Stepping Into Possibility

About Stepping Into Possibility

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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/s/stepping-into-possibility?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Scott Perry

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Aug 2026

Latest episode

2 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Nov 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

2. 

   26 Oct 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

3. 

   19 Oct 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

4. 

   12 Oct 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

5. 

   5 Oct 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

6. 

   28 Sept 2026

   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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

7. 

   21 Sept 2026

   The Gate You’ve Been Ignoring

   Last week’s chapter (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/what-story-am-i-telling-myself?r=nsqgj) 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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

8. 

   14 Sept 2026

   The most expensive mistake you’ll make this week

   Add up the energy you spent last week on things you could not move — other people’s opinions, outcomes already in motion, the past. That’s the most expensive mistake most of us make, and we make it daily. Listen for the Fork. Some things are up to you, most things aren’t, and everything depends on sorting them fast. And listen for the word the chapter rescues — surrender. Surrender isn’t giving up. It’s letting go of what was never yours. 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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) Friday tease: Friday: Epictetus’s opening lines — the two-thousand-year-old sentence the whole dichotomy of control comes from. 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

9. 

   7 Sept 2026

   “What story am I telling myself?”

   Nobody experiences reality raw. We experience the story we tell about it (and the story arrives instantly, automatically, and usually worse than the facts). Listen for the difference between the event and the narration layered on top of it, and for where the spiral actually hides (hint: it’s in the adjectives). 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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) Friday tease: Friday: what the Stoics meant by “impressions” — and a story I told myself last week that fell apart on inspection. 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

10. 

    31 Aug 2026

    The Half-Second That Decides Everything

    Something happens — the email, the comment, the setback — and before you’ve chosen anything, you’re already reacting. This chapter is about the half-second between what happens and what you do about it. Listen for the thermostat and the thermometer: same room, completely different relationship to it. That metaphor carries the whole practice. 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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) New chapter every Monday. Deeper into the sources every Friday. This Friday: we go to the sources on the discipline of assent — how the Stoics actually trained that half-second. 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

11. 

    24 Aug 2026

    The Problem With Stoicism

    Starting today, I’m reading you my book—Stepping Into Possibility (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) —one chapter every Monday, start to finish, for free. I’m doing it for you, and honestly, for me. Reading aloud has scared me my whole life, and this series is me stepping into possibility in public, one chapter at a time. We start where the book starts, with the word itself. Lowercase-s stoicism is the stiff upper lip, the false front, a dead end. Capital-S Stoicism is something else entirely. Listen for the difference; the whole book depends on it. 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] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) This Friday: the Seneca quote the internet cut in half (and a confession about the fear behind this series). Prefer to watch? Tap the video below! Stepping Into Possibility is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. → [Click Here to Start Stepping] (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook) New chapter every Monday. Deeper into the sources every Friday. Onward.Scott Written with the assistance of Claude.ai. The thinking and the responsibility are mine.Click here (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/p/the-debt-and-the-standard) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

12. 

    17 Aug 2026

    Be the Thermostat, Not the Thermometer

    Something happens. A client goes quiet. Someone says the wrong thing. A decision starts weighing on you. And before you know it, you’re no longer dealing with what actually happened. You’re dealing with the story your mind has built around it. That’s the hijack. In this episode, Scott Perry (https://substack.com/profile/39971827-scott-perry) shares a practical framework inspired by Stoic philosophy for interrupting that reaction and turning difficult situations into solvable problems. The central metaphor is simple: be the thermostat, not the thermometer. A thermometer merely reflects the temperature of the room. A thermostat notices the temperature and then does something about it. The same choice exists when life gets difficult. You may not control what happens, what someone else does, or how things ultimately turn out. But you can create enough space between stimulus and response to decide what you’ll do next. Scott walks through three tools for doing exactly that. The Gate Before spending time, attention, or emotional energy on a problem, ask: * Is it necessary? * Is it necessary now? * Is it necessary now by me? A surprising number of apparent emergencies disappear when they pass through those three questions. The Stoic Fork If something really does require your attention, separate what’s yours from what isn’t. You don’t control the outcome, other people, the past, or most circumstances. You do have agency over two things: * How you see the situation. * What you decide and do next. Letting go of everything else isn’t giving up. It’s surrendering responsibility for what was never yours to control. The Decision Triangle Once you know what’s yours, ask three more questions: * What’s now?Strip away the drama, assumptions, motives, and predictions. What are the actual facts? * What’s next?What are all the available actions—not just the first answer your mind rushes toward? * What matters?Which choice best aligns with your values, boundaries, character, and the person you want to become? Scott then puts the entire process to work in a live hot seat with Katherine Palmer (https://substack.com/profile/231780155-katherine-palmer), who wants to write a book but keeps allowing other people’s priorities to consume her time. Their conversation explores boundaries, people-pleasing, finite resources, the difference between responsibility and rescue, and what happens when the work that matters to you continually gets pushed aside. The episode also examines why intelligent people rush toward certainty, why better decisions can still produce bad outcomes, and why sometimes the most important move is getting the problem out of your own head and in front of a trusted fellow traveler. You cannot control the outcome. You can get better at the decision. And that space between the two is where possibility lives. Get Stepping Into Possibility These ideas come from Scott’s book, Stepping Into Possibility: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Navigating Modern Life, Work, & Relationships. → Purchase Stepping Into Possibility: [CLICK HERE (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook)] Each chapter concludes with a practical invitation designed to help you apply Stoic wisdom to the real situations you’re navigating in your own life, work, and relationships. → Paperback: [CLICK HERE (https://mybook.to/possibilitybook)] Join Creative on Purpose For more practical ideas about living well, doing work that matters, and building something meaningful without betraying yourself, subscribe to Creative on Purpose: And subscribe to the Creative on Purpose YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeOnPurpose (https://www.youtube.com/@CreativeOnPurpose) 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 (https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

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