JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Difficulty

Forgetting what you know

April 20, 2026

It amazes me how we can know something yet still not use it.

One of the simplest hacks for feeling great and getting the best out of ourselves is how we use our body.

I KNOW this.

If I am hunched over with a droopy face and dead eyes- I feel down.

If I’m upright, expressive in the face with a fire in my eyes- you know how I’m going to feel.

Yet I forget this on a weekly basis. I find myself feeling unproductive and lethargic and you bet my body matches that.

I also think this is okay.

Learning is only useful when you use it.

Every time you forget to use what you know theres an oppurtunity to begin again, and to put into action what you know.

Don’t lament that you forgot to do what you know.

Celebrate because you remembered that you forgot!

Brushing your teeth

April 17, 2026

How do you follow through on what you set out to do?

I love those moments of inspiration. When something is suddenly clear, you know exactly what you want and what it’ll be like when you get there.

The tricky part is how to keep that alive.

And the answer has to lie in a system. I wish I could, but I can’t reply on inspiration every day- it requires too much thinking. We need to figure out how to translate that to the systematic actions that take place daily without our constant upkeep.

I don’t visualise the perfect healthy smile every day, yet I do brush my teeth twice a day.

It’s not because I’m a powerful productivity god, I just have a simple action I do each day (and you probably do too).

So the question isn’t how do we keep motivated.

It’s how to we harness that initial momentum, wisely pick the ‘tooth brushing’ equivalent action and merely do that daily.

Our capacity will grow over time and we inch closer without the constant mental load.

Magic and mechanics

April 16, 2026

There’s the magic and then there’s mechanics.

The magic is what we’re always trying to create. The thing that drew us in in the first place.

You want that ‘wow’ moment when the curtain comes up on the show you’re writing.

You want the flow of an electric classroom where students are fizzing and learning is bouncing in all directions.

You want that feeling of presence in the scene where the audience forgets they’re watching two actors.

This is the magic.

Then there’s the mechanics. There’s the hours of drafting, re-drafting and editing the play. There’s learning the editing software. There’s drilling the acting technique. It’s boring. Its laborious. It’s unforgiving.

But it’s necessary. You can’t have one without the other.

The trick, I think, is to keep the magic alive while you’re in the trenches.

Keep the vision alive of the curtain coming up when you’re reworking a scene for the 37th time.

If we can do that, we’ll get through the mechanics and one day (soon) you’ll get to pop the champagne.

Attach to the outcome not the means

April 12, 2026

It’s advice I’ve been given as an actor.

An actor can play the same scene night after night because she has the same objective as the character each performance. It feels fresh every night because the means always changes.

In life we don’t need to know the ‘how’ either. We just need to have the outcome and the reason.

That’s plenty to get you there.

Wrapping paper

April 9, 2026

I’m a big believer in wrapping paper.

I’m mostly fine with people speaking their mind. If I’m in the way, tell me. If I’m being too loud, please let me know.

My problem comes when people put it in the wrong wrapping paper.

For example, someone is speaking a little too loud. You can tell them to ‘shut up’. Or you can gently let them know know.

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

You can say the difficult thing, but you can do it with kindness, levity and generosity.

I’m a BIG believer in wrapping paper.

Every go is it’s own go.

March 31, 2026

Ever fallen into the trap of thinking that the past equals the future?

That because you’ve failed at something before you’ll fail at it again?

I recently felt this first hand when I felt myself getting superstitious in the show. We’re on tour with Mrs Krishnan’s Party and we had a great matinee show the other day…

Somehow I got it in my head that because we had a really great afternoon show, the evening show wasn’t going to be as good. That we had somehow ‘had the good one’ already.

Boy, it was a sticky belief too, it was pulling me out of doing my job, which is just to play the situation and be in the action!

The reality is, every event has the possibility of being a universe unto itself.

The evening show is it’s own thing. There’s a whole new audience, we’re in a different universe.

Everything can be on it’s own.

Just because you did a great job last time, it doesn’t mean you can’t again.

Just because you failed on the first attempt doesn’t mean you will again.

Every go is it’s own go.

Remember that.

Stay connected

March 26, 2026

I think the root cause of procrastination is a lack of connection to the end goal of what you’re trying to do.

Say, you just can’t get yourself to sit down and write. That just means you’re disconnected from all the good that comes into your life when you write the book; you’re a published author, people connect to your ideas, you knock something off your bucket list… all those things are true.

But in the moment, you aren’t thinking of these in a visceral way.

So a fun game I’m playing is merely reconnecting vividly to the end goal of any action I’m resistant to beginning.

Give it a go.

The line

March 24, 2026

I just waited in a three and a half hour airport line. The one mistake I saw people make was to fall into the trap of acting like you were in the longest line of your life (and trust me, it was the longest line of my life)

I saw people 20 minutes in who were huffing and puffing ready to explode… sure you can be there at hour three, but you’ve got to pace yourself!

The trick is to give yourself somewhere to go. You don’t start the angry scene already fuming, you make the character cheery when they first enter. They can then journey into their aggression!

Don’t start where you don’t want to end. Start where you want to be and see if you can stay there.

The two show day meditation

March 22, 2026

We’re doing a matinee and an evening show today and I’m reminded of a lesson I learned from the school of doing the same show for 9 years…

The only show that matters is the one you’re in now.

At the beginning of the matinee today I caught myself imagining the next show.

It’s the theatrical equivalent of trying to eat the entire elephant (and then another later on)

You simple can’t think of the next show; it’ll happen without you needing to.

Stay in what you’re in, then be in what you will be in.

No prizes for stubborness

March 18, 2026

Do you follow rules that no longer matter?

Last year I set a goal for myself to act every day- and the way I did that was by daily making a little video and posting it.

And I did it. Yay!

But the interesting thing was, somewhere along the way I disconnected from the actual outcome.

I set myself the ‘rule’ that I had to post something every day. And so I stuck to that rule religiously.

But in so doing, I lost sight of what I really wanted to be doing: creating something of value that I loved and that other people could love to.

So instead of noticing that and shifting my approach, I stuck to the rule.

So I’m very mindful now of getting rid of that which no longer serves me.

Am I following this rule because I’m too stubborn to change?

Or is it still taking me where I want to go?

Don’t continue to do something just because you said you would…

Each day you learn more and get closer to knowing what it actually is that you want.

And your previous decisions and commitments may not serve the updated picture.

Don’t be stubborn. Be flexible.

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