JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Learning

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!

Does making learning fun trivialise the learning?

March 7, 2026

There’s a belief I’ve battled with in the past that if we make learning fun, it undercuts the seriousness of the subject.

Whenever I have an internal conflict like this I always come back to outcome. What is this really about? What are we trying to do?

Well with the learning I deliver, my big bold outcome is to bring it to life for the kids. Words can also betray us a bit here, because you hear a word like ‘fun’ and that might conjure images of a hectic classroom, a ball bouncing off a window and no one listening to each other.

So maybe the word ‘fun’ isn’t the right word.

What I’m really looking for is life.

There is life in a kid’s eye when they are transfixed by a giant digger doing construction next door. There is life in their eye when they notice an adult is in a bad mood. And there is indeed life when they are learning something they love.

The only thing that can trivialise learning is a trivial intention.

If you’re looking to make ‘fun’ of something, yeah you’re probably going to be a bit disrespectful.

If you’re looking to bring something to life, though? Well now you’re playing a game I like. And there are a million and one ways to bring something to life. There are quiet ways, big ways, busy ways and gentle ways.

Let’s take seriously our job to create vibrant, living connections to the learning we share.

That sounds fun to me

Revisit

February 27, 2026

Do you fall into this trap too?

I love learning new things.

But sometimes I feel like I have an insatiable appetite for new information. The problem with that is things can remain surface level.

I’m recently enjoying revisiting things. The book you read 6 years ago is kind of a different book when you, as you are now, read it again.

A simple foundational exercise has oceans more to be learned when we come back to it again years after the first time.

More is not always more. More with the same thing, on the other hand. Well yes, that is probably more.

The thing doesn’t change. But you do, so the thing is different too.

Revisit

February 26, 2026

Do you fall into this trap too?

I love learning new things.

Sometimes I feel like I have an insatiable appetite for new information that I can apply to my life and work. The problem with that is things can remain surface level.

I’m recently enjoying revisiting things. The book you read 6 years ago is kind of a different book when you, as you are now, read it.

A simple foundational exercise has oceans more to be learned when we come back to it again and again years after the first time.

More is not always more. More with the same thing, on the other hand. Well yes, that is probably more.

Blankets

January 16, 2026

Blanket statements- like other types of blankets- can give us security and a sense of safety.

“I don’t listen to advice from HER.”

“I never do things like THAT.”

While they can give us certainty (highly prized for us humans) they can also cut us off from other possibilities.

SHE might have some great advice.

You might grow a little doing something like THAT.

Blankets have a funny way of covering everything. A blanket doesn’t always let you see the nuance.

But if you’re brave enough to emerge from the warmth of your blanket, you’ll see the nuance. And in that nuance lies the possibility for more.

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.

The missing piece of cake

December 24, 2025

They say that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

I think the same is true for things we know.

Something that is a piece of cake for you might be the missing piece for someone else.

One person’s breakfast is another person’s breakthrough (Trying to coin a phrase, is it any good?)

We’re often too close to our own abilities, skills, stories, distinctions and remarkable results to see the potential value they can provide to someone.

So don’t be stingy with the magic you make, it’s your responsibility to share it.

In theory

December 20, 2025

Most things are comfortable in theory.

We can follow through, we can be vulnerable, we can take rejection, we can weather failure easily….

… in theory.

It’s why they say talk is cheap.

It’s really easy to talk about the hard stuff in the abstract. “Someday if things are hard…” or “if this ever did happen…”

When it comes to the moment, how can you be sure we can still make good on your talk?

A time for learning and a time for delivery

December 7, 2025

Learning moments and delivery moments.

We have to choose what we want.

I was exporting a large number of edited video files a few nights ago and as I geared up to hit export, I realised it may have been possible to do it a different, maybe more efficient way. I did a quick google and sure enough, there it was; this other method I could use and would probably use on into the future

I had a choice- do I go ahead with my work as planned or do I take the time to learn this new thing.

The new thing would have been useful… but mostly if I knew it right now. It’s not so useful if I add the learning and implementation time. And I needed these things exported right now.

I think of this as ‘11th hour learning’. It wasn’t the time to learn something new.

There’s a vocal warm up tape that I use before shows, though it is designed for auditions.

There’s this part that cracks me up where she goes “Remember this is an audition, you want to show them what you can do not try anything new!” I used to giggle at this in my actorly way because surely it’s all about the discovery of newness each time! Well I think she was speaking specifically about singing auditions in which you definitely don’t want to try belting for the first time.

The more I think about it though, the more I agree.

There’s a time for learning and there’s a time for delivery. And sometimes you just have to get on with your job and deliver the goods.

You can have both, just not at the same time I don’t think.

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?

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