Sparking others

Some people are magnets

November 14, 2025

They make you smile, they make you feel heard and they make you want to shout “Heck yes!” when they share their vision for the world.

They aren’t magnetic because of any communication tricks or hacks- sure, they may have honed their craft, but theirs is an elementally magnetic core.

Where does it come from? Like most delicious meals, it’s a balance of all the good stuff.

Here are some of the raw materials:

A listener.

This person has the ability to deeply listen to people with both brain and heart.

A purpose.

This person has a burning purpose that will cut through anything. This might be a grand vision for change or something that leads them to hold down their corner of the world and enact the purpose daily.

Values

This person has a strong set of values. Values that make decisions for them.

We not me.

This person is not out for themselves. They understand that a win for you is a win for me. They know that there is no feeling greater than lifting up others.

Leverage.

This person makes big things happen with short conversations.

Abundance.

This person knows there is more than enough.

We need magnets in the world.

We need you to be one and we need you to create them.

Generous words

November 13, 2025

A generous word from a stranger is nice.

A generous word from an authority figure is better; ever notice how they have a way of really sticking?

When we’re young it’s a parent, a teacher or principal.

It holds the same weight as something coming from anyone in a lab coat.

Here’s two generous comments that completely stuck with me:

“You’re on the cusp of something!”

“It’s not a matter of whether or not you’ll succeed, but if you’re ready for it”

We have so much power with what we say (seemingly in passing) to those we lead. Have a couple at the ready and be free in how you share them.

You never know what’ll stick for life.

(AKA, you’re a bit of a wizard aren’t you!)

Honour the ‘or’.

November 7, 2025

Here’s a belief we should be actively fostering in our younger generation:

If something hasn’t been done before it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It Just means it hasn’t been done before.

We can be forgiven for thinking that if something hasn’t happened so far then it won’t at all. After all, we use the past as evidence for what will happen right?

Sometimes.

And other times unprecedented things occur. Sometimes completely new things happen. Massive discoveries are made.

Breakthroughs are breakthroughs because they are breaking through what was once thought impossible.

The past does not equal the future. It might be the same as it was…

…or it might be vastly different.

We must honour the ‘or’.

We owe it to the younger generation to keep the door open to new possibilities.

We must take seriously the way in which our language might infer things that limit others.

If something hasn’t been done before it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It Just means it hasn’t been done before.

What is a teachers job?

November 6, 2025

Teachers are the ultimate Swiss army knives. They have a very practical job to do that also requires them to pour their personality and heart into the work. They’re a lot like actors in that sense.

At a minimum, as teachers we must plant the seeds of doubt.

Not the bad kind of doubt either- the generous kind.

We have to plant seeds that begin to pick apart the destructive narratives that can form in our kids’ heads. You know the ones:

Other people can, but I can’t.

I’m not good enough.

I shouldn’t take up space.

I’m dumb.

I’m too loud.

Yes- at a minimum our job is to day by day plant seeds. Seeds that say these stories belong in the trash of the fiction section of a library that’s at a dump.

An outstanding teacher? Well, they don’t stop at planting these seeds.

They not only remove these stories by creating doubt in them, but they create empowering alternatives.

They give mountains of evidence, anecdotes, experiences and unquestionable proof that they can have it all.

Create doubt to collapse that which disempowers and build a ocean of evidence that tells them the truth:

You can do anything.

Words are gifts.

October 21, 2025

Yes they’re free to give but that have oceans of value.

At high school I wanted more than anything to be an actor. At that point it felt unknown and unreachable. One day my drama teacher gave me a gift in a few words.

She said, “It’s not a matter of IF you’ll be an actor- but are you ready to be an actor?”.

With her language she created possibility. Using the words “are you ready” assumed that me being an actor was a given. The unknown was my readiness at this point- something I have within my power.

What a gift.

Another memory I have was feeling like my work was going nowhere and I felt like giving up. To me it felt like the end.

My mum said to me “You’re on the cusp”.

Being on the “cusp” is a world away from being at the “end”.

What a gift.

I have a friend who has the habit of using the word “and” where most would say “but”.

It seems insignificant, right? Well playwrights and actors will tell you that “and” and “but” are different planets.

“You’re doing great but you could work on this.”

Vs.

“You’re doing great and you could work on this.”

Words are gifts we can give people anytime we choose.

Gifting beliefs

October 12, 2025

What is the greatest gift you can give your students?

Or anyone you lead or love.

Candy, obviously.

No, that’s a joke.

It’s belief. And before you switch off at the over used buzz word- I’m not going to tell you you need to believe in them- just hear me out.

It’s gifting them a belief about themselves or about the world.

I’m not talking about the generic ‘believe in yourself’ type, I’m talking functional beliefs.

Let me give you an example.

I had a friend who gifted me a belief.

She didn’t do it by sitting me down one day and saying “Hey, you should believe this”, but she modeled it- lived it and I saw how her world was different to mine.

And the belief was this: Strangers are nice.

That’s it. I didn’t know it, but I actually believed the opposite. I thought strangers were just that- strange. People I don’t know and so I shouldn’t care about and that I can’t expect anything from.

She gifted me a new belief about the world and so a whole new way of operating. The trickle down of a simple shift like this can’t be overstated- I’m a different guy for this new mind set.

So, the question is- what is a beautiful belief about life, the world or themselves you would want to gift to your students or loved ones?

Model that and give that gift to them each day until it’s part of them.

And give them some candy too.

Words change how we feel

October 8, 2025

“You’re a liar” vs. “you’re wrong” vs. “you’re mistaken”.

All of these could mean the same thing- but they have different levels of emotional intensity.

So when we speak to others we have a choice- and a responsibility- to be intentional about what we say.

We also have a responsibility to choose the words we say to ourselves.

Is this the end or the beginning?

Did you ruin it all or did you find another way not to get there?

Did you make the wrong choice or does everything happen perfectly?

It’s not about toxic positivity, it’s about intelligent naming.

Let’s choose words that help us and others.

Rhyming with people

September 30, 2025

We can be speaking a different language as someone but both be speaking English.

Our favourite people are those that are either like us or are the way we aspire be to be.

The saying goes: “People tend to like people like themselves”

I like to think of people who get dogs that look like them as well- I find it’s hilarious when that happens and often wonder if it’s because the dog reminds them of themselves…

ANYWAY-

Here’s simple implication of this idea I use all the time.

“Language Reflection”

What are the key words you hear someone use over and over and how can you authentically incorporate them into your speech?

Kids especially have a certain vernacular- I’m definitely NOT encouraging people to awkwardly slip words in that feel uncomfortable or unnatural.

“That’s ‘rad’ man”

But it is figuring out the point of view those words come from; the family of ideas they relate to. It’s not just cut and pasting a word, but reflecting a thought rhythm and rhyming with that language style.

There’s an art to matching someones speech to align more with them.

In the past, I could understand how people feel a bit funny about doing things like this- that it’s a bit tricky or something.

But I’ve come to value helping people achieve their own potential as one of my highest priorities- so if shifting the way I speak removes a barrier and let’s them connect with me in a deeper way, then I’m okay with it.

Find their map of language and reflect it back to help them get where they want to go.

Greatest hits of the generative classroom

September 28, 2025

“What’s funny about this?” The greatest hits of a generative classroom.

The questions we consistently ask ourselves direct our focus.

If we know that to be true – do we really have an excuse to not consciously direct the atmosphere of the environments we lead?

When I’m feeling the least creative, the least generous and the least accommodating of others, the questions in my head all rhyme with each other:

Why is this so hard?

How much longer?

Will they ever get this?

Why am I so bad at this?

You can pretty much guess the limited types of answers these get.

A new question is: “What is the environment I want to create and what are the recurring questions I can ask of myself that will create it?”

Here’s the greatest hits:

“How many smiles can I give? … Or get?!”

“What’s funny or surprising about this?”

“How many ‘a ha’ moments will I create?”

“What will I learn?”

“What breakthroughs will we create together?”

These all presuppose the presence of newness, of joy and learning. They open the door to possibility.

How many generative questions will you create today?

Giving an ‘A’

September 25, 2025

What if you give an ‘A’ grade before someone ‘deserves’ it?

Benjamin Zander has a concept in his amazing book, The Art of Possibility called “giving an A”.

It’s named after the a grade he gives his students at the beginning of the semester BEFORE they have turned in any work.

He stands before the class at the start of the term and congratulates them all on their A grade. He asks them to write a letter to him, as if from the future, explaining all the reasons they deserved the A grade they had received.

I absolutely love this idea.

Ben encourages us to ‘give an A’ to people in all aspects of our life. Someone cut you off in traffic? The barista is rude to you? Your boss is short with you?

What would giving an A to these people look like?

It’s making the most generous assumption of them. It’s not asking “Why do they hate me!?”

But asking a much more generous question like “I wonder what difficulty they’re facing right now?”

A couple of things might happen.

Number 1, you stop the loop of negativity because you have a generous belief about them. They may well be snapped out of the pattern they’re in. Of course this isn’t guaranteed, but it opens the possibility for them to live into the best version of themselves.

Number 2 (and this one is pretty certain) you will feel much better about the interaction if you’ve given the person an ‘A’. If you generously assume that something awful and truly difficult must be going on for them to be like this, you have a lot more peace in your day. You may even get some of the lovely side effects of a ‘metta’ type meditation- loving kindness.

There’s zero downside to giving an A and infinite upside.

It’s my favourite thing.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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