Taking the Leap into Leveling Up

personal development stoicism Sep 08, 2017
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"What if?"

What if you did great work? What if you performed at a higher level? What if you served the right people? What if you worked with and learned directly from those who inspire you?

These are the questions I ask myself. I feel guilty asking them. I do, after all, already do work I love as a professional guitarist and teacher. It's meaningful work and I enjoy the people I work with. Why challenge what’s clearly working well enough?

People Like Us Do Things Like This

That's it. If you believe in achieving excellence in any endeavor, including being the best human being you can possibly be, what you've already achieved is never enough. You're always asking yourself, "What else?" or "What's next?"

You think about it. You talk about it. You try things. Eventually "what else" or "what's next" starts to come into focus. And suddenly you find yourself doing that. 

For me, it was writing The Stoic Creative Handbook. A work dedicated to helping struggling Creatives become thriving Artists by revealing where the art of living and the creative process converge.

This Might Not Work, but Then Again...

You won't know until you try. Along the way, doors will open and shut. Fellow travelers and mentors will appear and disappear. There will be sudden revelations and moments of despair. And on, and on, and on.... 

You test, iterate, prune, refine, develop, delete, and double down. Some lessons are hard, some are interesting, and most are unexpected. Often success is measured in single digit numbers.

You may pivot. You might quit. But you'll never lose if you know who you are, who you seek to serve, what change you seek to make, and what it's all for.

What Happens Next

You leap and discover it's not fatal. Fear shows up, as it always does when you’re about to do something significant, and you invite it along for the ride. You lean in and embrace the hard part first. You fly higher. You place service above self-interest and transformation above transaction. You go. Go, go, go until it's good enough. 

You share your work. Ask for feedback. Build a team and lead a tribe. You pay attention, you listen. You look people in the eye and say, "Here, I made this." You stand where you will be seen, recognized, and judged.

You live, learn, and then you do it again.

And, maybe you get lucky. But luck only visits those who show up and do the work daily.

 "We have a right to our labor, but not to the fruits of our labor." Krishna

Keep flying higher!


Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose

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