Getting inspired

The actor in rehearsal

December 15, 2025

The actor in rehearsal is simultaneously like a kid on a playground and a bomb squad member cutting the red wire… or was it the green one?

Nowhere else have I experienced the utter joy of play and the deepest danger of humiliation.

Actors are uniquely bred to weather both of these.

Play too much and it dies for the audience (you can’t have all the fun, you have to let them it!)

Don’t risk anything and we might as well give the show a miss.

Great actors toe the line.

Andrew Scott said the job of rehearsal is for the actor to try everything they can possibly think of. He often feels humiliated, small, silly or dumb in rehearsal. And the fact that he is willing to do that, over and over again means he gets to deliver ‘Andrew Scott’ performances.

What can we learn from the actors rehearsal room orientation in other aspects o work?

“You are interesting to the extent that you’re interested”

December 10, 2025

This is one of my favourite acting ideas. I heard it first in an early interview with Jeff Goldblum and he had learned it from his teacher Sanford Meisner.

It’s the idea that as actors one of our key jobs is to put our focus outwardly, on the world, the task and, most beautifully, on our scene partner.

They say there’s nothing more captivating than watching someone tying their shoes. They are unselfconscious and completely wrapped up in their simple objective- tying their shoe.

This is the gold standard we are going for as actors. We want to honestly have our focus, energy and intention on doing something.

I say ‘honestly’ because we must fight the natural human urge to be liked and thought of as good. And there’s the extra thing for actors of auditioning, where we have to somehow forget we are seeking to be cast.

Part of acting is learning to ‘honestly’ place our focus.

That’s it.

It’s riveting when someone does that. Don’t worry about being interesting, get interested.

The actor and the swear word

December 6, 2025

Andrew Scott is one of my favourite actors- and someone (dared) ask him how he remembers all those lines.

Even though this is every actor’s least favourite question- Andrew managed an answer that has stuck with me.

He said that generally actors have no problem remembering swear words. If their character really get’s to give it to another character in an outburst or argument, the indulgent part of every actor has ZERO trouble remembering that sequence.

The same goes for any text that an actor finds silly, gross, weird or unusual in some way.

What’s really happening is the text is causing an emotional movement in us. We are creating an emotional map; physiological reactions that embed the specifics of the text in our brain. It seems to live there ‘rent free’ as the kids say.

The game then, Andrew says, is to make every word your character says as interesting as the swear word. Our job is to connect to each and every word so they fall out of us as effortlessly as that weird part you could recite in your sleep.

We can’t force ourselves to remember things- it has to resonate emotionally for us. Brute force won’t do it, we must soften and connect.

Soften and connect- now that’s a pretty good way to be in general, don’t you think?

Changing your information diet

December 1, 2025

Ever feel like you’re in a loop of the same ideas and concepts?

On the one hand it’s excellent to mull and chew on ideas to deepen your understanding of them,

On the other hand it can feel a bit like a maze that loops in on itself.

If I find myself circling the same ideas without deepening my connection to them, I change my diet.

New inputs makes new outputs, right?

If I change the things I consume, new ideas start to circulate and I form new relationships with them.

The best part is, the new information diet frames the old ideas.

You can revisit them but you do so anew. You’re knowledge is broader, you’ve lived in new strange lands and you’re taller than you were.

You see the old idea in a new light. Your knowledge deepens and grows and you aren’t stuck with stagnant water, but a roaring ocean of living information!

Pick good beliefs

November 29, 2025

The best thing about beliefs is you get to choose them

The second best thing is they don’t have to be true.

They just have to serve you.

The adage goes that whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

I think most people believe they can’t change their beliefs- funny that.

If we can divorce ourselves from ‘reality’ and choose instead to believe only that which serves us and others, we can probably do anything.

After all, it was ‘impossible’ for humans to run the four minute mile until Roger Bannister did it.

Once we saw him do it suddenly everyone could do it.

Did the evolution of the human body speed up that year or did we all change our beliefs?

Your beliefs are up to you- pick some good ones, yeah?

You probably don’t need to learn more information

November 27, 2025

I love learning. And this can actually be to my detriment.

Learning new information is particularly dangerous because on the one hand it is really good! It’s fantastic to gain new ideas, insights and strategies.

The very fact that it’s so positive is why it’s dangerous. Absorbing new information can mask inaction really well.

It’s not often that knowing more was the thing that made the real difference. We mostly know what we need to do.

Here’s a belief to try on: “You have everything within you that you need”

You can start right where you are. Within you also is the capacity to learn what you need on the way.

Trial and error. Hypothesise and experiment.

You can read about swimming or you can dive in the pool. You can probably guess which will get you closer to the Olympics.

Here’s another belief to try on:

The fact that you envisioned the thing you want means you have everything you need to get it. If you can picture it, you can have, be or do it.

Stop learning and jump in the pool.

Why you need to break your flow state

November 26, 2025

We should all take breaks when we work. You might think this is because you need to rest; maybe the work is difficult or not particularly enjoyable, so you have to stop to get some respite, right?

But you also have to have take breaks when you’re enjoying the work.

“But I’ll break my flow state!” you say.

I believe it’s detrimental to stay in it.

Set a timer to work and a timer to rest. Honour both.

If you don’t rest to break up the deep work, you’re more likely to burn out and get to the point of diminishing returns.

It won’t feel like it at the time, your brain will tell you “No! It’s going well, I’ll just do this little bit more!”

That’s a sure sign to take 5 minutes.

If you do take that 5 minutes, you’ll be ITCHING to get back to work AND you’ll have the benefit of a short break.

The 5 minutes you take off of the enjoyable work acts like a sling shot, pulling back the rubber band and building your excitement, anticipation and so the passion you can bring to your next work chunk.

Take breaks when it’s hard and take breaks when it’s fun.

You’ll get more out of yourself over time.

Where does magic come from?

November 20, 2025

I think we all encounter magic now and then. It’s that spark we feel when we completely fall in love with something, when what we’re working on ‘clicks’ or when we are held spell bound by something.

Magic can happen with people, with the art we consume or create, in random encounters in the world or in the work we do in the world. And a million other places.

If magic is the ephemeral and abstract, what is it’s predecessor?

Thankfully, the genesis of magic is concrete (well, some parts anyway). Here’s a few ingredients.

Generous.

Magic comes from a generous act. When the intention behind an action is a generous one. Magic is magic because it increases the level of joy in the world, and generosity is directly aimed at that.

Possibility.

Magic arrives when we invite something that didn’t exist before. We must release the need for certainty and open up to what could be. Just because something hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it can’t. It just means it hasn’t happened before.

Presence.

Magic is alive to what’s happening now. It’s alive and it’s listening intently. Magic requires you to forget what you thought you knew and be with only what is.

Magic is mysterious but it’s downstream from these beautiful pillars.

Care to make magic?

Titles and highlights

November 18, 2025

Time has a funny way of getting on, doesn’t it?

Often I’ll meet Monday with the best of intentions only to find it’s suddenly Monday again and I can’t quite remember what I actually did during the week that past.

Here’s two strategies I use to prevent time slipping through my fingers and actively perceive the weeks as they pass:

1)Title your week.

Any self respecting Google doc has a title so your week deserves one too. Think of what you want your week to be about. Is it major progress on a project? Spending quality time with your family? Having an adventure with your colleagues? Giving your week a title sets it up to be different from any other week. What we want to avoid is each week blurring into the next. You probably remember how you spent that glorious week around Christmas last year- without you knowing, it was titled “Do nothing but swim and eat for a week”- yup, that’s memorable! Name every week to tell yourself why it’s special.

2) Highlight the moments

To continue with the stationary/ office theme, I like to think back and highlight moments in the week that was. What cracked me up? What surprised me? When did someone go beyond the call of duty? When did I live into my desired identity? Highlight all these things, they happened during that week! And when you highlight them, not only does it feel good, but it also helps to idividualise the days and weeks. That’s the goal!

Letting your weeks go by as an anonymous procession is letting your life go by without you seeing it.

Title it. Highlight things.

Don’t miss a moment.

Belief thief

November 17, 2025

Here’s a fun game.

Pick someone who inspires you. Some well known person who you would love to emulate and who’s ‘awesomeness’ seems unattainable to you.

Got one? Great! Now go and find a long form interview with them. Now, don’t listen for entertainment, listen like a detective.

Listen to their story and the answers to the questions and dig beneath what they are saying. You are looking for key beliefs.

What do they beleive about themselves?

How do they see the world?

How do they talk about life? Is it a game, a challenge, a battle or a work of art?

How do they talk about themselves?

How do they view work?

What do they believe about productivity?

What is the most important thing to them in their work?

What are they hunting for?

Most often, they won’t overtly answer these, but you can infer the answers based on what they do say and how they say it. Sift through and find the gold.

You are deconstructing the belief structures that make them who they are and allow them to get the results they get.

Here’s the interesting part. Ask yourself this:

Where do my beliefs differ? What belief do they hold that yI do not? Is it one that is a cornerstone to their success?

Perhaps you see life as a battle, something to be survived. Perhaps they see life as a dance floor to be tangoed through.

Are you willing to try on new beliefs? Are you willing to adopt the structures that support them?

The pathway is laid out for you.

Be a belief thief.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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