JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Inner Peace

You always have a choice.

January 12, 2026

In a bad mood? You have a choice.

Feeling overwhelmed? You have a choice.

Feeling bored? You have a choice.

I like to remind myself that I always have a choice. Things may indeed be really difficult. When I have a few too many things to do I can buy into the hype of overwhelm and “stress as a status symbol”… but that’s all it is; hype.

And hype is rarely worth buying into.

You can have a lot of things to do AND still be fun to be around.

You always have a choice

You’re on a spaceship

January 7, 2026

Imagine if you were on a spaceship with a group of strangers.

Imagine as well that it was common knowledge that in approximately 60 years the spaceship would crash into an asteroid.

And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

How do you spend those years? Do the people stay strangers?

If you knew you’d be gone after the asteroid, how would that affect your day to day?

Earth is a bit like a giant spaceship isn’t it?

And our inevitable end is an awful lot like an asteroid.

With stakes like this, it’s not just about using our time wisely, it’s about using it lovingly.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Meaning makers

January 3, 2026

We are the ones who get to decide what things mean to us.

Is this the beginning or the end?

Is life a war or a test?

Yes, yes this is all great in theory… but this morning I spilt a third of my pristine smoothie and had an unsatisfying amount left.

The knee jerk meaning was that “this sucks, life sucks and I’m sad now.”

But then I realised that your highest behavioral aspirations only have real meaning when the going gets tough.

Sad smoothie? Yup that’s tough going.

So I decided to change the meaning. I looked down at the spilt smoothie and smiled…

“Yay, I get to have more breakfast!” I made a bowl of weetbix- something I don’t normally do- and enjoyed a Petit Déjeuner instead of being mad at my one third empty smoothie.

Oh wait, no- it was a two thirds full smoothie 😉

All the kings horses

January 2, 2026

Mark Duplass has this great speech he gave a few years back to aspiring film makers.

He warned us about waiting for the cavalry. That as creatives we can fall into the trap of thinking that the cavalry is coming and that any tiny incremental improvement we make in our work might trick us into believing that.

Big breakthroughs make us think the cavalry is coming. Those small wins can be intoxicating too.

Mark says the cavalry is not coming. It might feel like they are and people will tell you they are. But they’re not.

And Mark says this isn’t something to be sad about. The truth is, you don’t want the cavalry to come and save you.

The truth is, you get to a certain point of success of your own creation and the cavalry kinda is coming. Massive career changing opportunities come to you. The cavalry!

But when that happens, you don’t want ‘career changing’

You’ve worked hard for this career, thank you very much.

They came too late and you’re not interested in all the kings horses.

Because you are the king of your own castle now. And you are your own cavalry.

Mark is pretty on to it, I reckon

So. Can. You.

December 30, 2025

If they can you can.

We’d do well to remember that if someone else has gotten a result, that means we can do that too.

There may well be exceptions to this rule, but why focus on the exceptions?

If there’s a belief that serves you, you might as well believe it.

“Yeah but that person is really tall”

Or

“Yeah but they’ve got years on me.”

Or

“Yeah but I live in the wrong place”

Sure, if you look you’ll find the exceptions to any rule. And the exceptions are also handy to let us off the hook.

It’s much risker to choose to believe that if they can you can.

Don’t let yourself off the hook. What do you want? Has someone else done it?

Great.

So. Can. 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.

Becoming the phone

December 17, 2025

Opportunity is attracted to movement.

Ever notice how job offers, new clients and requests come flying in the moment you decide to focus on your own creation?

This seems to be true in the acting world. It’s like a Murphy’s law of sorts; you wait for the phone to ring and it never does. Then you decide to go build a sand castle and it’s ringing off the hook.

We have to be careful though…

We mustn’t make the sand castle to try and coax the opportunity; it doesn’t work that way.

We also mustn’t create movement for movement’s sake; creating more busy-ness doesn’t help.

The real secret is building a sand castle so grand and so exciting, that when the phone rings you genuinely consider not answering it.

That’s where the real juice is. When your sand castle is more compelling than someone else’s (and it will be, because you made it the way you like) you end up leaving them to do their thing and guess what?

You’ll be picking up the phone to call in some talented people looking to apply their skills.

Don’t wait for the phone.

Become the phone.

When the going gets good

December 8, 2025

I noticed recently I only wrote in my journal when things were difficult or not going the way I wanted. I supposed it’s why we have the phrase ‘nothing to write home about’.

The problem with this is it’s training my brain to not notice when things are going good. The journal becomes the ambulance at the bottom of the hill, something we reach for as a tool for fixing things.

That’s okay- that’s part of why we journal.

But here’s a note to myself to remember to journal when things are good. Often when things are running smoothly we simply don’t notice. Then when we look back we don’t perceive those long stretches of smooth sailing.

If your perception of your life is just what you remember at the end of it all and you only stop to take note of the hard times, what do you think your perception of your life will be?

We must notice when it’s hard and we must MUST notice when it’s good. Our poor little brains put so much effort into creating an ideal environment for us, we have to do them a favour and spend time focusing on that stuff!

What is really working for you right now that you are not paying attention to?

Be the boss of your notifications

November 30, 2025

Here’s the easiest way I know to be more productive:

Don’t let any apps send you notifications.

Smart phones are awesome but they’re also annoying. If anything happens on any messaging, email or social media app, it tells you.

There’s a noise and then that enticing red-apple-looking-notification sign with a number of how many juicy messages you get.

I’ve removed them all. My phone doesn’t tell me if I get an email or message.

The apps are still on my phone, they just don’t talk to me.

They can wait, thank you very much.

A number in a little red bubble doesn’t have the right to divert my attention.

I let them all accrue- messages, dms, notifications, emails.

And then I go and visit them when I’m ready.

I’ll look at you and deal with you when I’m good and ready. And some days I’m simply not ready. I can check tomorrow or next week or never.

Of course it does take some training to fight the urge to check. But once you get over that, you’re a bit free aren’t you?

And that’s pretty nice.

Less time reacting to red number bubbles and more doing things that matter to you.

Win win

November 28, 2025

The best things in life aren’t free- the best things are win- win.

And here’s the best part- you get to control that.

We have to seek them win wins though- we have to look for them. I found one today I can’t wait to share with you:

The apple CarPlay in my car drops out sometimes. I’m not sure why- but it’s SUPER annoying. The last few times it happened, my face almost melted off I was that annoyed.

So this morning I had a plan. I popped my AirPods within easy reach and set off in my car. My Lenny Kravitz song was only in the first verse when CUT! my CarPlay stopped working.

Without missing a beat I put my AirPod’s in and continued listening to the man, the myth, the Lenny.

Win. Win.

If my CarPlay works- GREAT! I get to groove and the whole world can hear. If it drops out GREAT! I get to have a private ear drum party with my favourite songs.

This is how we must approach life. Set yourself up to win no matter the outcome. We can do this by manipulating our physical world (like the CarPlay situation). Or we can do it by reframing the outcomes to mean more empowering things for ourselves; “if this happens it’s good because X, and if that happens it’s good because Y.”

The best things in life are win win.

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