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Utopia

January 22, 2025

I was editing a video for my website where I was teaching te reo through a magic trick.

I popped out of the situation and laughed at myself- this is only happening because I love magic. I also realised that if I had watched this lesson when I was at school I would have been in heaven! I was creating my own little slice of heaven.

We have an unbelievable opportunity when we create. We get to make exactly what we want exactly the way we want it.

Derek Sivers calls this making your own utopia. I’m in love with this idea. When you begin an endeavor to help people or entertain or move them, you get to make it in the image of your utopia.

If there existed the perfect business for you, a shopping experience that would make you fall on the floor with joy.

A show that would make you gasp and then jump to the ceiling with excitement.

These are our dream scenarios.

What would the thing your working on look like if it absolutely floored you? Blew you away? Changed your life?

Guess what, no one stopping you from making that.

How good. Go build your utopia.

Any moment

January 21, 2025

I sometimes get tired or bored or overwhelmed.

And then I realise I can make a new choice at any moment.

I sit up like it’s Christmas morning.

I breath like I love myself.

I sparkle my crows feet like a baby caught my eye

I smile like a stranger complimented my teeth

And I think to myself: I decide to be ecstatic now.

A love letter to the American sensibility

January 20, 2025

I’m in New York seeing shows right now and it’s always here that I’m reminded of a characteristic many Americans have that I adore.

It’s breathtakingly easy to start a conversation with a stranger.

A playful connection.

Finding out what state they’re from.

Feeling their genuine interest in where I’m from and why I’m here.

It’s always while you’re waiting in line or next to someone at a show. You catch a moment or a word and the stranger (either you or them) notices it and forms the connection.

“Oh you saw that show! What did you think, I went with my grandma last weekend”

“Whats that accent?”

Americans specifically are great at this. In New Zealand we’re shy and protective. In America people are curious and quick to connect.

I’d like to steal this trait.

Barrier to entry

January 18, 2025

A barrier to entry is how difficult it is to execute something.

Creating a fast food chain has a high barrier to entry.

Selling clothes online has a low barrier to entry.

Neither is better or worse, one is just easier to do than the other. That means that if you do something with a low barrier of entry, you’re more likely to have a lot of competition and chances are the endeavour won’t have much value in the market place.

Things that are rare are valuable.

Things that are rare are also harder to do or obtain.

As we get thicker in the weeds on our endeavour, we can take comfort in the fact that the barrier to entry gets higher with every difficult, confusing and potentially painful step forward. All this is also predicated on the fact that you are working intelligently and not slogging unnecessarily on a job you aren’t equiped to do.

Here are some signs the barrier to entry is high for your endeavour:

-Results come only from consistent, compounded action

-Your unique perspective is required

-Your unique cross over of skills is required

-It gets confusing often

-It’s unclear what to do next

There will be more, but that’s a good start to reframe the difficulty.

When it gets hard, it means you’re out at sea searching for gold. It’s also very unlikely anyone else came as far as you did and made as many distinctions as you have.

When it gets difficult, know that victory is near.

The last push

January 18, 2025

Something amazing happens when you’re on a deadline.

That draft is due.

The assignment needs to be in tomorrow morning.

The product launch is in two days.

A few times I’ve faced impossible time frames- looking at a mountain of work that shouldn’t physically be able to be done in that time.

But knowing there’s no other option but to get it done.

That’s where that mysterious urgent gear kicks in. It might not be your best work (or it might)

We can access this last push in moments of desperation.

In the moments of impossible compulsories.

We’re capable of so much more than we think. Is it possible to access the last push in less stressful situations I wonder?

Scarcity breeds scarcity

January 15, 2025

To say there isn’t enough is to beleive there isn’t enough.

To believe there isn’t enough is to act as if there isn’t enough.

Acting like this skews your reality and then there really isn’t enough.

Scarcity breeds scarcity.

The good news is the opposite is true too.

There is more than enough.

Speak, believe and act accordingly.

Action is identity

January 13, 2025

Aristotle said that we are what we repeatedly do.

It’s a lot easier to identify as a writer if you write every day. You can call yourself a potter, but if you make one pot a year you might feel a bit like you’re lying to yourself.

A potter, by definition, makes pots.

A filmmaker makes films.

An actor acts.

You get the idea.

If you want a certain identity, your actions have to be in congruence with it. Not for anyone else, but just for you.

Consistency builds congruence.

James Clear said every time we act in accordance with who we want to be, we cast a vote for that identity.

You can proclaim an identity

Or you can be your identity through the actions you take consistently. Identity isn’t static it’s in your movemennt.

Who do you want to be? And what are you going to do about it?

Words are like spells

January 4, 2025

What you say to yourself over and over you tend to experience. Sometimes we say things in our heads like:

This sucks.

I’m tired.

Why am I so dumb?!

Our poor brains! We get hypnotized by these little thoughts that fly under the radar and disguise themselves as innocent narrations or running commentaries.

We can edit these and choose BETTER ones! Almost like you’re a cartoon character with catchphrases (I sometimes feel like that). Here’s some of the catchphrases I accidentally say about 10 times a day. I’m not mad about these little accidents, by the way, they make me feel great!

What a time to be alive

Anything is possible

I can do anything (This one is especially useful if I catch myself saying I can’t do something, this phrases is now my knee jerk reaction to that).

These sound kind of cheesy written out like this, but I KID YOU NOT, I say these of the REGULAR. Try it out!

More is more

January 2, 2025

I sometimes have the urge to save my best ideas. I get an idea and I say to myself something along the lines of ‘oh that’s great! I’ll save it for when I’m more well known, have enough budget, the right team…’

A great idea for a scene and I’ll save it for a feature film.

The new song I think I could write. I can make that when I have the whole album.

That character I’d like to play in a show one day.

The film, the album and the show don’t exist yet; but the idea does.

I understand the fear: good ideas are scarce! Only a few come around.

It’s not true. It isn’t. The more ideas I have and use, the more come to me. It’s win win, the thing gets made and I get more ideas.

The belief that you have to hoard ideas because they’re scarce is self fulfilling.

The belief that great ideas are abundant is too (I know which I’d choose).

There’s sometimes the argument of quality. Sure it could be better if you waited, but as Mark Duplass said, I’d rather have a film made for certain now rather than one that might be made in the future. This is the opposite of the “one donut now or two donuts later” thing. We’re usually rewarded for waiting. For delaying gratification. But this is different. You’re letting your art die now for the empty promise of tomorrow.

It still doesn’t mean you do a bad job- you do your best. You’re probably not as good as you want to be. You certainly won’t get better by not making a thing, or only making your mediocre ideas a reality and not sharing your work. Thats how you get better.

Use your best. Do your best. And move on

JUSTIN ROGERS

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