Learning

The edge

December 2, 2025

We’d all do well to remind ourselves what it really means to grow.

Growth sounds great! It’s what we all want and on paper it’s a no brainer.

When it comes down to it though, growth is sweaty, unsure and uncomfortable.

We only grow when we are at our edge. When we try something and it truly “might not work” to quote Seth Godin.

To grow we have to risk something. We have to try something new. And we have to be okay to be in the unknown.

It’s good to remember that sweaty fearful feeling on the edge is the knocking hand of growth.

If we remember this is what it means, we’re much more likely to linger in the uncomfortable and seek it often.

The edge is where the magic happens. And the best part? Each time you meet the edge, a bit more earth grows and extends out the reach of your edge.

After a while you’ll look back at the ground you’ve covered and you’ll hardly be able to see where your edge used to be; there’s just solid earth in it’s place.

Sweat. Grow. Extend. Repeat.

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!

Output is the outcome

November 23, 2025

We have to do something over and over again to get good at it.

Trying to paint the ‘perfect’ picture today is hard.

Trying to paint ‘a’ picture today is easier. And it still might be pretty good… or not.

But that’s not the point. Great pictures are rarely the result of an artist sitting down with the intention of creating a masterpiece.

The ‘masterpiece’ is one of a long line of drafts, sketches, doodles and scribbles.

You can’t have the masterpiece without the scribbles.

Make repetition your resolve. Invest in iteration. Output is the outcome.

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.

Florence’s pang of nerves

November 12, 2025

What causes growth?

Weet-bix!

Yes, lot’s of things. And growth is life. (So weet-bix is life)

Here’s something else that causes growth. Florence Pugh was asked how she chooses what projects she wants to be a part of.

She said she is looking for something that scares her, something that on first reading she fears she might not be able to do.

Florence is looking for the “pang of nerves’” as she calls it when reading a script or learning about a project for the first time.

She’s feeling into her limits. She knows that if she feels that pang, she’ll probably end up doing that project.

With an orientation like this, she is predisposed to growth. She’s on the hunt for what scares her, whether it’s jumping off a building or working with acting royalty; the minute she feels that lump in her stomach, the deal is done.

This is insanely brave. How often do we feel that same pang and avoid it? I know I avoid it all the time.

What is it to lean into it instead? How can we transform that stomach drop moment to mean massive growth is about to happen?

The scientist’s reframe

November 10, 2025

Scientists, engineers and architects know about this.

They know that to get anywhere we must experiment. And experimenting means that most of the time we aren’t getting the desired outcome.

So why is it so hard for us to come to grips with?

How can we make like a scientist with the endeavors of our lives?

How can we take joy in the process of figuring it out and discovering unexpected things along the way?

They do it. We can too.

Poke the box

November 1, 2025

Poke the box- or how I learned to green screen.

Seth Godin has a great little book called ‘Poke the box’.

It’s about learning through experimentation. A box has a big red button- what happens it I press it? How about if I press it twice or five times really quickly?

This idea that we’re life long learners is an important one- but what does that actually look like? Watching the discovery channel? Binging youtube videos? Generally being curious?

I suppose yes, all of these.

And I think it’s about experimentation. It’s poking the box. Sure you might watch some youtube videos about the box, but you really just gotta prod the thing.

This is how I learned to green screen. I had to learn about lighting, distance, shutter speed, iso, frame rate, keying, colouring… in other words a lot of prodding.

I’m not super good at it now- but I know more than I did and can do more than I could.

Even though I know this from experience, I still find myself afraid to experiment. Maybe it comes down to stakes (or at least perceived stakes, which is all they ever are)

If I fail to green screen well, I don’t lose a lot; I can just try again. But if I start a new business on the other hand… well!

But what if we could treat the business like the green screen?

What is it to adopt an attitude of experimentation in all that we do?

To try without the need for perfection but to try toward knowing more than before.

That’s success in my book.

20 years to be an actor

October 28, 2025

One of my tutors at drama school said something that shocked me.

Here we were, 20 young actors in our first year of training and he said “It takes 20 years to be an actor”

What!? But this is a three year course!

I didn’t get what he meant at the time, but 10 years into that journey I’m starting to understand.

Of course we were actors then and we still are. But I think what he was actually saying was much less controversial:

There is always more. Always.

The simplest acting exercises yield infinite and new learning across the years.

You re-meet the old with the new that you have now and the old becomes new.

And it keeps going like that.

I’m glad it takes 20 years, it’s the ride of a life time. I’d like to sign up for another 20 after that too.

There is always more- how good.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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