When I travel to conferences, I return with stacks of work. Those trips only work if I do the follow-up. It’s the reason that I have not published or recorded a journal entry since my return. The tiny steps we take each day have a huge influence on whether we get the outcomes we want. Let me give you an example.
On Saturday, I sat across the table from Scott. He recently retired as the Secretary of Corrections for a state in the midwest. I knew Scott when he was a Deputy Director for a state in the Western portion of the United States. Now that he retired, I wanted to take his pulse in joining our nonprofit’s advocacy efforts. Introductions from Scott could lead to many new opportunities.
Scott was honest with me. He told me that as a Director, he could make introductions. But if I didn’t do the follow-up, those introductions wouldn’t advance our agenda.
And what’s our agenda?
We advocate for reforms that include:
- Expansion of the First Step Act,
- Increased incentives that will encourage people to prepare for success upon release,
- Work release programs for people in federal prison,
- Opportunities for staff members to incentivize a pursuit of excellence—in other words, if a person designs an outstanding release plan, and executes that plan, staff members should have the tools that will lead to higher levels of liberty.
Advocating for these changes requires a lot of time. For that reason, I’m not able to respond to all the people who reach out to me.
On the flip side, each person in our community can work to become part of the solution. We’re striving to profile 10,000 people on our platform, PrisonProfessorsTalent.com. We use those profiles to advocate for the changes that each of you want to see.
As of today, we profile 215 people. But those people need to flesh out their profiles by taking the following steps:
- Write bios. I encourage people to write new bios every 90 days. Show how you’re creating more value for the world, and the reasons why you’re a worthy candidate for relief.
- Journal Entries. Memorialize how you’re using your time inside to prepare for higher levels of success.
- Book Reports. Share the reasons behind books you chose to read, what you learned from reading those books, and how those books will contribute to your success upon release.
- Release Plans. Work on your release plan daily. Execute your plan and work toward preparing for success.
Those strategies helped me immensely. They helped me lived with purpose while I served my sentence, and I’m confident that they can help you, too.
