Think Big

Make the action match the goal

September 1, 2025

If you want to be a guitar player don’t go out and buy a ukulele.

Sure, it looks like a guitar- but it’s not.

You might say “But Justin! It’s a mini guitar, isn’t it a good place to start?”

Maybe- but I think if you want to be a guitar player, go and get a guitar.

Make the action match the goal.

If you want to be a novelist, don’t write once a month and wonder why it’s not happening for you.

A novelist writes every day, reads, researches, ideates, moulds, drafts, publishes… you get the point.

Make the action match the goal.

Where do you want to be? Don’t shortchange yourself by playing small. There’s already a fair distance between where you are and where you’re going.

Don’t increase the distance by getting a ukulele.

Get the guitar. Play full out. Act as if you’re there now. You’ll be immediately closer.

It takes how long you let it

August 18, 2025

If I give myself all day to do something, I’ll probably take all day to do it.

If I only have an hour to do it- I’ll get it done in that much time.

Careful how you allocate your time, you may be accidentally limiting yourself.

What if what you wanted to achieve in a year you had to complete this month?

Honour inaction

July 29, 2025

Sometimes it’s as important to not do something as it is to do something.

Let me explain.

I was at the gym today and was getting SO bored waiting for the three minute rest time between sets. I wanted so badly to just stop the timer at two minutes and nine seconds and just do the next one.

The fact is, this short interval is precisely this long to give my body enough rest to then do the next set. Skipping it would actually be to my long term detriment; I’d struggle to do the amount of reps on that weight as I’d have otherwise had done. (Sure, I could change the rest time to be shorter, but then it has to be that short always as it’s about controlling variables in the gym.)

It’s kind of counter intuitive because action is what causes things to happen right? It feels good to be in action, it means we’re moving toward our goal.

This is mostly the case, but there are times when what is truly called for is to not do anything. To wait, perhaps. Or to let the last action seed and grow.

Truely moving forward is knowing when to take action and when to honour inaction. I suppose it’d be called active waiting.

Give your week a title

July 27, 2025

Here’s something I’ve been trying out recently. What we call things matters. If I say to you, do you want to go on a walk you might say yes- but if I said do you want to join me on my sunset adventure you might get your Indiana Jones hat ready.

We can be activated by words that light us up. Acting coach Larry Moss talks about words that ‘carbonate’ an actor. When scoring a script with action verbs, the word ‘punish’ might be really exciting to play for one actor but the word ‘obliterate’ really gets another going.

It’s no secret that having ‘Week 29’ written on your calender isn’t going to move anyone to action. So how about naming your week something that makes you laugh, makes your excited or conjures up your most creative self to tackle the week ahead.

Names like:

Magic moments and legacy building

Or, Forging futures and being the best brother

I don’t know what it is for you- but giving your week a name is better than not, I reckon.

Oh- and write it somewhere you can see it easily, that’s important!

Mood trumps prep

July 7, 2025

I filmed a loom video lesson today and I had the slides ready but I didn’t think I’d perfected the content quite yet.

I decided to push ahead anyway and film the lesson, I was in a playful and light mood after all.

The lessons turned out great- far from perfect but they convey what they needed to.

This teaches me that being in a good mood beats being perfectly prepared.

Standards

May 12, 2025

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Do the dishes and make your bed.

Then when it comes time to do your best at the thing that matters most to you, you’ll be ready.

Systems

May 10, 2025

Ah systems- the promised land.

Systems have the ability to save thousands of your hours and prevent you from living the same week over and over again without advancing.

A lack of systems can be a trap. You can be enacting all the hall marks of ‘hard work’ but that might be all it is, ‘hard’ work. It’s not the same as smart work. As we progress, the things we are working on should be progressing as well.

You don’t want to spend your life building temporary shacks over and over again. Perhaps you start with a shack, then advance to building with wood and brick, then working on training builders, then working on training trainers…

Systems enable all this. Don’t get trapped. Build your systems.

Don’t save it

April 29, 2025

If you have an idea you think is really great it can be tempting to hold onto it for the ‘perfect’ time.

I agree it can be beneficial to plan and execute it in a way that you’re happy with, but be careful that isn’t a form of hiding.

Waiting for the perfect conditions for anything will likely lead to the thing never happening- and who are you to deny the world of that thing.

Be generous with your best ideas and use them. Use them imperfectly and use them first and use them in the best way you can right now.

You’ll have more great ideas and when you use those ones, more again.

Don’t be stingy with us now, if genius strikes you get it out into the world right away. I think holding onto to it for too long actually weakens the idea, makes it less relevant to yourself and the world with every passing day and (worst of all) reinforces the belief that great ideas are scarce for you.

Detail

April 26, 2025

There was a particular sequence in the recent broadway production of The Great Gatsby that I remember finding particularly stunning. It was the intricate detail that made it so stunning. From where I was sitting I couldn’t even make out the thousands of variations in the patterns on the set, the layers of fabrics and lights.

It wasn’t each detail but the stunning sum of them that made the impact. I suppose it’s the difference between a plain green wall and a green wall made up of many tiny green spirals that you can only see up close.

The texture says detail and the detail says quality and the multitude of that wows us.

Would I make that?

April 21, 2025

There are many awesome side effects to making a movie every day. One of my favorites is how it has framed my role as an ‘actor for hire’.

I have the privilege every day to be able to make anything I want to. Any style, genre, length, look, feel, theme- it’s all on the table every. single. day.

I’ve done this for one hundred and eleven days straight now, so I’ve been through the entire spectrum of feelings; from complete inspiration to the very edge of giving up.

Because I get to make whatever I want to and more specifically, play any character I want to and have complete creative control, I’ve found myself increasingly sensitized to acting opportunities.

Instead of jumping at any old audition, I find myself asking a new question:

Would I make this? Would I script this character for myself and put the effort into creating the end product to the best quality I can? If the answer is yes, then of course I want to be a part of an entire team bringing this vision to life. But if the answer is ‘no, I’d probably not do it quite like that’, then I know I don’t need to engage with that opportunity. It’s quite simple actually.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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