Work that matters

Normalise the outstanding

August 21, 2026

I remember at drama school, our teacher encouraged us to stop clapping, or wooting, or whooping, when our classmates did amazing work.

He was encouraging us to normalize the outstanding. Because if we’re amazed every time someone does incredible work, that work becomes something out of reach, something separate from us. It’s only when the outstanding becomes normal that we can actually build on it and create something even more extraordinary.

It’s important to celebrate our wins. But we mustn’t colour that celebration with astonishment.

A living language

August 5, 2026

Teaching my first class, I thought it was about sharing a few kapa haka songs.
I was wrong.

What it’s really about is bringing a language to life. Waiata happens to be a brilliant way of doing that.

Our waiata are oral histories that come alive again with each performance. They also have the language built right into them.

A language that is alive is a language that is used, that is seen, heard, felt, valued and is growing each day.

It might look like learning a few songs, or integrating a couple of phrases…

… but your weekly kapa haka session or daily te reo time are really building blocks for a living language.

You don’t always have to be amazing

July 29, 2026

But being present is a pretty close second.

Striving, pushing or forcing an outcome can lead us down the opposite path to the one we want.

Being present doesn’t do this.

Questions like:

Who’s here now?

What needs my attention?

What’s real now?

What actually matters?

Will guide you along the way. The results may or may not be ‘amazing’

But they’ll be real and you’ll have been serving more than yourself.

And that’s pretty remarkable.

What’s useful and what’s hiding?

July 28, 2026

There’s a quiz that happens every day. It’s called the “are you hiding?” quiz.

Certain things present themselves throughout our day that pose as helpful but really they’re helping us only to hide from our real work.

Sorting your computer desktop is one. Planning how you will do something when you actually already know how to do it is another.

The big clue is if it’s a step removed from the scary thing- but it might still feel like it’s in the same area.

“I’ll just watch a few more videos on this first before I get going”.

If it’s scary and awkward and a bit unknown you’re probably not hiding.

Spend less time hiding.

Conor’s two steps

July 24, 2026

My friend Conor Bowden made an entire film across the span of four years on his iPhone.

It’s finally finished and it’s about to be in the NZ International Film Festival.

I asked him what the secret to getting this kind of thing started.

He said step 1 is start before your ready.

Step 2 is ask for help from people you trust.

Both of these things are totally within our grasp- the thing in the way is probabaly fear.

What is the thing you most want to do in the world and how can you use Conor’s two steps to get there now?

Best interaction

June 17, 2026

I’m walking to the staff room. There’s a 6 year old with wild hair who stops in front of me.

Kid: Who are you?

Me: I’m Justin

Kid:….. COOL!

Me: Who are you?

Kid: Hugo!

Me: COOL!!!

Now every time I pass Hugo he never fails to greet me excitedly.

Aren’t kids awesome?

Forgetting what you know

April 20, 2026

It amazes me how we can know something yet still not use it.

One of the simplest hacks for feeling great and getting the best out of ourselves is how we use our body.

I KNOW this.

If I am hunched over with a droopy face and dead eyes- I feel down.

If I’m upright, expressive in the face with a fire in my eyes- you know how I’m going to feel.

Yet I forget this on a weekly basis. I find myself feeling unproductive and lethargic and you bet my body matches that.

I also think this is okay.

Learning is only useful when you use it.

Every time you forget to use what you know theres an oppurtunity to begin again, and to put into action what you know.

Don’t lament that you forgot to do what you know.

Celebrate because you remembered that you forgot!

The splendid torch

April 18, 2026

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

-George Bernard Shaw

Brushing your teeth

April 17, 2026

How do you follow through on what you set out to do?

I love those moments of inspiration. When something is suddenly clear, you know exactly what you want and what it’ll be like when you get there.

The tricky part is how to keep that alive.

And the answer has to lie in a system. I wish I could, but I can’t reply on inspiration every day- it requires too much thinking. We need to figure out how to translate that to the systematic actions that take place daily without our constant upkeep.

I don’t visualise the perfect healthy smile every day, yet I do brush my teeth twice a day.

It’s not because I’m a powerful productivity god, I just have a simple action I do each day (and you probably do too).

So the question isn’t how do we keep motivated.

It’s how to we harness that initial momentum, wisely pick the ‘tooth brushing’ equivalent action and merely do that daily.

Our capacity will grow over time and we inch closer without the constant mental load.

Sparkle Noticer

April 10, 2026

What is a sparkle noticer?

It’s what I call the people out in the world that notice real presence. I’ve been to 5 different states in the US across the past few months and everywhere I go I’m trying to make connections with strangers.

Buying a coffee, passing a stranger, getting in a lift; these are all opportunities to connect with another human.

And the rule is you can’t just say hi and look away.

You have to actually be present. You have to SPARKLE.

Sadly, most people are quite closed off to strangers. I turn on my sparkliest most present eyes and give them a sweet little hello… and there’s often not a response.

And that’s okay! I get it, it’s a bit weird.

But now and then… you get a sparkle noticer.

Someone who catches the sparkle and notices the real life presence you’re bringing to a moment.

They see you seeing them and thus you see each other!

The goal for me isn’t to be the person always saying hi with a warm smile.

The goal is to become the person who notices the sparkles when they fly my way.

We all get caught up and walled off day to day. But if we let ourselves, we can be a sparkle noticer and the world is a deliciously good place when you let that in.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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