Getting inspired

Room improvers

June 29, 2026

I’m workshopping a new musical this week with a group of wonderful people.

Have you ever noticed that there is always one person in a group who is the electric charge of the group? A person that elevates the room?

Imagine you’re one of 10 actors reading a play and Jim Carrey walks in to join in.

In my mind, the moment he enters it elevates everything.

He’s what I’d call a room improver.

Got the picture?

Yeah, this musical workshop is a room full of room improvers.

It’s great

How do you want it to go?

June 28, 2026

When theres something coming up soon that you want to do a great job at, you have some options about how to think about it…

You can try and ignore it.

You can picture yourself doing a bad job at it.

You can picture yourself absolutely nailing it (and having fun in the process).

It seems a bit of a no brainer, right?

But how many times do you find yourself picturing the thing not working out?

For me, it’s a regular internal conversation; I picture the thing and it’s a version that I kind of dread.

I have to change it on purpose.

What would it look like if it wen’t really well? What would it look like if it were easy? What would it look like if it were actually a lot of fun?

It’s easy to forget, but we can change the pictures we make in our head to match what we want.

Want to follow through?

May 24, 2026

Connect it to your highest values.

Write a paragraph about how the action you want to take links directly to the things you care about most in life.

Then you won’t have to brute force your way through, you’ll be pulled along effortlessly.

Passion cuts through

May 13, 2026

You might not need killer productivity

Or the best ideas

and you might not to be the best.

All you need it passion. That vital SPARK that emboldens others, makes them their best and brings out your best.

I’m pretty sure just priming this state each day is about 80% of the battle.

Too much too soon

April 24, 2026

It’s new years day and you have a big beautiful piece of paper in front of you. It’s got scribbles in different colours with words and sentences of all different sizes; this is you LIFE PLAN.

It’s so exciting! You can see it all there in front of you. The energy of the fresh cup of coffee coupled with the momentum of the first day of January has hit you hard and this grand plan represents your entire vision.

This was me on new years day- I had the added inspiration of being on the beach at Oakura Bay in the north of New Zealand. My inspiration quickly turned to overwhelm. I had no trouble getting all my visions and goals down on the page. But just a few hours later I looked at the page again. What was once a battery pack that charged me up with energy now seemed like the opposite- I felt drained and daunted by what lay in front of me.

Inspiration isn’t enough.

Being inspired feels great, doesn’t it? New Years Day does it, but we see these moments in other bursts throughout the year too. The beginning of term or the start of a new flashy program at school… these ‘launch’ moments have a tendency to burn bright and burn fast. The problem isn’t the vision, we need a clear direction. The problem is too much too soon.

One of the grand goals I had was for the kids I was teaching to have a full Te Reo exchange with me at the beginning of class. I barreled into our first session together and began laying out a multi-step greeting and conversation exchange… It felt exciting and new and I got some great initial progress. But the next time I went in, the kids had forgotten and each subsequent lesson I had to start from scratch. The kids were over chunked; it was too much too soon.

Out of frustration one day, I decided to drop it. So I just did the opening greeting. Some of them remembered it… cool! I drilled it again for those still not confident. The next few lessons I just did the same.

What I’d hoped would take me one lesson actually took more like six- but I was stoked.

I learned to use the moments of inspiration as the ‘lift off’ and chunk down the subsequent bits. It doesn’t all have to feel like the raging fire of a rocket taking off.

Sometimes it’s just striking a match.

And when you strike enough of them, you get a pretty bright light.

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.

Memories

March 5, 2026

Isn’t it amazing that we can revisit, reanimate and re-experience memories whenever we choose?

When was the last time your stomach and face hurt from laughing?

Do you remember feeling so nervous you could hardly move?

When did you feel complete bliss?

All of these memories are there for us. It’s like a dormant library in our brain, waiting for us to stroll in and choose a book.

Its easy to never access these. Or to access just the same handful over and over.

And it’s also easy to simply ask the question:

“Remember when…”

Quality Time

February 24, 2026

Quality time is time spent on good things.

Quality time could be 5 minutes.

Quality time is also turning ordinary time into durations that feel more productive. I find that an hour of uninterrupted work can feel hellishly unproductive. But if, in the middle of the hour, I go for a 5 minute walk or have a stretch break, the time (which is now shorter) feels much better,

We can transform the feeling of time with what we surround it with.

How do you turn ordinary time into extraordinary time?

Awesome

February 21, 2026

I like thinking about the true meaning of words.

We overuse many words- I think we all went through a phase of saying everything was “raaaandom”

One that really get’s thrown around is “awesome”… and look I don’t mind it.

But remember what it means. Awesome. The thing you’re referring to makes you feel awe. It is literally awe inspiring. It’s not ‘neat’ it invokes AWE.

I think that’s awesome.

Get to

February 8, 2026

One of the simplest shifts in language has massively changed my life.

I found myself saying things like “I have to do the show tonight” or “I have to go to that meeting”.

Shows and meetings are part of the life I’ve designed for myself- so “have to” doesn’t ring as true for me.

“Have to” is against your will. It’s reluctant. It’s “Okay, fine I’ll do that”

None of these belong in the life I want. And the good news is, we can use language te remind ourselves each moment that we have a choice.

Switch your “have to” to a “get to”.

“I get to do the show tonight”

“I get to go to that meeting”

Look at all you get to do. How lucky are we?

JUSTIN ROGERS

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