Scott Perry's Blog

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 Joey Natale, coach and cosplay fan. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[ANGIE] Business ownership is a marathon, not a sprint, and remember that there are mountains after mountains.

Every time you reach the top of a mountain, there's going to be another mountain. So take time for a vacation, and take your weekends for rest, play, rejuvenation, and fun. Turn off work in the evenings. Nurture your relationships with your family and your friends.

Be in it for the long haul. It's a marathon, and it's a fun one if you let it be.

[SCOTT] Beautiful. I love that. Play the long game.

Angie just delivered an important reminder about the importance and value of playing the game of life as an infinite game. How can you pace yourself to play the long game today?

Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at Creative on Purpose

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The human animal is an aiming, aspirational creature. We’re hard-wired by biology and evolution to set and achieve goals. It’s how we build identity, forge meaning, and find significance in our lives.

This is why so many of us have a nagging sense that we were born to be and do more and better with our lives than what was taught to us in school or is expected of us on the job.

At some point, some of us decide to hop off the hamster wheel of “the pursuit of happiness”1 and follow the path to purpose instead.

But the path to purpose is fraught. 

We don’t receive much training or encouragement to “know thyself” in school or on the job. Sure, there’s plenty of well-intended advice about how to find your purpose. But most don’t align with time-tested ancient spiritual and philosophical traditions and scientifically vetted modern psychology and neuroscience.

What to do?

I have found that the path to purpose is as unique and distinctive as every individual’s purpose. There’s no roadmap that everyone can follow. After all, roadmaps can only take you where others are going (or want you to go). 

You need a process that encourages you to build a compass and encourages you to use it to wayfind to your unique destination.

But where do you begin?

I use a two-step approach to help clients decide the difference only they can make in their life’s next chapter cultivating greater clarity and confidence as they continue.

Since many people who read things like this already have some idea of their purpose, we’ll invert the two-step process. We begin with the purpose refinement process. If you need help dialing what your purpose is, the second process will help.

Ready? Let’s go.

Purpose isn’t something you discover. It’s an emergent property. Here’s how to encourage that emergence.

Frequency, Intensity, Purpose is an approach I learned from Randy Massengale,2 who was an advisor to Bill Gates and Microsoft in the 1990s.

If you have some idea of the work you’re meant to do now, this process is a force multiplier.3 It helps refine it and catalyzes your progress.

Here are the three elements.

Frequency nurtures your purpose by committing to a daily discipline of doing the work. This practice encourages developing the difference only you can make.

Intensity is your unique stamp on doing what you do. It’s revealed through mastery of the fundamentals of your practice.

Purpose is an emergent property. It develops from your commitment to doing work that matters and grows alongside your passion.

The essential thing to remember when employing Frequency, Intensity, Purpose is that it does not move in one direction. It encourages a micro-step approach of experimentation, trial and error, and following your curiosity and intuition.

As you explore, paying attention, remaining present, being mindful, and playing with possibilities without attachment are essential.

Sometimes, it will make sense to move from Frequency to Intensity and continue into Purpose. But slipping from Purpose back to Intensity and perhaps Frequency might make sense when you encounter dissonance, imbalance, or a lack of harmony.

The path to purpose is rarely linear. It also doesn’t guarantee specific results, such as fame or fortune. 

The process is the shortcut and the reward.

If you don’t have enough clarity about your purpose, the first thing is that it’s not your fault. Modern society encourages you to play the game of life by society’s rules, not to play your game.4

And yet, once you wake up to this fact, it is your responsibility to define your game and play it all in and full out.

If you’re looking to get started with defining the difference only you can make, here’s a Venn diagram of a process for getting started.

My clients, students, and readers succeed with this approach.

Again, the process is straightforward but individualized, so time and space don’t allow me to fully unpack it in this article.

However, if you need help dialing in your purpose, here are some questions to help you get started.

Who are you? What are your core values and guiding principles?

What are you good at? What are your natural talents and the skills you’ve learned that tap into them?

Where do you belong? Where are those who share your values and need your talents to enhance their lives?

The path to purpose benefits from some planning, but it begins with taking a first step into possibility. What’s your next step in your pursuit of finding fulfillment, forging meaning, and making a difference through identifying and leveraging your purpose?

And remember this. While your journey is intensely personal, it shouldn’t be traveled alone. 

Trusted guides and fellow travelers provide the support, reflections, and questions you need to succeed on your terms. 

If you’re ready to take a bolder step into possibility and your potential for purpose-driven living, consider completing the Catalyst Questionnaire.

Here’s a short video where I walk through the process of getting started defining the difference only you can make.

1. The Unpursuit of Happiness

2. Randy Massengale

3. Force Multiplier

4. Play Your Game

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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As solopreneurs, freelancers, coaches, and creatives, it's easy to find ourselves in a labyrinth of marketing tactics, trying to unlock the door to our ideal client's heart (and wallet).

But here's a thought that might just be the spare key you've been searching for: are you trying to solve a problem, or are you getting lost in a situation?

Let's break this down with a simple analogy.

Imagine you've locked your keys in your car. That's a problem. A clear, tangible issue that's keeping you from and equally clear and tangible desire, turning the ignition and driving away.

But then, there's the situation you find yourself in because of that problem: you're now unable to make it to an important appointment.

This situation is broader, encompassing not just the missed meeting but also the ripple effects it might have on your day, your relationships, and perhaps even your reputation.

When it comes to marketing and selling your offer, many of us get caught up addressing situations — those complex, multi-faceted scenarios our potential clients find themselves in. While it's noble to want to solve all their issues, marketing to a situation is like shouting into the wind; your message gets lost because it's too broad, too vague, and, frankly, too overwhelming.

Focusing on a specific problem, however, is like using a laser pointer in the dark to help someone find a door that leads to their desire. It’s direct, focused, and impossible to ignore. When you articulate the specific problem your service or product solves, your ideal clients see the beacon of your solution cutting through the fog of their complex situation.

Consider a relationship coach who wants to help a couple save their marriage — a noble endeavor but also a highlycomplicated situation. By zeroing in on a specific problem, such as “how to talk about household finances without arguing,” the coach can craft messages that resonate deeply with that particular group, offering clear, targeted solutions to a specific problem.

When you're evaluating your marketing or offer, ask yourself: Am I addressing a lock (problem) or the traffic jam it's caused (situation)? By focusing on unlocking one door at a time, you not only make your marketing efforts more effective but also provide tangible, immediate value to your clients, making it easier for them to see why they need your key in their lives.

Remember, everyone is overwhelmed by their situations. Being the person who offers a clear solution to a pressing problem makes you stand out. It's not just about unlocking doors; it's about knowing which doors your key fits into in the first place. Take a step back, reassess, and start marketing the solution to a problem, not the navigation through a situation. Your clients and your business will thank you for it.

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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There’s a compelling argument for consistent representation of your personal brand across various channels (including consistent messaging, visual elements, and overall identity).

But it’s the breadth of your skills and experiences that informs and inspires your unique ability, attitude, and approach as a solopreneur, freelancer, coach, or creative.

For instance, some friends (and critics) tell me I create “brand confusion” when I post about my life as a musician or grandfather.

However, my long career as a professional guitarist and teacher shapes how I approach my work as an encore life coach.

Music-making requires connection, collaboration, creation, and communication. Approached with gratitude and generosity is how it’s done best.

Not to mention that musicians do their work out loud and in public, cultivating the courage, vulnerability, and presence necessary to do work that matters.

See the video for a demonstration.

And being a full-time grandpa is the driving force behind why I do what I do (and how I do it) when it comes to structuring and executing my business strategy.

It takes time for solopreneurs, freelancers, coaches, and creatives to embrace the idea that they are a brand, and I’m not asking anyone to deny the importance of branding.

However, thinking beyond brand is where you’ll likely find the idiosyncrasies and “weirdness”1 that makes you the one-and-only best choice for those whose lives and business will be enhanced by the difference only you can help them make.

After all, branding isn’t the story you tell other people about yourself. Branding is the story people tell themselves about you.

When you show up as a multi-faceted, fully integrated human being embracing all of your gifts and talents, it’s easier to align the story other people tell themselves about you with the story you’d like them to believe.

What innate talents, tolerances, and temperaments inform and inspire your personality, perspective, and approach to what you do and how you do it? What’s your weird? How might embracing it more fully enhance the story your ideal audience tells themselves about you?

1. I’m a Weirdo

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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How do you achieve your life and business goals with greater certainty, in less time, with greater confidence, and with less risk?

(Hint: It's NOT S.M.A.R.T. goals. They don't work for many of us.)

Here's the thing. What got you where you are WON'T get you where you want to be.

If you don't have data or experience to draw on, how can you set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound?

Without a clear idea of where you're starting from and what's necessary to make the changes you seek, S.M.A.R.T. goals are arbitrary aims you're trying to achieve with a rigid plan that's WAY too fragile to stand up to life's ups and downs and the unreliability of human behavior.

What to do?

To get different results, you MUST learn to see, be, and do things differently. In other words, you need to learn different behaviors and attitudes to get different results.

I teach a simple, counterintuitive approach to sustainable goal setting and achievement that's easy to understand, remember, and implement.

Hundreds of students and clients have learned and implemented this approach to get clear about and closer to what they want in life and business.

The BIGGEST takeaway they have is the power of micro-stepping.

What's micro-stepping?

A deliberate discipline of acknowledging what's happening now, assessing your choices for what's next, and choosing (and taking) the next smallest viable step into possibility.

Micro-stepping cultivates the directional clarity, strategic refinement, and confidence in your capacity to learn as you go that encourages staying the course.

And here's the most significant benefit. Micro-steps compound over time, which helps you achieve results in less time and more effortlessly while reducing risk.

I recently taught my sustainable goal-setting and achievement system in a live broadcast. The replay is now available on my YouTube channel.

You can also tune in to this episode of the Creative on Purpose podcast or read all about it in this article.

If you tune in, I hope you find this process useful and helpful. You can email me with any questions or reflections.

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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Part I of today’s post comes from my book, The Stoic Creative.

“Receive without pride, let go without attachment.” - Marcus Aurelius

Creating is merely the act of making something new. However, simple doesn’t mean easy. The creative process can be lonely, intimidating, and fraught with self-doubt. Then, if we want to become an Artist, the hard part is sharing what you made with others.

Do I Have to Share?

That depends. We’re all creatives. We make things, right? We make conversation. We make plans. We make promises, and we make babies. We have no problem making or sharing these creations. However, if we intentionally create something that evokes a reaction or transformation in others, we act like an artist, and things change.

Therein lies the rub. All artists are creatives, but not all creatives are artists. Artists create with specific intention and motivation. They put their creation out into the world. They ship, and they deliver the goods.

Artists must share their creations. It’s required. Shipping your work is the only way they will get the feedback necessary to develop and improve their art. Aspiring and advancing artists must hold their work out to an audience. “Here, I made this. I hope you like it.” And when they do, all bets are off.

What Happens Next

“A thing is neither better nor worse for having been praised.” – Marcus Aurelius

Sure, they may love what you do. Hopefully, they’ll at least like it. If not, perhaps they’ll say, “That’s nice.” But they may say, “I don’t get it.” Or, “What’s the point?” Maybe even, “I hate it!” How does that feel? Depending on how much you’ve invested in your art, it could hurt a little or be devastating!

Tips On Turning Pro

So you made it. You were clear on your intention and motivation. You invested every bit of your talent and emotional labor. You held it out to others and said, “Here, I made this.” And, to yourself, quietly said, “I hope you like it.” And they didn’t. Not a bit. “What the hell is that? 

It sucks!”

It’s time to separate the dilettantes from the real artists, the amateurs from the pros. Here’s how:

Make sure you’re clear on what it’s for. “Art for art’s sake” is an amateur’s hustle. Art has a purpose. If you don’t know what your art is for, you didn’t make art.

Make sure you’re clear on who it’s for. Art must have an audience. It is your job to find it. If you think your art is for everybody, it’s actually for nobody, and it’s not art.

Make sure you’re clear on the change you’re trying to make. If your creation is made solely for attention or to make a buck, it’s not art. Art connects, communicates, and changes those who come into contact with it.

Okay, Now What?

You’re clear on what it’s for, who it’s for, and the change you seek to make. You put it in front of the right people and...?

They didn’t love your work. They didn’t like it. They didn’t even get it! Is that their fault or yours? It’s easy to say, “Heathens! You don’t know art when you see it!” But, likely, you didn’t do your job thoroughly.

Did you do all the work? Did you do it well, or at least well enough? Are you sure this is your audience? Did you share it properly? Did you need to deliver something else?

Don’t let these questions swirl around in your head. Ask your audience! Remember, it’s for them! If you’re looking for recognition or praise, hoping to get picked, or perhaps even making a little filthy lucre, you did not have the right intention or motivation!

Mean People Suck

Just in case you weren’t aware, haters gonna hate. There are trolls, hacks, cranks, and critics out there. They don’t like themselves, and they sure as sh*t ain’t going to like you or anything you share. They’ll go out of their way to make you aware of their disdain. Unsolicited criticism is not helpful and not worth your time or emotional labor.

Being a hater is its own karmic consequence. If you can, empathize. If you can’t, smile and say, “Sorry, but if you didn’t like it, I guess I didn’t make it for you.”

Get Back to Work

What to do next? Take a step back. Hold it out before you and take a long, objective look. Should you scrap it and start over? If not, what’s worth keeping? What should you eliminate? What needs refining? Decide. Then, get back to work. That’s what artists do.

An artist who is a pro understands that quitting is not an option. Artists pick themselves up, dust themselves off, gird their loins, and get back in the arena. It’s an infinite, not a finite, game. It requires patience, practice, and persistence. Shun the fixed mindset. Adopt a growth mindset.

Here are a few more parting thoughts. A sense of humor doesn’t hurt. Humility is essential. Purpose is required.

Feedback Vs. Criticism - Relevant Anecdote

Social media provides plenty of opportunities for practicing how to identify and discern the difference between meaningful feedback and worthless criticism. Look to your favorite social media outlet for examples of struggling creatives and thriving artists’ posts, but how do they respond to insightful feedback? How about uninformed criticism?  

Look at your social media feed. How are you processing feedback and handling criticism?

Key Takeaway

Before art can be significant, it must have a proper motivation and intent. What’s it for? It must be created with skill, emotional labor, and a clear purpose. What is the change you seek to make? Finally, art must be performed or placed in front of the right people. Who is it for? You then must take note of the response.

Art is always a collaborative activity because there is always an audience. Learn to love feedback and shun criticism. Develop your ability to discern the difference.

An Exercise

Epictetus famously stated, “It is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.” Feedback reveals the elements of our art that have missed the mark, need further development, or should be discarded.

Unhelpful criticism is, well, unhelpful! I encourage the memorization of short maxims to have on hand for challenging moments. “They are nothing to me” was a line Epictetus urged his students to use when confronted with something unpleasant but unimportant.

So, when the critic delivers mean-spirited venom, smile and say, “Your opinion is nothing to me,” or, “I didn’t do it for you.” Even better? Smile sweetly and say nothing. This drives trolls crazy! All they really wanted was to watch you cry.

Pursuing excellence in your craft takes courage but begins with a healthy dose of humility. Take your craft and your art seriously, but not yourself.

Go Further

When you receive well-intended feedback, say “Thank you,” even when it hurts or isn’t helpful or useful.

When you receive hurtful criticism, take Epictetus’s advice to “endure and renounce” and forgive (more on this in the next chapter). People are not intentionally mean; they are ignorant and incompatible with virtue. Remember Marcus Aurelius’s reminder to himself, “Tolerate ignorant persons and those who form opinions without consideration.”

Fail often, fail fast, and fail forward. We need your art.

Ready to elevate your craft with next-level feedback? Keep reading.

When you have enough clarity about who your work is for and the change it’s intended to make, it’s easier to ask for and process feedback and even criticism. 

But here’s the thing. There’s an inherent weakness to feedback and criticism.

Feedback and criticism focus on past actions and accomplishments. 

Sure, it might be helpful to think about what you could have done better. But you can’t go back in time to revise what you did. This can encourage an inner dialogue of

”woulda, coulda, shoulda’s”1 that leads to a doom loop of self-doubt and criticism.

What to do?

Consider asking for advice instead.

Why?

Well, first of all, advice is more forward-facing and often more constructive and instructive.

Advice allows you to tap into the wisdom and experience of others, offering fresh perspectives and insights that can lead to improved decision-making and performance going forward.

To be sure, advice is a next-level amplifier to your progress if you have done the work of embracing discomfort, keeping open loops, learning by doing,2 and being receptive.3

Requesting, receiving, and leveraging advice requires a commitment to excellence, intellectual security, and the will to embrace challenges and uncertainty.

As a coach, I initially fell into “the feedback trap.” This is the dynamic of providing endless reflections and questions and expecting the recipient to process them and find worthwhile insights.

The danger in the feedback trap is that it feels like you’re being helpful, but you’re only encouraging further confusion and inertia.

When someone is ready to level up their game in work that matters, they’re looking for solutions to specific problems or skills for achieving a particular aspiration.

Advice that’s specific and intentional creates empathetic antagonism.4 It gets under the recipient’s skin and makes them uncomfortable enough to do what needs to be done next to make their desired progress.

And here’s a secret side-benefit of advice. It helps the advice giver as much as it does the advice receiver.

People perform better themselves after they have advised others. Why? They’re more likely to follow the advice they have shared. 

This suggests that the act of advice-giving is not only beneficial for the advisee but also enhances the advisee’s own performance.

If you’re ready to seek advice, here are some suggestions for optimizing your efforts.

Advice For Seeking Advice

Be Clear - Know what advice you want and why you want it.

Be Specific - “What’s the number one thing you think I could improve next time?” provides better and more actionable advice than “What could be better?”

Be Intentional - Who in your network is most knowledgeable or experienced in the area you’re seeking advice on? Who will give you the most relevant and valuable information?

Advice For Advice Receiving

Start With Gratitude - Giving advice requires at least as much vulnerability and courage as asking for it. Begin with “Thank you.”

Reflect What You Heard - Between intention and impact lies interpretation.5 “Here’s what I heard you say. Did I get that right? is a great way to make sure you heard the advice that was actually given.

Evaluate And Execute - Take the time to assess advice and, if it makes sense, then implement it. Learning that does not lead to action is useless.

Meaningful learning requires stepping out of your comfort zone. Mastery requires a willingness to engage with challenges and discomfort.

Learning is most effective when it is active, and one of the biggest levers for embodying learning is to pay it forward by resharing and teaching it.

Seeking frequent, specific feedback for improvement and teaching as you learn keeps things interesting and catalyzes personal and professional growth.

1. The Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Trap

2. Learning By Doing

3. Receptivity

4. Empathetic Antagonism

 5.The Intention Impact Gap

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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In contemporary usage, ‘guru’ often takes on a pejorative tone, commonly aimed at opportunistic influencers and charlatans.

While it’s justified to call out these phonies peddling snake oil remedies, it’s unfortunate that “guru” is the word we hang on them.

Historically, ‘guru’ is revered as a ‘dispeller of darkness,’ symbolizing a spiritual guide who imparts vital experiential knowledge.

Think Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita or Socrates’ dialogues with the citizens of Athens. Modern-day examples might be Yoda’s instruction to Luke Skywalker about using the Force or Glenda the Good Witch’s timely interactions with Dorothy in’ The Wizard of Oz.’

I’ve encountered both authentic guides who’ve helped light the way toward personal and professional growth and, admittedly, a few convincing charlatans who took me down unnecessary rabbit holes (and took quite a bit out of my bank account).

The point is not all gurus are created equal. Most of us have been blessed with both bona fide guides AND fallen for the sibilant seductions of a fake.

What about you? Who’s been a legitimate spiritual guide in your journey? Who are the superficial opportunists who have led you down dead ends?

How do you discern the distinctions between gurus who are the genuine article and the counterfeits?

Choose your guru. Choose your future. Choose wisely.

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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How are you?

There’s abundant uncertainty1 in the world. What’s your relationship with not knowing what’s next? Have you considered surrender?

Surrender isn’t giving up or giving in. Surrender is letting go of what was not yours in the first place.

Letting go, far from being disempowering, is empowering.

“Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.”—Epictetus

What if, just for today, you let go of your expectations for the future and embraced what’s going on right now with a little more curiosity?

What happens if, just for today, you hold your assumptions and agendas more loosely?

What if, just for today, you engaged with yourself and those around you with a little more compassion?

What if, just for today, you accept both your personal relevance and cosmic insignificance?2

“You find success by worshiping with your own right actions the One from whom all actions arise and by whom the world is pervaded.”—The Bhagavad Gita

Surrender, then, is to acknowledge and accept your inner divinity and duty to be true to your calling and unattached to outcomes destiny has in store.

Through surrender, you can embrace that life doesn’t happen to you. Life happens through you.

What if, just for today, you practiced empathy, trust, and worthiness from the inside out?

How might surrender help you reframe yourself, your situation, and what you decide to do next with and for those you’re called to serve?

Take time to journal or discuss your work, and be sure to apply your takeaways.

This article is the republished ninth and final lesson from my handbook, “The Art of Encore Living.” See the links in the footnotes to access additional chapters3  or to purchase the complete guide for $1 on Amazon,4  or access the entire course for free. 5

1 Abundant Uncertainty

2 Cosmic Insignificance

3 More Encore Chapters

4 The Art of Encore Living

5 The Art of Encore Living Course 

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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What’s your vision for your life or business’s next chapter? Where are you starting from? What are you trying to achieve? What’s your plan for getting there?

These can be daunting and overwhelming questions, and the data shows that the odds are stacked against our success in achieving our aspirations.

What’s your track record with setting and achieving goals?

So often, we conspire against our own desires when it comes to making real progress in what we say matters to us.

Why is that?

Here are some of the reasons I see, based on my experience and work with hundreds of clients.

Lack of clarity and specificity - How do you establish a plan for “Get healthier” or “Be more successful?” How would you know if you succeeded?

Arbitrary timelines - What’s the point of starting a new regime on the first of the year or month? 

Rigid regimes - Willpower and motivation crumble when they collide with unrealistic expectations and life’s inevitable curveballs.

The list of challenges and excuses goes on—procrastination, lack of motivation, absence of accountability, insufficient support, fear of failure, etc.

But the biggest challenge is that in order to achieve goals, you need to set goals that are specific, realistic, planned, tracked, and supported. That’s really hard to do at the beginning because you have no experience or data to establish these guidelines.

Establishing guidelines without data or experience to draw from is one reason so many struggle to achieve goals using otherwise sensible goal-setting concepts like S.M.A.R.T goals (goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).

What to do?

Sustainable goal setting and achievement rely on micro-stepping1 into specific and realistic expectations, a clear and stepwise strategy, honest and diligent tracking, and establishing a support network and contingency plan.

But to better explain how to do all of this, I first have to tell you a bit about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy is a powerful and persistent framework that explains human growth, societal evolution, and business management. It’s also a tool used in education, healthcare, and personal development.

Although Maslow never configured his hierarchy into a pyramid, the image below is a typical representation.

Interesting, but how does this help us understand how to establish and progress in meaningful aims and aspirations?2

Here are some takeaways that will map onto a goal-setting and achievement framework based on Maslow’s Hierarchy.

Sequential progress - chasing psychological needs like love and belonging or respect and recognition before you’ve acquired the basic needs of food, water, and security is a fool’s errand. Status and friends won’t do you much good if you’re starving to death or immobilized by dehydration.

The law of diminishing returns - the further up the pyramid, the more time and effort are required to get results. Securing food and shelter is relatively easy compared to the complications involved in cultivating intimate relationships or personal excellence.

Ascension is optional - after acquiring your basic needs, who’s to say that continued ascension up the pyramid is “better?” Some of the happiest individuals and societies are quite content without chasing wealth, reputation, or optimized personal performance.

If you’re tracking with these insights, let’s look at how we can layer them onto a goal-setting and achievement process that provides greater, more consistent, and sustainable results.

I’ll also provide some tools and concepts to expedite your success.

Here’s how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs maps to goal setting and achievement.

Let’s walk through the pyramid from the bottom up to reveal how sufficiency, stability, structure, surprise, and sophistication can help you establish and achieve goals sustainably and with less stress.

To help illustrate the process, I’ll use a personal fitness goal and a business revenue goal as examples as we work our way through the pyramid.

Again, setting clear, measurable, realistic, meaningful, and scheduled goals is essential to their achievement. But it’s a real challenge to establish these parameters before you have data.

Mapping your goal-setting and achievement process onto Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs helps you microstep into a practice that provides the data you need to assess as you get results.

With that in mind, let’s begin at the beginning.

What got you where you are won’t get you where you want to be. You need to see, be, and do things differently to get different results.

But how do you establish what is different enough, and how do you develop the new habits that lead to the changes in behavior that get you closer to the results you want?

The bottom of the goal-setting and achievement pyramid helps establish what is enough. What are the minimum requirements to start getting and sustaining results?

For a fitness goal, this could involve establishing a level of daily caloric intake and exercise activity. But what is enough?

It helps first to track your current daily caloric intake and exercise activity. If, for instance, you establish that you take in over 3000 calories and walk less than half a mile daily, can you maintain a diet of 2500 calories and a schedule of half-mile walks four times each week?

Let’s say you maintain your daily 2500 calories five out of seven days and walk a half mile three out of the established four days a week. You’re good. Right? It’s time to move on to the next step. Isn’t it?

No.

Right here, in the beginning, is when most goal-setting and achievement journeys fail before they even start. At the sufficiency level, you can’t settle for good enough being enough. Enough has to be established and maintained.

Think about it. Would that be good enough for you if the lights in your house or your laptop only turned on 70-75% of the time you flipped the switch? Of course not. Yet, we settle for far less than 70% effectiveness in our personal behavior all the time.

The big takeaway is that the least reliable component in your goal-setting and achievement system is the human in control. To master your goals, you have to master yourself.

Once you’ve established the parameters of what enough behavior modification is required to start to get results, the next step is to prove sustainability. Can you maintain enough over time?

In our fitness example, this means answering the question, “Can I consistently maintain a 2500 daily calorie diet and four half-mile walks weekly?” If so, fantastic, move on. If not, what can you consistently maintain? If it’s a diet of 2700 calories and a three-half mile walk every week, cool. Do that. 

Enough is enough. Progress is progress. Establish what you can do. Do that. Then you can move on.

Let’s say your goal is to increase your monthly business revenue, and because you’re a freelancer, your revenue is reflected by the number of gigs you get every month, and you get those gigs through discovery calls.

The first step is establishing the number of calls it takes to get the gigs you have to achieve the monthly revenue you currently earn. For this example, say it takes nine calls to get three gigs, making you $3K/month.

Now you can establish sufficiency and stability. Based on your 33% close rate, you could establish and maintain a new schedule of 12 discovery calls every month, which should net you one new client and an increase in monthly revenue of $1K.

Or you could improve your close rate on the nine discovery calls you currently take each month to close an additional call every month to add that same $1K to your monthly bottom line.

You get to choose and experiment with what behavioral change you need to make. Play your game.3

Once you’ve established the number of calls or calls closed that is sufficient to get better monthly revenue numbers, establish stability and maintain this practice over time. Then, and only then, is it time to move on.

It’s important to note that you are already winning if you establish sufficiency and stability in a practice that is getting you closer to your goals. Change and results are happening. Huzzah!

At the structure level, you maintain this progress by establishing a regimen that becomes a progress multiplier by prioritizing and locking these habits into a schedule.

For your fitness goal, this could be establishing a daily window for when you do and do not eat or setting mealtimes and snacks for specific times of the day.

To increase monthly revenue, you can play with and establish the best days or times to schedule discovery calls.

As with earlier steps, the essential thing is to experiment with scheduling and then lock it in. 

Scheduled activities reflect that they are priorities and help eliminate vacillating and equivocation.

When friends and family ask you how you made your progress, you can now confidently respond (with a shrug for emphasis), “That’s what I do.”

You are what you repeatedly do. But what about playing and having some fun?

I’m glad you asked.

All work and no play is no way to live. We’re hardwired to delight in playful experimentation and surprise.

Once you’ve established what a sufficient change in behavior is, demonstrated stability in maintaining it, and prioritized it through scheduling, introducing some novelty can help you both optimize your system and build in some slack.

What if you introduced a “cheat day” on the weekend into your diet schedule? Maybe permit yourself to partake of a glass of wine or a slice of cheesecake? Perhaps you replace a walk day with a weight training day?

What if you added a day where you only did cold calling or only called leads who had previously said, “No thanks?” or perhaps you want to try out paid advertising to acquire leads?

Whatever you play with, try it and pay attention to what happens.

If it sets you back or interrupts your progress, take a step back, re-establish sufficiency, stability, and scheduled activities to return to your baseline, and then tweak, iterate, or try something else.

This is really important. The thing about the goal-setting and achievement pyramid is that it works in both directions.

You can try moving up when you’ve demonstrated commitment, consistency, and competence at any level. If it works out and feels good, establish commitment, consistency, and competence.

And if it doesn’t work out or feel good, drop down and re-establish commitment, consistency, and competence at the previous level.

For most of us, fulfilling the requirements of the bottom layers of the goal-setting and achievement pyramid is all the success we need or want to feel accomplished and a sense of well-being.

If you’re dancing between the schedule and surprise levels, you’re already well ahead of 95% of those who embark on a goal-setting and achievement adventure. Again, there’s no harm in staying where you’re already happy.

But if you want to maximize your results, there’s one more layer to which you can ascend.

Notice that the top of the pyramid has very little surface area compared to the layers below. The diminishing surface area of each ascending layer reflects the diminished returns of your time and effort invested as you move up.

Sure, diminished returns are still returns, but it’s worth discussing with yourself if it’s worth it to you to keep ascending.

At the sophistication level, you are getting into the micro and minutiae.

In fitness, this might be establishing more rigid parameters around the nutrients you take in or isolating muscle groups you exercise.

Around your monthly revenue, this might involve introducing a webinar or sales call setters.

You’re breathing rarefied air at the sophistication level, which may or may not be for you. Again, remember that there is no shame in moving back down to a level where you’ve established sustainable results and a level of satisfaction and well-being that you’re happy with.

Goal-setting and achievement are tricky business. For instance, the most popular time for goal setting is around New Year’s Day. By March, almost everyone has given up on the goal set for the new year.

Why? Because humans are programmed and conditioned to act like humans. We’re hardwired to settle for what is, blame circumstances and others for it, and rationalize and justify our failure to commit and complete our aspirations.

What to do?

By mapping our goal-setting and achievement strategy onto an established process that makes sense and works, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you eliminate the enemies of success: ambiguous aims, arbitrary timelines, and rigid regimens.

The resulting Goal-Setting and Achievement Pyramid provides a structure that is easy to visualize and implement, meets you where you are, and helps you micro-step4 to where you want to be.

Understanding what defines success at each level and the ability to move up and down the pyramid as needed encourages resilience and resolve.

Self-awareness and self-efficacy are baked into the system, facilitating sustaining current achievements as you strive toward whatever level of self-actualization works for you.

Ready to make real progress in aspirations that matter to you? Start working through the Goal-Setting and Achievement today!

1 Smallest Viable Step

2 h/t to Nic Peterson, whose presentation of these ideas inspired my own. You can find a further refinement of his approach in this article.

3 Play Your Game

4 Life 2.0

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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

The exquisite opportunity available to us in the second half of life is less about reinvention and more of an invitation to become who we were always meant to be.

The first half of life is about accomplishment as measured by school and society.

Living from the outside in.

The second half of life is about meaning as measured by contribution and connection. 

Living from the inside out.

Slough off the dead skin of what schooling and making a living required. Reimagine what living the good life really means.

And remember, it’s easy to fall into the trap of always looking forward—seeking your becoming.1

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

But it’s in your being that you have the opportunity (and choice) to craft your journey of emergence.2

And to live more authentically (and effortlessly) into your life’s encore, don’t forget to look back, all the way back, to what you’ve been.

You were once fearlessly curious, stepping into possibility, and fueled by wonder and joy.

How else would you have learned to walk and talk or all the other impossible things you achieved without external instruction or validation?

Those efforts and acts were their own rewards, not their results or outcomes.

That is the beautiful invitation and opportunity in your life’s second act—letting go of attachments to old ideas of who you are and what you want.

Instead, reconnect with the awe and adventure of childhood as you employ the wisdom and experience earned through education and occupation to pursue the difference only you can make in the second half of life for its own sake.

Are you ready to live passionately and purposefully into the second half of life? 

How are you doing that today?

What are you going to stop doing?3

Take time to journal or discuss your work, and be sure to apply your takeaways.

This article is the republished eighth of nine lessons from my handbook, “The Art of Encore Living.” See the links in the footnotes to access additional chapters4 or to purchase the complete guide for $1 on Amazon,5 or access the entire course for free.6

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Becoming

Emergence

Stop Doing List

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