Daily Film Habit

The little things

May 4, 2026

They are the ones that matter, and we know this.

We know that great things come from culminative efforts.

We know that in order to eat an elephant you take one bite at a time.

We know that nothing great was built by changing everything at once and doing everything in one day (or even a week).

The truth (that we know) is that it’s the little things, done over and over again that get you there.

The choice, then, is to select the right little things to get you there.

Reading an inspirational quote each day mightn’t help you write your book…

…but writing a sentence each day might.

Choose the little thing and one day you’ll get the big thing.

Goals are great… when you remember them. Something I’ve noticed is I’m great at setting goals and feeling that initial enthusiasm. As I’m sure we all are. But it can be tricky to find effective mechanisms of follow through on the day to day. An inefficient way to get to any destination is to only check in a few times across the journey.

I like the image of a pilot needing to constantly course correct across the span of a flight. Did you know they are off course between 90% and 99% of the time? Pilots have to constantly course correct to get to their destination.

The same goes for our goals and I’m using a super simple daily question to help me do that. In my journal every morning I ask myself:

How can I course correct today?

It allows me to look at yesterday, what I did, didn’t do and how I spent my time. If I lived a day like that again would I get to where I want to go? If not, what could I do slightly differently today?

It’s nice to know we can be off 99% of the time and still get there.

It just requires a little course correction ✈️

Being playful is better than having good ideas

October 3, 2025

Why being in a good mood is better than being a genius. (Heck- maybe play IS genius..!)

So every day I make a little movie and post it online- it’s been a commitment to myself this past year and has taken me the full scenic route of the artist’s journey:

This is great!

Okay this is really hard.

Wow I hate this.

Hang on…

No, yes I hate this.

Actually I really liked that one

Okay no one else liked that one…

It’s been a rollercoaster and one thing I’ve recently learned is it’s more valuable for me to be playful than to have a good idea.

Some days I’ll get hung up on the ‘perfect’ premise and when I finally get to filming it I’ve got nothing in the tank and it falls flat.

Other days I’m simply in a playful mood and a so-so idea comes off really well. The state I’m in makes the execution more convincing or maybe the play and fun I’m having comes through in the final thing.

I also like that I am in control of how playful I am- I’m not really in control of how good my ideas are. So I can focus on my mood and do the best I can with what ideas I have that day… and if I happen to have a great idea then I can meet that with the energy it deserves too.

Bit of a win-win if you ask me.

Be in a playful mood- a lot solves itself after that.

Learning and playing for keeps

September 24, 2025

Psst, have you tried bubbling?

And have you ever wondered how we keep what we learn…?

A year and a half ago I learned a great new voice exercise from a friend called the ‘lax vox’ exercise. The singer in me is on a constant journey of improvement so I was excited to try something I’d never done before.

The exercise involves having a straw in some water and signing through the straw; in my house it’s affectionately known as bubbling.

I loved bubbling! Every morning before breakfast, I was bubbling musical scales and my favourite musical theatre songs. The exercise is designed to strengthen your voacal muscular coordination and breath use. And it worked!

I was thrilled because my vocal technique really had changed. My daily bubbling turned into every other day, then would pick up again when I’m performing or teaching, then it dropped off nearly completely. And this morning I could hear and feel some difficulty in my voice.

I realised I hadn’t bubbled in a long time and I’d fallen into a familiar trap: Just because I learned the skill once, it doesn’t mean its mine forever. It’s the equivalent of going for a run once and thinking I’ll be fit for life.

We get what we practice for.

When I was in the daily practice of bubbling, my voice was always getting stronger and so it’s obvious that that would drop away when my daily practice did.

So this morning I got bubblin’ and decided I’m playing for keeps.

Not if; when

September 5, 2025

The good thing about writing every day (or making anything every day) is that it’s not a matter of if, but when.

Before the commitment to writing every day, I could have said to myself, “If I were to write something today, it might be like this”

“If” and “might” are pretty hypothetical. And if you want to take something seriously you also have to take it out of the hypothetical.

When it’s already a daily occurrence, you will be using the word “when”

“When I write, later I’ll write about that…”

There’s a degree of certainty in that. Certainty is not something we usually have the privilege of in the creative arts. So when it offers itself, I’d suggest you take it.

And it is offering itself, in the form of a practice. Simply decide you will take yourself seriously enough to do your thing every day.

Deciding is (in some ways) the hard part.

I don’t have to expend any mental energy deciding, I already did that a year ago.

I don’t need to waste any energy wondering if I will write. I know I will. So my focus can go to what it is I will write.

The unsubscribe reframe

August 26, 2025

Yesterday the Youtube channel I use to post my daily films reached 100 subscribers! Yay!

I screenshotted it and everything.

Then today I went on and there was 99 subscribers, meaning ONE of my subscribers removed themselves.

Ouch.

I wondered why this might have happened. Are my videos not flashy enough? Don’t they think I’m funny or clever? Is a video a day too often for them?

The truth is it could have been all of these things- and none of them matter. Or all of them matter depending on how you look at it.

My videos are the way they are because I make them that way and they come out daily because that’s what I do.

This person unsubscribed because it’s not for them.

I realised immediately that them unsubscribing is actually preserving an equilibrium in the universe.

They don’t want what I’m cooking and I don’t wanna cook what they want!

Thank GOD they unsubscribed, we can each get on with the journeys we are on.

With each unsubscribe, you are closer to where you actually want to be.

Last thing before bed

August 23, 2025

Sometimes you’re about to fall asleep and you realise you haven’t done one of your daily habits.

It’s amazing the sudden rush of energy you feel to complete the habit for that day.

And sometimes you feel the opposite.

Either way- you still have to do it.

Give them some credit

August 21, 2025

Audiences are smart.

I wondered wether or not to add a joke in one of my daily films that indirectly quoted something Steve Jobs about the invention of the iPad. I considered editing it out because it was ‘too niche’.

But I’m glad I left it in.

For those who did get the joke, I’m sure the reference would have been appreciated. And for those who didn’t? I think the attitude around it was was filled with enough specificity that they didn’t need to know the reference- they got enough story from the playing.

I don’t want to water things down to try and cast the net wide for some unspecified generic person. I think it’s about following my actual interest or true chuckles.

Scratch your own itch, there’s probably people out there who are itchy in the same way.

What wouldn’t exist

August 12, 2025

Tonight was one of the latest video uploads I’ve done in a while. I didn’t start making it till 9pm. As the day and night wore on I got increasingly anxious about whether I would have time to make my daily film.

My brain would race between “oh no, this is it! I won’t have time to shoot and edit something AND get a good night’s rest!”

And

“No, this is great- come one, how can I do it in a way that’s quick easy and fun?”

I had to utilise all my positive framing training!

I did make something (yay) about a pillow that changes colour when your head hits it. It’s not going to win me an oscar, but it’s a sweet little concept that I’m glad I made.

I imagined a world in which I didn’t get to make it and I felt sad that the cute little blue pillow video didn’t exist. And then I realised all of my daily films could so easily had not existed had I not decided on this habit two hundred and thirty days ago.

Makes me think what are the creations out there floating, un-made every single day.

A sad thought.

But one that inspires me even more to get to work. Let’s not rob the world of anything.

When you stop scheduling your daily habits

August 10, 2025

It’s actually a good thing.

It means you just do them and they’re part of your day to day.

You don’t schedule when you brush your teeth but you probably do it most days (I hope).

Don’t clog your calendar, just get on and do your habits because that’s what you do.

JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

The little things

Course correcting pilots