Scott Perry's Blog, page 42

A Goal Without Strategy Is Just a Dream

Not that there's anything wrong with dreams. They're important.

Visionary ideas, wild reveries, and fanciful musing can inspire and even inform our aspirations. But don't fool yourself; dreams are not goals.

Dreams are ever-changing, immeasurable, out of reach, whimsical, and unscheduled. Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. 

Dreams are things we think about. Goals are things we act on.

“Vision with action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”—Japanese Proverb

Strategy is how to do the work of goal achievement.

Strategy is your plan to bring your goal to fulfillment. This thoughtfully articulated process keeps you on track and moving toward your goal.

Goals without strategy are just dreams.

But just as goals alone can't bring outcomes, neither can strategy alone get results. Strategy must be accompanied by commitment and accountability.

And commitment and accountability are fueled by doing the work with and for people you care about and who care about you.

What routines and relationships help you stay on track executing a strategy that helps you do the work necessary to achieve your goals and live the dream of making the difference only you can make?

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!

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How to Set and Pursue Worthwhile Goals

Goals matter. They matter a lot. In your endeavors, you need to know what you're aiming for. If you're going to make a difference, it ought to be a difference worth making.

And if you're spending your valuable (and irretrievable) time and attention on a goal, it makes sense to make sure that goal is worth the investment.

Here are three principles to apply to setting goals worth achieving and one essential reminder for maintaining your wellbeing while working toward them.

Reflection

Think back on your recent experience with making change happen. What comes up? What feelings arise?

What positive responses emerge? Are these ones you wish to continue and amplify? If negative sensations come up, what are their opposites? Are these worth adding to your list of feelings to cultivate?

This list is your measuring stick against which future decisions should be made.

Relationships

Who do you find yourself spending the most time with? Are they enriching your experience in developing and delivering your work? Are some of those people unsupportive or discouraging?

Who would you like to spend less time with? Whom would you like to be around more often?

The company you keep has an enormous impact on your sense of flourishing as you strive toward your goals. Choose wisely.

Routines

In your day-to-day, what activities energize you? Which exhaust you? What habits fuel your forward progress? Are any daily rituals actually just unconscious wastes of time?

What can you put on your "stop-doing" list? What goes on your "do-more" list? What got you where you are won't get you where you want to go. What new habits can you establish to get you from where you are now to where you want to go next?

You are what you repeatedly do.

A Reminder

Goals are not the same as outcomes. We rarely hit the bullseye with our aims and aspirations. Opportunities and obstacles arise that we couldn't possibly have seen when we set our intention. There are too many forces beyond our control.

When you set goals with intention and approach the work with integrity, you ensure that you'll make progress in a direction worth going. The real benefits are not the results or rewards, but the quality of your endeavor and effort.

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.

The Real Work

What is "the real work?" 
 
Is it defined by the routines, roles, or responsibilities in your job, career, or vocation? Is it a measure of how well you conform, comply, check the boxes, and keep your head down?
 
I don't think so.

The real work is defined by your values, volition, and character. It's expressed through the emotional labor of empathy, care, consideration, and compassion. 

The real work is human work.

Work done with and for others that seeks to make things better, that's the real work.

We enhance our lives most through efforts that serve and elevate others.

The Real Work

by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

The real work happens when we embrace uncertainty, when we are lost, when we are confused, and when we navigate adversity. The real work fosters the real and necessary human skills of humility, acceptance, patience, and resilience.

Where and with whom are you doing the real work today?

It's not too late to start stepping into your potential this year! ⏳

Start Living Your Legacy Now

Three ways you can still step into possibility with the difference only you can make with the time you have left in 2020.

 





















Read the Handbook

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Grab a Copy of Onward

Onward shares a 3-step process for embracing uncertainty and navigating adversity in endeavors that make a difference. It releases Nov. 26th. Pre-order your copy here.

Book a Catalyst Call

Take the Difference-Maker Audit and book a free Catalyst Call with Difference-Maker Coach, Scott Perry, to define your goal, the challenges, and your strategy for making the most of what's left of 2020.

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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.

What I've Been Reading - Fall 2020

This article contains affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase, Creative On Purpose receives a commission. Thank you!

Books are efficient and cost effective learning tools. They are my go-to source for inspiration and information in my endeavors. Here are four books that currently inform my journey in developing Creative On Purpose.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson

A clear-eyed, cogent, and considered perspective about the systemic, structural, and unseen forces that divide us. Wilkerson also shares a more sane and hopeful way forward into a more human and abundant future.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, by Warren Berger

Berger reveals how a posture of curiosity and wonder along with a willingness to ask better questions can help us identify and solve problems, come up with game-changing ideas, and pursue fresh opportunities.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker

At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.

Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, by David Whyte

With a philosopher's imagination and a poet's perspective, Whyte explores and unpacks layers of meaning and nuance in fifty-two everyday words that will cause you to use and think about them in a deeper and more powerful manner.

These four books, more than any other of the dozens I've recently read, have had the biggest impact on my journey in building the Creative On Purpose brand and developing and delivering on its promise to help others fly higher in endeavors that make a difference. You can find them and other helpful resources in the Creative On Purpose Bookstore.

Let's keep flying higher together!

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.

The Virtues of Humiliation

Why do we go to such lengths to avoid feeling humiliation? Why are we so quick to exact humiliation on others? What happens if we seek humiliation for ourselves more frequently and project it on others less often?

Humiliation Is Human

Both words, humiliation and human, derive from the same ancient root word, dhghem, meaning "earth" or "on the ground." The Latin words humus (soil) and humilis (lowly, humble) derive from this same root.

Humiliation is often conflated with other terms. For instance, guilt and shame manifest similarly to humiliation viscerally and psychologically but are brought upon ourselves. When we don't measure up to our own expectations, guilt and shame may come to visit.

Embarrassment is also self-inflicted but is the result of measuring yourself against other people's expectations. Humiliation is unique because it is experienced due to someone else's appraisal of your worth or stature.

In short, where guilt, shame, and embarrassment are painful, they are also private. Humiliation is a public revealing of a personal misfortune, failure, or loss of status. 

But humiliation does not have to be accompanied by guilt, shame, or embarrassment. That is up to you. And seeking humiliation can have profound benefits.

Humiliation and Humility

Humiliation invites us to surrender our expectations and egos. We can create space for a courageous and honest conversation with ourselves about what's really at stake in humiliation. Yes, our hearts may break over our failed efforts in something we care about.

And...

Failure, faltering, and coming up short is the frequent and necessary result of every worthwhile striving.

Embracing humiliation reminds us that we are human and, therefore, neither perfect nor alone. In humiliation, we can find value and worthiness that transcends ourselves. We can cultivate the virtues of patience, acceptance, and resilience, which help us persevere and continue to progress as thoughtful, conscious, and compassionate human beings.

Humiliation returns us to the earth. In humility, we can then begin and begin again to do the important and never ending work of humaning. Seeking hard and necessary truths, most of them beyond our understanding and even comprehension. Striving to enhance our lives through endeavors that elevate the lives of others.

How are you inviting and embracing humiliation today?

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.

Conspiring with Your Future Self

What's really holding you back from fulfilling your potential and delivering on your promise? Why are you not making the progress you desire in your life's endeavors?

Consider having a courageous and honest conversation with yourself. You'll discover that the biggest impediment to your personal and professional growth has little to do with your past circumstances or the situation you find yourself in now.

It's you.

You are complicit in cultivating any suffering you experience that's tied to a lack of progress in your flourishing and fulfillment.

But it's not your fault.

Human beings are programmed by biology and evolution to conform to societal norms and comply with institutional systems. We're predisposed to measure ourselves against the expectations of those around us, not against our own potential.

What to do?

You can, of course, consciously choose who you surround yourself with and intentionally decide whom you seek insight and inspiration from in your efforts to enhance yourself. Coaching and community are tested and trusted ratchets some employ to excel and elevate themselves.

But the greatest coaches and best friends can't help if you are not enrolled and invested in stepping into your potential.

You must become a conspirator with your better, future self.

Why conspirator?

Because conspirators create covenants that subvert the status quo. Conspirators don't settle and they don't compromise. They resist the seductive siren's call of subjugation to what is. Conspirators strive for who they can, and should, be.

Conspiring with your future self encourages trust, cultivates courage, and fuels a will to rally yourself to your own cause. 

Are you in league with your aspirations? Ready to champion your own cause? It's time to conspire with your future self and start stepping into your destiny. Ready? Let's go.

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.

Altruism

You enhance your life most through work that serves others.

We’re inherently social creatures. Connecting and collaborating is how we survived as a species during our earliest days. 

Unselfish concern for others, approaching shared challenges with an attitude of service, and working for the common good are natural human instincts.

And yet, you don’t have to look far to find people who appear to be acting mean and selfish.

So what?

Think about those who act parsimoniously. They are likely doing what they think is right or expected. Although they may have acquired wealth or social status, has their chosen way led them to be truly happy? Do they exude joy?

The choice isn’t whether to act with compassion or cruelty.  The decision you get to make is whether to act in or out of alignment with your human nature. 

Acting out of alignment leads to suffering, while greater alignment leads to greater joy. 

Serving others allows you to transcend yourself and cultivate joy. Joy opens the door for sustained wonder, gratitude, hope, and grace.  

To live and work in service encourages love for our fellow human beings. To contribute to the benefit of humanity enhances your own character and virtue.

You enhance your life most through endeavors that elevate others.

Choosing to act altruistically is not a one-and-done decision. It’s a habit maintained through deliberate and determined daily practice.

Are you committed to altruism in your endeavor? Your day-to-day routines and relationships? 

How will you remind yourself to stay the course and not waver due to expediency or urgency? What will you do when fatigue or discouragement comes to visit?

Excerpt from Onward: Where Certainty Ends Possibility Begins

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.

Help yourself help others.

"Seeking the very best in ourselves means actively caring for the welfare of other human beings.  Our human contract is not with the few people with whom our affairs are most immediately intertwined, nor to the prominent, rich, or well educated, but to all our human brethren.” – Epictetus

The idea of paying it forward is a basic human impulse. As the quote above indicates, this idea has been associated with living the good life since antiquity. 

Helping yourself by helping others also inspires and informs the Creative on Purpose mission.

"You enhance your life most through endeavors that elevate others." – Scott Perry, Onward

Members of the Creative on Purpose community call this approach "living your legacy."

"Legacy isn't what we leave behind; it's the difference we're making now."

To live your legacy is to be a difference-maker. A difference-maker makes makes things better by being creative on purpose and working with and for others to make meaningful change happen.

It's easy to pay lip service or spend a bit of time and money contributing to the greater good during times of general abundance and stability. But it's far more essential to lean in and lend a hand during periods of scarcity and upheaval. 

Right now, the entire planet is in the throes of a pandemic. There are real and existential social, political, environmental, and economic problems to solve. It's more important than ever to do what we can to serve those in need.

Moving from self-concern to concern for others is at the heart of our own ethical and moral development. Taking the bolder step of compassion and caring for others develops the character and virtue necessary for a thriving and meaningful life.

"Let our hands be available to help whenever necessary. Let this verse be in your heart and in your mouth: I am a human being, I regard nothing human as foreign to me. Let us hold things in common, as we are born for the common good." – Seneca

We must acknowledge our interconnectedness and social duty. We must embrace the human skills of empathy and consideration.

But where? With what? How? For whom? 

Why not start where you are with what you have and do what you can for those with whom you find yourself?

It's time to rediscover what the ancients unveiled for us long ago. Joy comes from living a good life. A good life means grateful for what you already have, and participating in acts of love and kindness extended to those around them.

"Adapt yourself to the circumstances in which your lot has cast you; and love these people among whom your lot has fallen, but love them in all sincerity." –Marcus Aurelius

Scott Perry - Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose and paying it forward with the Young Difference-Maker Scholarship program.

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.

Belonging

Belonging*

Belonging is a fundamental human need. In belonging we seek to be seen, heard, and understood. To belong is to be cared for and to care for others in return. Belonging requires courage, resilience, empathy, and grace.

Strong, vibrant communities are built on belonging. Belonging is a promise to make only if you are prepared to keep it. To belong is to be part of something bigger and greater than yourself.

Where do you belong?

More important, how do you cultivate and nurture belonging for those for whom your endeavor is done with and for?

*This is an entry from the Creative on Purpose glossary, The Difference-Maker's Dictionary: A Lexicon for Living Your Legacy. Click here to read other entries, suggest terms, and comment or correct definitions.

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.