Learn how to celebrate achievements while maintaining appreciation. Balance ambition with gratitude for continued growth.
Learn to recognize and celebrate small wins along the journey
Appreciate the blessings and support that come your way
Use incremental achievements to build toward larger goals
Seth Godin authors books for people who want to market goods and services to consumers. One of his books encourages people to think different—and to think differently—about how they message.
He used an analogy of cows in a pasture. People don't pay much attention when they drive down the road and see cows grazing in a pasture. Yet they would pause for a second look if they saw a purple cow in the field. The purple cow might captivate their attention.
That book gave me a new perspective on how I fit into a prison setting from the perspective of many staff members. Like everyone serving time in the penitentiary, I wore khaki clothing. In their eyes, every person in prison merited about as much thought as a cow in a pasture.
Instead of recognizing our common humanity, many staff members viewed me as registration number 16377-004. Unless I did something to differentiate myself, my past bad decisions would always define my life.
What does the other side of a prison term look like? Statistics show that most justice-impacted people face monumental challenges when they leave prison. The irony of corrections is that recidivism rates in many jurisdictions show that seven out of every ten people in jail or prison return to custody after release.
People can speculate and draw conclusions about the reasons behind those dismal success rates. Rather than dwelling on the reasons behind failure, I always encourage participants to think about success. Regardless of where participants begin working through this course, I hope they will architect a release plan. That plan should lead them to where they want to go, and the legacy they want to leave society after they're gone.
For example:
Those people left legacies that people revere, despite the time they spent in bondage.
My life is different today because of the incremental achievements that began inside of that high-security penitentiary, back in 1987. I can still trace the steps:
Every achievement begins with incremental steps. Some of those steps will be harder than others, but people who commit know that each step should lead to an intended destination.
Engineering that release plan became the first step toward becoming a purple cow.
On a path of preparing for success after prison, I learned the power of alchemy—converting adversaries into advocates. While locked in a cell in the Special Housing Unit at the federal prison in Lompoc, I met Captain Matevousian. An officer cited me with a disciplinary infraction for publishing a manuscript, which brought me to the attention of the prison's head of security.
Years later, following my release and a presentation at a Ninth Circuit event, Mr. Matevousian approached me. He told me his career had advanced—he was now a Warden. He invited me to create a course that would show people in prison how they could begin making decisions that prepare them for success upon release.
That conversation spread the program through the Bureau of Prisons and several state prison systems. It led to the birth of Prison Professors, a website I created to help all stakeholders of the system, including all justice-impacted people.
Write responses to the following questions in approximately ten minutes each.
