Scott Perry - "Broken Or Broken Open?" (How to Get Unstuck)

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 with a twist. This insight from a conversation I had with Lindsay Recknell on her outstanding podcast, Hope Motivates Action. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[LINDSAY] "I know that the work that you're doing with Creative on Purpose is to help people to make shifts that they might need to make in their lives."

"So if there are people that listening to the show, and I know for sure that there are, not listening live but listening in this way people that are listening, that may feel like they are stuck... Maybe they are midlife—done the things that they were supposed to do. They've climbed the corporate ladder. They get to this place and they go, 'Huh, is this all there is really?' What do you... What would you say to those people that would be hopeful?"

[SCOTT] "Sure. Well the first thing I would say is that experience that you're having is true and it's not your fault."

"We live in a world, I call it the industrial-educational-occupational complex. We are taught from a very young age that if we sit in straight lines and do as we're told and keep our heads downs and try to get along and follow the directions that we will be rewarded."

"And so you go to school and, if you get good grades, you get to go to school again where you can get good grades and then you can go get a job and you can get paid and you might move up the ladder by continuing to do what you're told."

"And then at some point, some of us wake up to the fact that despite doing all the things that we were told to do and doing them to the best of our ability we don't feel happy. We don't have a sense of meaning, flourishing, and thriving in our lives."

"And also to say, I hope that as you've been following the traditional path, you did experience some joy and meaning and some flourishing."

"But many of us at some point decide that what David Brooks calls the first mountain" is not the only journey available. Sometimes it requires us to see that there's another way, another mountain. Another way that we can approach our second act or second half of life."

"Sometimes that requires a fall, a failure, a trauma of some sort."

"And if we're lucky enough to be not completely broken but broken open, we might wake up to the idea that there's this other way to be. And if you're lucky enough to have survived whatever it is that wakes you up to that, you'll find there's more to it than status and salary and stuff."

"There is another path. A path of sacrifice, service, and soul. You can pursue that."

"And if you haven't seen it up to this point, again, that's because the system was rigged and stacked against you."

"If what I'm saying sounds like it's true or it's resonating on some level, then the invitation is that you have if you're listening to this, you have all the resources you need to investigate who you really are, what you're really good at, and where do you really belong."

"And I would argue that who you really are is your values your virtue—the content of your character. What you're really good at? Yeah, maybe the hard skills that you learned on the job and at school but maybe also, maybe even more so, the soft skills of human-to-human connection, communication, collaboration, and creativity. And where you belong is with people who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives. Your life will be enhanced by serving and contributing to others."

"And I guess what also comes up for me. Lindsay, is we're all born into different situations, some more privileged than others. We're also all born with different temperaments and tolerances."

"Some of us just naturally have a more optimistic outlook than others. Some of us have naturally more resilience than others."

"And all these things that I'm talking about are also teachable learnable skills that we can develop through practice."

"You can become half-a-shade braver every day by just taking one courageous step into your potential and possibility every day."

"You can become a little bit kinder by practicing gratitude and generosity—a simple, small act of generosity, a simple statement of gratitude for an everyday experience, convenience, or pleasure."

"And you can step into your potential. And you can aspire to be... "

"At Creative on Purpose, we talk about 'living your legacy.'"

"Legacy isn't the money and monuments you leave behind, it's the difference you're making right now. And that invitation is open..."

"My assertion would be it's open to anybody that's listening. It merely comes down to a decision that 'I am going to investigate explore the edges of my understanding and ability and pursue a different way of being.'"

"And by doing that, you will become what you were meant to become."

"So leveraging the faith idea. If you trust yourself enough to invest in yourself and do the work to become what destiny has in store for you, then that is... You will move from the posture of 'life is happening to me,' the victim mentality of 'life is happening to me,' into the more heroic 'life is happening through me.'"

"And you will earn the trust and the faith that you can figure it out and you can find your way into a better way of being. "

[LINDSAY] "That feels so hopeful it gives me shivers almost to hear you speak about that."

I just delivered a powerful call to action to get unstuck, embrace your worthiness and start stepping into possibility. What story will you share today? Who will you share it with?

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

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