Growth

Resourcefulness follows commitment

January 5, 2026

Said another way: If you’re committed you will find a way. What does it mean to truly be committed? Well I think it means there is no other option. If you’re hungry you’ll find a way to get food. So the magic doesn’t actually come from the ‘how’ but from the commitment. Let’s not look for resources before we commit. We don’t need to vet our commitments. We just need to decide this is the way it will be, ensuring it aligns with higher human values of love, generosity and growth and we will simply find a way. With commitment comes resource. Don’t worry about the level of your resource. Concern yourself with the level of your commitment.

I think everyone should warm up their voice

January 1, 2026

At drama school, the idea of warming up the voice and body was very normal. Before that, I think I’d only heard of warming up in the context of sports.

There is a bit of a belief sometimes that if someone is warming up they aren’t good enough to just do the thing.

It would be great if we didn’t believe that.

Actors warm up to free and flex their voice because they are about to use it.

The reason I think we should all have voice warm ups is because we all use our voices to do things in the world. Sure it’s not in the context of a performance, but we still use it.

Your voice warm up doesn’t need to be fancy. Here’s a really easy way to warm your voice up:

Step 1: Choose your favourite song

Step 2: Do a lip trill along with your song. Follow the melody as precisely as you can.

There you go- you’ve warmed your voice up!

Happy new year :)

December 31, 2025

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when it comes to reflecting on the year that’s past.

You want to do justice to what’s been, gather the lessons and plan ahead to the new year.

It’s a big task- so sometimes simple is best. Here are two simple questions that have helped me when doing a massive review is a bit much.

1)What were my favourite times of this past year?

List all the times you were having fun, or felt at your best. Write lots down, both broad snapshots in life and specific moments, get it all down.

2)What are the commonalities?

What are the few things that these experiences had in common?

I.e Being in a new location, working fast and hard on a project, being around people you love and trust… etc

You’ve simultaneously looked at what you loved from the past year and are building an awesome year ahead.

Happy new year 🙂

What you trained for

December 28, 2025

The only time you would actually use martial arts is a situation you don’t really want to think about.

You’d hope you never actually have to fight someone- yet you still train.

Sure, there is learning to be had in the pursuit, but when it comes down to it, the purpose of it is to fight.

I think it’s similar for self development.

It’s easy and enjoyable to learn about it and apply the theory in hypothetical situations…

But it only matters when things get hard.

When the going gets tough, that’s your real chance to use it.

It might feel uncomfortable and not as fun as the other stuff- but this is exactly what you trained for.

If it’s hard right now, that’s good. This is what you trained for.

Use it.

The right form

December 27, 2025

To kick a rugby ball you need the right form.

You approach the ball at the correct angle. You run up on the correct leg. Your breathing is a certain way. Your foot meets the ball at a precise point and follows through as the ball glides up.

Kicking the ball, holding the golf club or making the high jump requires your body to be in the right form.

This isn’t magic; it’s form.

And form isn’t limited to sports.

Take a second to imagine these…

What is the ‘form’ of an excellent writer?

A fast reader?

Or a highly engaging speaker?

What does an effective teacher look like?

What is the form of an efficient artist?

What does an entertaining host look like?

You may be able to conjure these pictures in your head. (If you can’t, now’s a great time to find some models.)

If we can imagine their form, we can adopt it.

If we can adopt it, we can get similar results.

Overnight failure

December 26, 2025

Success doesn’t happen over night.

Luckily, neither does failure.

We’re so encouraged to ‘not miss a day’ or keep the chain unbroken

The danger with this is if we do miss a day, we may throw the baby out with the bath water.

One ‘off’ day doesn’t mean it’s all over. Neither does a few in a row.

In fact, you could have a year of ‘off’ days and then make a new choice at any moment.

How good.

Success or failure is just a series of choices. The more you make in one direction the more you get.

Don’t let a few bad choices spoil the bunch.

Missed a day? That’s fine, you still have tomorrow.

(and the next day)

The worst and the favourite

December 22, 2025

Here’s a game, make your least favourite thing the favourite thing.

What is something you’ve been avoiding? What is a task or activity that either completely bores you or you may even dread?

Would you be interested in changing that? Okay, here are some questions for you…

-What would you have to do to that experience to make it your favourtie thing?

-How would you have to picture it?

-What would you change about the way you approach it?

-What would you have to believe about what it’s giving you?

-In what ways could it be fun?

-What about it actually benefits you?

-How could you make the worst part of it actually the most interesting or fun part?

Most people don’t want to do what it takes to get where they want to go. Life get’s pretty interesting if we can make the undesirable and necessary things unbelievably easy and fun for ourselves.

I’d say that’s an advantage worth working for, wouldn’t you?

Humans are so good at generalising

December 21, 2025

It appears in phrases like “You always do that” or “It’s always like this”.

If they really did always do the thing you’re talking about, they wouldn’t have time to eat or sleep. So no, they’re not ‘always’ doing that.

It can seem harmless, right? Yes, we all know we don’t mean they literally always do it- it’s just a figure of speech.

The problem with that is figures of speech tend to pop up in other places and they affect how we think about things and so what we do.

A powerful habit is to be able to destroy generalisations and vagueness. When we aren’t clear on the details of something, we have little hope of effectively dealing with it.

If you have a ‘mountain’ of paperwork you’re in a less powerful position than having 78 documents to read and sign.

Give yourself the best shot and remove the generalisations from your speech.

Specific vs Broad

December 19, 2025

There’s a time for details and there’s a time for broad strokes.

I find this balance really difficult, but when people get it right things really take off.

So when is the time for each one? Well, there’s no hard and fast rule sadly, that’s my difficulty. But there are some guidelines to help…

A mass of work.

If you have a monumental amount to get through, that is definitely a time for broad strokes. Writers say you shouldn’t edit as you go. Potato farmers say you shouldn’t count the potatoes as you’re throwing them in the truck (do they say this..? Potato farmers, let me know). When we have a lot to do, we should err on the side of broad strokes. There’s simply too much to be fussy.

Preparing.

This requires detail I think. Sometimes we’re encouraged to launch in fearlessly to a project and this might make us think broad strokes, but I think that’s wrong headed. We can launch ourselves in fearlessly and still do so with detail at the forefront. Fearless launching doesn’t have to be synonymous with ham fisted action. We can be bold in our attention to detail.

The best approach of course is to be awake to our tendency to be broad when we must be specific and be specific when we must be broad.

I think finding this balance unlocks some exciting stuff.

Trust that you’ll look up soon and see it.

December 18, 2025

This week has felt unproductive. I’ve felt scattered across 4 different areas, task switching (I know) and seemingly making no progress on any.

The tasks were all meaty enough to require multiple sittings so I didn’t have the satisfaction on any to get a clean completion.

Yet…

I look up from my whirlwind week and I see a little garden of jobs that are nearly done I’m not condoning task switching or multitasking… BUT I think we’d do well to remember the long (ish) game when coming to these multi-sit tasks.

They won’t feel satisfying.

They won’t be done in one sitting.

You’ll get confused.

You’ll be tired.

And you’ll probably have to go on a few side quests within the tasks.

But keep plugging away, because soon enough you will look up and you’ll see…

“Okay, good. I did move the needle”

JUSTIN ROGERS

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