Making things

Magic and mechanics

April 16, 2026

There’s the magic and then there’s mechanics.

The magic is what we’re always trying to create. The thing that drew us in in the first place.

You want that ‘wow’ moment when the curtain comes up on the show you’re writing.

You want the flow of an electric classroom where students are fizzing and learning is bouncing in all directions.

You want that feeling of presence in the scene where the audience forgets they’re watching two actors.

This is the magic.

Then there’s the mechanics. There’s the hours of drafting, re-drafting and editing the play. There’s learning the editing software. There’s drilling the acting technique. It’s boring. Its laborious. It’s unforgiving.

But it’s necessary. You can’t have one without the other.

The trick, I think, is to keep the magic alive while you’re in the trenches.

Keep the vision alive of the curtain coming up when you’re reworking a scene for the 37th time.

If we can do that, we’ll get through the mechanics and one day (soon) you’ll get to pop the champagne.

Good enough

March 30, 2026

It’s a difficult one, isn’t? On the one hand you want to put out your best work, always.

On the other hand, perfection is the enemy of execution.

When do you say something is “good enough” and when do aim for a higher standard?

What if “good enough” actually was the best standard? If perfection delays or destroys progress, it is really something to strive for?

“Good enough” is the best because it got made. It started the conversation. It got the show on the road.

There’d be no show without “good enough”.

Celebrate your “good enough”.

And it gives you plenty in the tank for the next one.

3 Steps to making

February 25, 2026

Making something? Here’e a quick set of questions I run it through to increase my clarity and likelihood of following through.

1. What is the output?

This helps me understand what the end product actually looks like. Helps me to know when I’m done and what specifically to shoot for.

2. Why do I love this?

Helps me plug into passion. When in the weeds of creation it’s easy to forget why you love something.

3. Who is it for?

I borrowed this from the great Seth Godin. This helps me get clear on the purpose of the thing, what value it brings to the world and how I can provide that value in an even sharper way in the creation process.

There you have it. Try those out:

What’s the output

Why do I love this

Who is it for?

We all have a way in

February 6, 2026

The fact that you’re a human being means you have a way in.

Early on as a teacher I’d easily feel out of my depth when teaching things I didn’t have all the answers to. We get hypnotised in the culture to believing that we have to be experts.

More often than not, we don’t need to wear that responsibility. We just need a way in.

In acting, we’re encouraged to find truth in the imagined circumstances of a character. One of my teachers Miranda Harcourt calls this ‘make it true for you’. The text talks about a cousin? Build an internal reality of that person.

Make it true for you is the secret to finding confidence when we feel out of our depth in other arenas too.

I don’t know about drums and I can’t play the drums. So I have not connection to them right? No way to make it true for me?

Well I’d say the fact that I can’t play the drums is a relationship to the drums. I know what drums are. I had a friend at high school who played the drums. I’ve always liked that drum solo by Phil Collins.

I suddenly have found my way in.

No matter what we bring ourselves to, in any arena, we always have the ability to make it true for ourselves.

Education is about connection. So finding that connection to any material we teach is vital.

Make it true for you and you’ll have a never ending source of connection.

Actions and outcomes

January 29, 2026

I just watched an episode of Grand Designs UK (my favourite).

It was one of those episodes where the house doesn’t get finished. I think it may even be one of the longest builds on the show.

There was something I noticed in the language of the guy building the house. He said he would ‘tinker’ away at the build over the next ‘little while’.

When I picked up on these language patterns, I understood why the build took so long. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with tinkering or with taking a long time on projects. We can all do whatever we like.

What I’m interested in is effectively meeting our outcomes as determined by ourselves.

All we need to do it make sure our actions match our outcomes.

If you want to enjoy a build that is a long labour of love, then to ‘tinker’ is quite an appropriate verb.

But if you want to get it built in three months and to high spec- you might want to choose another word.

Actors choose action verbs in their work. Different action verbs activate us in different ways.

What do you want and what are the action words you’ll choose to get there?

Outcomes by accident

January 28, 2026

Whether consciously or not, we all have outcomes as teachers.

And depending on the day, they will be of varying qualities. If I’m a bit hungry and tired, in the middle of a school day my outcome might be “To get through this in one piece”

On a better day, my outcome might be “To light these kids up and get them excited about this lesson”

Taking a second state my outcome is always a good idea. We’re all here to do a job and it’s too important to let outcomes be left to chance and to be decided by the whim of your biochemistry or mood.

What is your outcome for your work today?

Useful metrics

January 25, 2026

Measuring things is useful. But not all metrics are useful at all times.

Like anything, it depends on your outcome.

How many likes you get on a video might not be a useful metric when you’re using the video to explore an artistic idea for yourself.

But if you made the thing for the likes, you ought to measure them.

Weighing yourself mightn’t be helpful… but rating yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 on how comfortable and strong your body feels might be.

To know what to measure we must know what we’re after. And to measure the right thing, we have to be strong enough to only care about the thing we are actually measuring.

Some metrics are louder than others. Real growth comes when you can listen to only what matters for your journey.

Course correcting pilots

January 13, 2026

Goals are great… when you remember them. Something I’ve noticed is I’m great at setting goals and feeling that initial enthusiasm. As I’m sure we all are. But it can be tricky to find effective mechanisms of follow through on the day to day. An inefficient way to get to any destination is to only check in a few times across the journey.

I like the image of a pilot needing to constantly course correct across the span of a flight. Did you know they are off course between 90% and 99% of the time? Pilots have to constantly course correct to get to their destination.

The same goes for our goals and I’m using a super simple daily question to help me do that. In my journal every morning I ask myself:

How can I course correct today?

It allows me to look at yesterday, what I did, didn’t do and how I spent my time. If I lived a day like that again would I get to where I want to go? If not, what could I do slightly differently today?

It’s nice to know we can be off 99% of the time and still get there.

It just requires a little course correction ✈️

Just do the next thing

January 9, 2026

Most things are just a matter of jumping through the hoops.

You do the first thing you can see in front of you, then the next thing and then the next thing and the next. And after that the next thing will present itself.

I (and you might too) feel the need to have the perfect plan architected out from the outset.

But we can save ourselves the hassle and the time and just do the first thing.

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.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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