Stepping Into Possibility

Scott Perry
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The complete audiobook of Stepping Into Possibility, read by the author. Practical Stoicism for navigating modern life, work, and relationships — one chapter a week. No toga required. creativeonpurpose.substack.com

  1. 1d ago

    Three Words for Your Hardest Moment

    Your mind will hand you a catastrophe. These three words hand you back the fact. Listen for the stolen lamp — Epictetus’s masterclass in refusing the story — and for why the now is almost always smaller than the story. This is the corner of the Triangle that does the heavy lifting. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: the lamp story in its original context — and what Epictetus actually said about the thief. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Nov 2

    Perception, Action, Will

    Everything in the first nine chapters comes down to three trainable disciplines: perception (see clearly), action (act rightly), will (accept what comes). Listen for how the three fit together — and note that “will” here means acceptance, never willpower. This chapter is the map for everything in Part Three. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: Hadot, Hays, and how a French scholar’s reading of Marcus became the modern map of the practice. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Oct 26

    The Stress Test

    It’s easy to be philosophical on a calm day. The real question is whether any of this holds when the pressure’s real. Listen for the lives these ideas were forged in — plague, war, exile, betrayal — and for why that history is the strongest evidence the practice works. This philosophy was priced for hard days. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: Marcus’s actual circumstances when he wrote the Meditations — the stress test behind the notebook. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Oct 19

    Judgment Without Being Judgmental

    Being judgmental is a reflex — instant, self-flattering, and usually wrong. Judgment is a craft: slower, humbler, and buildable. Listen for how the chapter separates the two, and for what good judgment actually requires (spoiler: it’s not more information). One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: the sources on assent — the Stoic skill of not signing off on your first impression. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Oct 12

    You're Allowed to Want Things

    “Live according to nature” gets printed over mountain photos, and it has nothing to do with mountains. It means living in agreement — with the nature of the world, and with your own nature as a rational, social creature. Listen for the idea that rescues the whole philosophy from sounding like a cliché: preferred indifferents. You get to want things like a full human being — and hold them like a free one. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: Marcus on being made for cooperation — “like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.” Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Oct 5

    The Barrel, The Garden, & The Porch

    The Hellenistic world was full of schools promising the good life. The Cynics chose the barrel — renounce everything. The Epicureans chose the garden — withdraw from the fray. The Stoics chose the porch — right in the middle of the marketplace, fully in the mess. Listen for why that choice matters: this philosophy was built for participants, not spectators. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: the Stoa Poikile itself the painted porch the whole philosophy is named for) and what it says about doing this together. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write twice a week about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Sep 28

    Are you flourishing, or just getting through?

    There’s a word the Stoics used for the aim of a life, eudaimonia, and it doesn’t mean happy. It means something closer to being well-guided from within. Listen for the difference between a life that looks fine from the outside and one that’s actually flourishing from the inside — and for the well-appointed room I couldn’t breathe in. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: the sources on eudaimonia — and why “follow your bliss” isn’t what they meant. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want twice a week. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 21

    The Gate You’ve Been Ignoring

    Last week’s chapter was about what you’re gripping that isn’t yours. This one’s the mirror. What’s actually yours (your judgments, choices, effort, character) is sitting untended while you guarded the wrong gate. Listen for how quiet self-abandonment is. It rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a skipped practice, a swallowed truth, a value set down because the moment got uncomfortable. One thing you won’t hear in the episode: the chapter’s practice. Every chapter ends with a specific piece of work that turns the idea into something you live — and those stay in the book, where they belong: on the page, at your pace, with a pen and paper. → [Click Here to Grab the Book] Friday tease: Friday: what the Stoics counted as truly ours — and a case study in taking the gate back. Free readers get the ideas. Circle members get the practice: live calls every week on the real work, and a room of people who won’t let you settle. Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here to learn how and why I work this way. Not subscribed? I write about closing the gap between who you are, what you do, and the life you want twice a week. Subscribe for free so the next piece finds you. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe

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The complete audiobook of Stepping Into Possibility, read by the author. Practical Stoicism for navigating modern life, work, and relationships — one chapter a week. No toga required. creativeonpurpose.substack.com

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