JUSTIN ROGERS

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Beliefs

Life is a puzzle, not Russian roulette

August 17, 2026

I think it’s important to remember that life is a puzzle, not Russian roulette.

With a puzzle, you try a piece. Maybe it doesn’t fit. That’s fine, you put it down and you try another one. It probably won’t fit either. Still fine. You just keep trying pieces until one does. Nothing about a wrong piece ends the game.

Russian roulette doesn’t work like that. Get it wrong, and you don’t get to play again.

We do well to remember that most things in life are a puzzle, not Russian roulette. The piece that doesn’t fit isn’t a verdict. It’s just information. Put it down, pick up the next one, and keep going.

Obstacle and Intention

August 15, 2026

This is the one reason why everyone in the entire world loves movies. It’s called obstacle and intention.

A character has a thing they want to do, an intention. And they have an obstacle, something standing in their way. We love watching people overcome an obstacle to get their intention.

You’re in a movie called your life.

Thinking of it this way, obstacle and intention, is really useful because it helps us get clear about two things: A, our intention, what we want. And B, what is the obstacle?

Have you ever thought about what actually stands in your way? For instance, if you wanted to cut down on eating sugar, that’s your intention. Your obstacle might be that there’s just a lot of sugar lying around your house. Without this frame of obstacle and intention, you might not have even seen that obstacle so clearly.

Start treating your life a little bit like a movie. What is your intention? What’s the obstacle? And instead of just fighting the obstacle, you could just remove it and be the hero of your own story.

A living language

August 5, 2026

Teaching my first class, I thought it was about sharing a few kapa haka songs.
I was wrong.

What it’s really about is bringing a language to life. Waiata happens to be a brilliant way of doing that.

Our waiata are oral histories that come alive again with each performance. They also have the language built right into them.

A language that is alive is a language that is used, that is seen, heard, felt, valued and is growing each day.

It might look like learning a few songs, or integrating a couple of phrases…

… but your weekly kapa haka session or daily te reo time are really building blocks for a living language.

I just heard Derren Brown say…

August 2, 2026

This is the only life we have and we if can engage with it charismatically we’ll get the best out of it and put the best into it.

If you don’t go you won’t know

July 30, 2026

The other day I booked some private rehearsal space to prepare for a show I’m about to do.

Because I was committed to only myself, I nearly didn’t go.

But I’m glad I did because I made some character discoveries that could only have happened with that quality of time, space and focus alone.

If I didn’t go, I may never have found that new thing (or it may have come up in another way too late)

The point is, if I didn’t go I wouldn’t know. I shudder to think of growth that I have missed out on because I didn’t show up to things like this.

There’s only one way to know- GO.

Conor’s two steps

July 24, 2026

My friend Conor Bowden made an entire film across the span of four years on his iPhone.

It’s finally finished and it’s about to be in the NZ International Film Festival.

I asked him what the secret to getting this kind of thing started.

He said step 1 is start before your ready.

Step 2 is ask for help from people you trust.

Both of these things are totally within our grasp- the thing in the way is probabaly fear.

What is the thing you most want to do in the world and how can you use Conor’s two steps to get there now?

What’s true vs. what’s helpful

July 20, 2026

Whether something is true or not is often argued upon, but it’s rarely important.

There’s only two things: what will help you and what will not help you?

What’s good for the greater good and what’s not good?

What empowers you and what impedes you?

Don’t worry about if it’s true or not, just make sure it’s good.

Things I learned from weight lifting: Pt 3

July 19, 2026

Test things.

It felt like being hungry before the gym meant I wasn’t able to lift as much- like I needed carbs or something.

So I decided to eat two slices of bread before each session… and it seemed to work! I felt stronger.

After a couple of weeks doing that, I forgot the bread one day but I still lifted fine…

So I’m not sure if it was the bread after all that was improving my strength.

But I learned to test things like that. Make connections and causations but also test them.

It might be the bread, but it also might not be the bread.

See it

July 15, 2026

There’s this story I love about the creation of Disneyland.

On the opening day, a reporter asked Walt’s brother a question:

“Are you sad that your brother never got to see Disneyland completed before he died?”

Walt’s brother turned to the reporter and said:

“You’re only seeing it today because he saw it all those years ago”

That’s vision.

Useful, inspiring and cool things

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