Scott Perry's Blog, page 40

What is an endeavor?

An endeavor is more than a hobby. It's work done out loud and in public.

Your endeavor might be a passion project or side hustle. It may be a personal or professional enterprise. It can be your occupation or responsibility, but your endeavor isn't necessarily summed up by your job or role.

What's your endeavor for?

You enhance your life most through work that elevates others. Your endeavor is a vehicle for living your legacy. Legacy isn't what you leave behind. It's the difference you're making now.

We all have responsibilities and obligations that require us to do work we have to do. An endeavor is the work you get to do. It's the work you're meant to do now, work that develops your potential while enhancing the lives of others.

So, what's your endeavor?

Your endeavor isn't the work you were born to do. There's no single purpose any of us are born to do. Purpose (and passion) come from applying yourself to the work that's right in front of you with care and consideration. Your endeavor is how you create the difference only you can make.

This work is at the intersection of who you are, what you're good at, and where you belong. Find the people who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives, and you have found your next endeavor.

Are you ready to live your legacy? Discover, develop, and deliver an endeavor that makes a difference.

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

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Begin and Begin Again

What new routines or relationships would promote progress in the difference only you can make? Are you instituting them today?

Too often, we schedule a time to adopt, embrace, and initiate better habits and connections in the future. "I'll start tomorrow (or next week, or next month, or next year)."

Why is that?

It doesn't matter. The solution to launching a better way of being is easy. Simply begin.

Yes, I know. Biology, psychology, and society are conspiring against you.

So what?

In the final analysis, it comes down to your willingness to decide that today is the day, and now is the time to begin and begin again and then take a first small step into your potential.

Of course, simple isn't easy. But change gets easier as you continue step by small step.

And actively pursuing better inspires and attracts fellow travelers that facilitate continued forward motion.

Worthwhile endeavor done with and for others is the only way meaningful and lasting change has ever happened.

The way out is through. Are you ready to begin and begin again?

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

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Create Your Decision-Making Measuring Stick

Where do you want to be a week, month, or year from now in your endeavor?

What's your strategy for staying the course and maintaining momentum toward that goal?

Difference-makers like us possess active imaginations, abundant energy, and enthusiasm-to-spare for generating new idea and leaping at unanticipated opportunities. How do you prevent these impulses from becoming distractions or rabbit holes?

A practice I've developed is to create a decision-making measuring stick – three words against which I measure every decision to ensure I'm not getting lost or in my own way.

My current three words are focus, boldness, and discipline.

When a new shiny object or opportunity unexpectedly presents itself and I must decide to bite or pass, I ask myself, "Would leaping at this opportunity serve my focus, encourage my boldness, and maintain my discipline?"

If the answer to all three markers is "Yes," than it is worth considering. If, on the other hand, one or more of these indicators yield a "No," then I pass and continue as I was.

What three words would serve as an effective and efficient gauge for your decision-making?

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

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

What does it mean to be a difference-maker?

For people like us, it means being someone who’s leaning in and leveling up in endeavors that enhance your life while elevating others’ lives. Making things better. Serving. Doing the work. Living your legacy. Being creative on purpose.

To be a difference-maker is to pursue excellence in yourself and your craft while cultivating the same in others. Developing your potential and delivering on your promise by engaging in meaningful efforts done with and for others.

What does it take to make a difference?

Doing things differently, of course.

What got you where you’re at won’t get you where you want to go. To continue to fly higher in your enterprise requires breaking the status quo created by yesterday’s accomplishment so that you step into tomorrow’s possibility.

Difference-makers seek the edges of what’s now and set their aim on what’s next. They see the silver linings in challenges and find opportunities in every obstacle. All the while keeping in mind what the change they seek to make is for.

To be a difference-maker is to set every goal with intention, every strategy is created with integrity, every tactic is executed with consideration. Outcomes are always uncertain. The quality of your effort is the reward.

Making a difference isn’t for everybody. But people like us can’t imagine living and working any other way.

Ready to make a difference? Be a difference-maker. Define your next endeavor, and let’s go!

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

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The Paradox of Generosity

Generosity, selflessly giving to another, is an act of kindness we engage in to boost others' wellbeing. Paradoxically, giving is also one of the easiest and quickest ways you can upgrade your mood.

Why is that?

A significant factor is the feeling of connection and belonging that generosity cultivates. Wrap in the reciprocity usually associated with gift-giving rituals, and the impact becomes exponential.

Generosity begets generosity.

Generous acts are fueled by, and in turn add fuel to, other positive feelings, emotions, and impulses like joy and wonder. 

Turns out that the act of giving doesn't deplete us or create sensations of loss or want. Quite the opposite, giving creates feelings of prosperity and abundance.

And generosity has nothing to do with physical presents. In fact, the most powerful gifts are your time, attention, and presence.

A simple, thoughtful note or a kind word is more than enough for both the giver and recipient to benefit. Even those who witness these simple exchanges experience warm feelings.

Making a difference in others' lives, it turns out, makes all the difference in our own.

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

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The Creative on Purpose Manifesto

Envision a world where everyone can explore and develop their potential through fulfilling work done with and for others. Creative on Purpose helps people like you see and step into possibility in work that’s worth it. Let’s endeavor better and share the difference only you can make.

To be creative on purpose is to make change happen with intention and integrity. To be creative on purpose is to be a difference-maker. A difference-maker is someone who engages in endeavors that make things better.

An endeavor is work done with and for those who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives. This is how you live your legacy. Legacy isn’t what you leave behind. It’s the difference you’re making now.

You are enough, and everything is just fine. And yet… 

You possess limitless promise, and things could be so much better for so many more.

We need you. 

To develop your potential and deliver on your promise while making a difference, you’re going to have to think and act differently. What got you where you are won’t get you where you want to go.

Let’s endeavor together to make a difference. Let’s live our legacy. It’s time to be creative on purpose.

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

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

What does it mean to be creative on purpose?

Creativity is the act of making change happen. It’s an inherent human instinct used to solve interesting, difficult, and even wicked problems.

Engaging your creative impulse is how you get from where you are to where you want to be.

Purpose is a posture, a way of being. To apply yourself to any task with purpose, for a purpose, and on purpose is to develop excellence while enhancing others’ lives.

Purpose isn’t inherent in any particular work. It comes from doing the work right in front of you with integrity and intention.

To be creative on purpose is to look at the status quo and say, “This can be better,” and “I can do better,” and then do what needs to be done.

Sure, sometimes beneficial change happens through luck or by accident. But when you lean into your endeavors creative on purpose, you can influence change for the better.

Your life, your work, and your life’s work are all works in progress. Not the work you have to do, work that you get to do.

You get better at these enterprises by engaging with them fully, mindfully, and deliberately. Being creative on purpose allows you to break the status quo and step into possibility with the difference only you can make.

To be creative on purpose is to be a difference-maker. 

What difference are you ready to make? Are you ready to be creative on purpose?

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

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

Inside Out or Outside In?

Ever notice how well you're able to recognize how someone else is getting in their own way but can't recognize how you do the very same to yourself?

 

Why is that?

 

The problem is that our default is to work from the inside out. Our attitudes and habits are primarily framed by our own values and beliefs, which are informed by our subjective, and often self-serving, needs, wants, dreams, and desires.

 

Of course, cultivating identity by paying attention to and processing your lived experience is what informs and inspires your character.

 

And...

 

You must temper your proclivity for confirmation bias, hindsight bias, self-serving bias, or any of the many other kinds of cognitive biases that we all leverage to maintain our feelings of significance and worthiness.

 

A practice of working from the outside in is equally important. You must be an objective observer able to bear witness to your own experience as well as an interpreter of that experience. 

 

You can't, of course, be the only ally in your efforts to cultivate excellence in yourself and your endeavor. You'll want to find co-conspirators as well - guides, mentors, fellow travelers, and a league of allies and accomplices.

 

But toggling back and forth between your subjective and objective perspectives is how you become an ally in developing your own potential. It's a dance that harmonizes and contextualizes your inner and outer life. Zooming out and in, you discover strengths to amplify and weaknesses to rectify.

 

How are you zooming in and out today? 

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

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Focused, Bold, & Disciplined

How do you make progress with the difference only you can make?

I begin every day by writing down a to-do list.

I then select the one thing on that list that, if I accomplished it, would move my endeavor forward the furthest and the fastest.

Everything else goes on my don't-do list.

I then ask myself these three questions:

How can I be more focused?
How can I be more bold?
How can I be more disciplined?

Answering these questions helps me get out of my own way, get going, and excel in making things better through doing the work I'm meant to do now.

Where can you be more focused, bold, and disciplined today?

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

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

Dabbler or Difference-Maker?

Let's be clear, there is nothing wrong with being a dabbler.

I dabble in plenty of activities. I putz around the kitchen, lose myself in little graphic design projects, and amuse myself with writing poetry.

What about you? What hobbies or pastimes do you play around in?

The danger is when you conflate dabbling with difference-making.

Difference-making is about making change happen with and for others, and if you're going to make a difference, it ought to be one worth making. That means to make change happen with integrity and intention. No dabbling allowed. Period.

And yet...

I frequently catch myself dabbling in my difference-making. Wasting my time with distractions that feel productive but make no progress. Meandering around with learning things when I know that doing things will hone my skills sharper and faster. Trying to connect with strangers when I'm already surrounded by the right people.

What to do?

Return to first principles. Remind myself of the routines and relationships that fuel real forward motion and progress in my endeavor. Get myself back on track by putting myself back on the hook. Showing up fully, presently, and mindfully to do the work daily with and for the right people.

Coaching and community are the primary ratchets I employ to leverage my efforts to  develop my potential and excel in my endeavor. What about you? 

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

Ready to get going with the difference only you can make? Start living your legacy. It's time to be creative on purpose!

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