial justice has been on the books for decades. Yet, real progress in these and other vital matters has only really come when concerned citizens work together to change the status quo.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”— Margaret Mead

Not that we shouldn’t demand and fight for fair and equitable legislative and legal institutions, but hoping and waiting for outdated and broken systems to fix systemic problems is insanity.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” — Elie Wiesel

It’s time to get to work. It's time to lean into the tension of uncertainty and adversity and level up in endeavors that make things better.

It’s time to make America create again.

All living things work. Work is merely the seeking and capturing of energy to produce or accomplish something.

But only human beings adopt an endeavor as a means to build identity and forge meaning.

Who you are is not just about what you believe. It’s also about what you do. Want to be and be seen as worthwhile? Believe in and do something worthwhile.

Not sure what that might look like? I get it. It took me a long time to define, develop, and deliver the difference only I can make. Institutional education and occupation conspire against our nature to explore interesting challenges creatively and in collaboration.

Here’s a Venn diagram I created during my long slog through the wilderness to find a viable and prosperous endeavor.

Defining who you are (core values and guiding principles), what you’re good at (hard and soft skills), and your tribe (a group of people who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives), might help you identify a unique offering and an audience to do that work with and for.

Work that matters isn’t a destination. It’s a journey. Looking for help cultivating routines and relationships that encourage you to take small, daily steps into possibility? Creative on Purpose offers content, community, and coaching that helps people like you do things like this!

“Legacy isn't what you leave behind, it's the difference you make today.”—Scott Perry

Are you ready to lean into the tension of uncertainty and navigate adversity in an endeavor that serves others? Let's work together to make things better. Visit CreativeOnPurpose.com for insight and inspiration to help you develop your potential and deliver on your promise in an endeavor that makes a difference.

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

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

Nuages

Insight for flying higher in the difference only you can make from musicians who inspire Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from Django Reinhardt and his tune Nuages, a favorite from my days as a professional musician.

Django and his bandmate, Stéphane Grappelli, wrote and recorded Nuages in Paris during its occupation by the Nazis during WWII. It's a paean to their beloved city filled with a compelling mixture of melancholy and hope.

Django re-recorded the tune at least a dozen times. Many artists, myself included, have recorded it as well. Django found new edges to explore in each performance, as has every other artist who performs the tune.

Art is about connection, collaboration, and creating change. Often, this is done by taking something familiar and recycling, repurposing, or reimagining it in a way that reveals new perspectives and possibilities. 

Making a difference doesn't have to be a wholesale change or an act of creating something entirely brand new out of whole cloth. For instance, many of Creative on Purpose's most popular programs, like The Burnout Solution, are based on time-tested ideas from Stoic philosophy.

How can you approach the difference only you can make a little more artistically today? What existing idea or artifact can you recycle, repurpose, or reimagine to help us see and step into our potential?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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

Cosmic Insignificance

Do you ever catch yourself taking your work and yourself just a wee bit too seriously?

I sure do...

To make a difference is to do work that matters. Work that's worth it serves others. This work is fraught, which is why it's so fulfilling. Endeavors that make a difference build identity and forge meaning.

It's heady stuff. How can you keep yourself from letting all this significance tumble into hubris?

Embrace cosmic insignificance.

When you zoom out and see your efforts across all time and space, you realize that you, your cares, concerns, and struggles won't and don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

When the French philosopher Blaise Pascal contemplated his significance from a cosmological perspective, he concluded this.

"When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."

A little perspective is healthy. However, I'm not so sure we have to follow Blaise to the extreme he chose. After all, the flip side of cosmic insignificance is personal significance.

When you zoom back in, you can embrace that any value your life has is based on what you pay attention to, how you spend your time, and where you put your efforts today. 

Any significance you have is based on the difference you're making now.

Toggling back and forth between personal significance and cosmic insignificance is powerful medicine. It cultivates humility, acceptance, patience, and resilience. 

Need some help cultivating equanimity as you embrace the significant insignificance of your endeavor? Is it time to zoom out to remind yourself of your cosmic insignificance or zoom in for a reminder of your personal significance?

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

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

The Adventures of Mr. Over Do It Man

We're all born with and cultivate different temperaments and tolerances. I happen to possess and employ more than my share of vitality. I can, and do, get a lot of sh*t done.

But that's very different than getting sh*t worth doing done...

I've spent most of my life conflating productivity with progress. My friends called me a productivity machine, and my family dubbed me "Mr. Over Do It Man."

I don't think either describer was intended to hurt my feelings, but it was clear that neither identity was held up as a model worth emulating.

In some ways, I simply approached my life and work the way institutional education and occupation had programmed me. Workaholism is an epidemic for a reason.

But once I finally saw my addiction to over-working, I couldn't unsee it. Overachieving was really just a clever way of hiding.

Now, instead of overdoing it, I'm overcommitted to a new way of being—less is more.

Some people call this approach essentialism. Whatever you call it, the punchline to the joke comes when you answer the question, "What's the smallest step I can take right now to get a better result in the difference only I can make?"

Grinding and hustling may play well on social media, but is it really the best way to make a change worth making? Don't meaningful endeavors promote human flourishing, not impede it?

How might a more essential and effortless approach actually be more efficient and effective if you're a recovering overachiever or overdoer like me?

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

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

Imagine

Insight for flying higher in the difference only you can make from musicians who inspire Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from John Lennon, and his tune Imagine, a favorite from my days as a professional musician.

"You may say I'm a dreamer. But I know I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world can live as one."

The difference only you can make begins with a dream—a vision for how the world might be better for more and how you might help others step into that possibility. 

It sounds audacious, doesn't it? That's because it is audacious.

How might you cling a little less to the routines and relationships that feel safe but don't serve your bigger aspirations? How might you be a bit bolder in the pursuit of better in your endeavor today?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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

The 3 Things Every Difference-Maker Need to Focus On Daily

I’ve been a personal development junkie ever since I was a kid. I’ve read more books and articles on the subject than I can count.

Having surely passed the halfway point in my journey of becoming, I have learned a few things worth sharing about being and doing more and better.

The first is summed up by the German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

A journey into potential is an adventure in acknowledging and embracing your inherent value. For many of us, embracing our own worthiness is the first and hardest step. It’s also a necessary one.

Goethe has a second piece of wisdom of value to an advancing change agent.

“Tell me whom you consort with, and I will tell you who you are; if I know how you spend your time, then I know what might become of you.”

The path of personal betterment is easier to travel and more rewarding when it is done with and for others. Don’t underestimate the power of affiliation. Any future success is in no small part a function of whom you spend your time, attention, and effort on.

Finally, let’s weave in some time-tested advice from the ancients.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”—Aristotle

While we suddenly notice a significant change when it happens, we rarely pay attention to the sequence of efforts that preceded it. A daily discipline of small steps taken with intention and integrity can move mountains and change history. Not sure what habits to put on your to-do list? Try putting those that are holding you back on your stop doing list.

Are you ready to trust yourself enough to start finding more of the right people and do more of the right things to help make the difference only you can make? When will you start? Why not do so right now?

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

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

The Opposite of Fear

I get scared. I get scared a lot.

If you're a difference-maker, I bet you get scared too.

By definition, flying higher in the difference only you can make means seeking the edges of your understanding and abilities. Trying things that might not work, embracing uncertainty, and navigating adversity every day are scary.

Mistakes will be made, and you will experience failure in your pursuit to be and do more and better.

But being scared is different than being afraid. 

We get scared when something unanticipated or unexpected happens to us. It's a healthy human reaction to the sudden or surprising.

Fear, however, is a way of being. It's a human response to something that scared us that can impede our wellbeing and forward progress.

I get scared when a car blows its horn at me because I didn't see it when I started changing lanes on the highway. But if I let that incident makes me afraid to ever drive again, well, that decision is on me.

How do we prevent living in fear of what scares us? What's the opposite of fear?

I used to think courage was the antidote to fear. But now I'm not so sure.

Courage is the will to do what needs to be done. To be courageous and do the right thing, you must know who you are, what you stand for, and who you serve. But courage alone is not enough. What else do you need?

Love.

Love of others? Of course. But can you truly love others if you do not love yourself? I don't think so.

Love is a conversation we have with ourselves and others about worthiness—our inherent value.

Deciding whether or not you and the change you seek to make are worth it is a conversation about love from the inside out. Love of ourselves and others gives us the courage to face our fears—to lean into and through them and seek meaningful change for the better.

There's an old saying about growth that encourages us to do something that scares us every day. Have you done that yet today? Why not do so now with a little less fear and a bit more love?

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

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

"All you can do is do what you must."

Insight for flying higher in the difference only you can make from musicians who inspire Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from Bob Dylan and his tune Buckets of Rain, a favorite from my days as a professional musician.

"Life is sad. Life is a bust. All you can do is do what you must. You do what you must do, and you do it well."

Whether you agree with Dylan's pessimistic view of how life is (I prefer to think of it as "perfect in every way"), what he reminds us is that all we can really control is the intention and integrity of our efforts.

How might you cling a little less to desired results and focus your attention on the quality of your effort in your endeavor 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.

Does this sound like you?

embrace uncertainty and navigate adversity?

 

You probably wouldn't...

 

Most of the time, most of us would prefer the false confidence and certainty that comes with every day looking more or less like the day that came before.

 

Human beings are programmed by biology and evolution to cleave to the tried and true and the status quo.

 

We'd rather know where we stand and what's expected than what's possible and what might be.

 

Except for people like us...

 

People that seek the edges of our understanding and ability because we know that's where growth and potential lie.

 

People who understand that legacy isn't the money and monuments you leave behind, it's the difference you're making right now.

 

Does that sound like it could be you? Or perhaps the who you'd like to become?

 

If you aspire to discover or seek to advance in the difference only you can make, the Creative on Purpose Blog provides insight and inspiration to help you find fulfillment and cultivate equanimity doing work that matters.

 

Endeavors that help you forge meaning and build identity.

 

Work that enhances your life by serving others.

 

Does that sound like a proposition you can get behind?

 

Want to take a bolder step into possibility and your potential? Send me an email at scott@creativeonpurpose.com with CURIOSITY in the subject line and I'll send you a scheduling link to organize a call.

 

I'd love to learn more about where you are and where you want to be in the difference only you can make.

 

Let's reveal the real challenges that you face and define a strategy to maneuver through them or find a way to flip an obstacle into an opportunity.

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

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

Shift happens.

Transformation is a term that's quite ubiquitous these days. Why is that?

You can't scroll for even a few seconds through social media without tripping over a "transformation coach." In the Akimbo Workshops where I serve as a head coach, "transformation" is the word students most frequently use to describe their experience at the end of a workshop.

In full disclosure, I'm guilty of overusing transformation in my own work. Who remembers when my title at Creative on Purpose was "Transformation Specialist?" 

I wonder if we've lost track of what transformation really means?

For instance, I often see people substituting "transformation" for "change." This begs the question, if transformation is merely change, what's the point?

Transformation seems a specific kind of change. What kind? Let's start with what kind of change transformation is not.

Transformation is not:

to change in form or structure (that's metamorphosis).
to change into another substance (that's transmutation).
to change in appearance (that's transfiguration).

I see transformation not as a particular outcome or destination but as a process. It's a state of becoming that leads to a change in nature or character on its way to the next change in nature or character. 

But does transformation happen to you or through you? Does it happen from the inside out or the outside in?

In my experience, it's almost always a "both-and" experience.

You can create and hold space for yourself and others where transformation is possible, but that's no guarantee it will happen. Some of the most transformative experiences in my life have been uninvited and entirely accidental. 

You can't schedule transformation but when you lean into the edges of your understanding and abilities, it sometimes accepts the invitation.

Maybe transformation is a story? A story wrapped in identity. A story we tell ourselves about who we are and who we seek to become. If so, those stories are also about constructing and destroying boundaries and limitations.

Choose your story, choose your future. 

Whether a transformation is internal or external, the result is seeing and being differently. Transformation reveals thresholds to possibility, potential, and transcendence, inviting us to exceed or surpass the self-imposed limits of our understanding and abilities. 

What transformation story are you telling yourself today?

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

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