Work that matters

The infinite power source

March 8, 2026

The golden goose of any initiative is implementation.

Starting out, it’s up to us to get ourselves to follow through on the work we know needs to get done. We have to work out what it takes for us to do the hard thing.

We find that ‘pushing through’ isn’t sustainable. Eventually we find a reason that drives us.

Whether it’s a diet, a new skill to learn or a formidable project- we each find our own way in to get it done.

When we lead others, we come up against the same challenge- how do we get people to follow through?

How do we get others to own outcomes and claim autonomy in their work? There’s a lot of things that help, sure; clarity of objective, clear milstone tracking, step by step systems, authority to make choices… all of these things contribute to the work getting done.

But those are all the tools- just like when we were doing it on our own we all needed tools. But if all it required were tools it would be easy.

Like you discovered on your own, you need heart. What do I mean? Well it needs to hook onto the thing that we value most. That’s how we bring heart to our work.

Why do I teach? I teach because I love bringing possibility to life for young people. I love learning and I love growing and I love contributing to something bigger than myself. Those are called values, by the way. Values are a steam train zooming off into the sunset and our outcomes are the things we hook on the back of that train.

Values are our own power source. The same is true for those we lead. It’s not enough to give excellent tools, protocols and outcomes- we have to hook it to their steam train.

What does this person value most? Don’t guess, get in conversation and ask them. It’s in the language; “My work is about X” or “The most important thing for this is Y”.

Find their values and align the job to that.

This is the never ending power source that gets the job done and has them fulfilled in the process. And that’s WAY better than merely implementing something.

We all want to work for a meaningful cause. Implementation… sure.

But doing meaningful work in the world with people that care?

That’s where it’s really at.

Your masterpiece

March 6, 2026

Actors choose verbs to play in scenes.

They might ‘press’ another character. Or they might ‘interrogate’ them.

It occurs to me that we unwittingly have verbs in life too. The words we choose dictate how we show up in the world- just like an actor in a scene. Actors are very intentional about it, but in normal life we aren’t.

Are you ‘getting through’ the day or ‘dancing through’ it?

Are you going to the office to ‘slog it out’ or are you going to ‘play’?

There’s power in this kind of intention. Don’t leave it to the actors; make your life a masterpiece of a play, written daily by you.

Nice

March 1, 2026

We should be nice to pessimists.

They say that pessimists are optimists who have been disappointed.

We’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve got. No one is trying to be unkind or hard to be around.

We should probably just be nicer to everyone.

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?

Super Objective

February 20, 2026

As part of preparing for a role, an actor has to choose a super objective.

And it’s not just an objective wearing a cape. It’s a through-line of desire a character has. It’s what they ultimately want, what they are trying to do. All their actions, then are in relation to and in aid of that.

It’s such an genius system to re-create the psychology of a human. It’s over simplified, sure, but in it’s simplicity lies it’s applicability; it’s super easy to apply.

I often wonder what my real life super objective is. In acting, they say a character can’t choose their super objective- it’s an unconscious pull.

In real life, we do get to pick our arcs of desire. Often in my work I return to the same question.

What am I trying to do here?

I’m not just paying the bills or trying to look cool. That’ll run you on empty quick.

What’s the super objective that has you yourself wearing a cape and moving mountains?

It’s an honour to live the lives we do and it’s an honour to affect change in whatever way we choose.

The true joy in life

February 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

Monday Move

February 13, 2026

What is a Monday Move?

A Monday Move is how your Saturday morning dreaming is put into action.

You’re out to coffee with your friend on a Saturday and you are both dreaming of that big amazing goal. It’s easy to picture it, the details fill themselves in and you have a glistening masterpiece in your head.

The trick is turning that vision into a Monday Move.

What do you do on Monday?

Why “Monday”? Well Monday has strong “back to work” connotations in the culture. It implies getting to reality.

Why “moves”? Well like a chess move, a really good move isn’t random. It’s calculated. It’s a step toward. It’s also just a move. Not a whole dance.

Monday Moves are there to remind us to to bring the glistening dream to the reality of Monday and do something about it.

What’s your Monday Move?

Authenticity

February 12, 2026

One of my favourite things about acting is we have to make something that isn’t real feel authentic.

You don’t do that by being really good at lying, by the way. You do that by being really good at being real.

Actors aren’t liars, they’re truth tellers.

I’m amazed at how authenticity cuts through. I watch a video of a thought leader I really respect and I can feel their words, I understand them not from their words, but the heart behind the words.

Authenticity cuts through. We can get caught up in trying to make things slick or perfect but at the end of it all, if your intentions are pure and in congruence with what you’re trying to do. It’ll come through.

It’s the great gift us humans have. We don’t need you to be perfect, we can feel you.

We’re made of blood and bones and our hearts are running all the time.

We can feel you.

The action

February 9, 2026

People talk about the importance of the journey as opposed to the destination.

As actors we’re encouraged not to play a result but to play action instead. What comes as a result of that is not our business.

It’s a hard one to grapple. But I think there is a lot of peace we can all gain by attaching ourselves to and falling in love with the action and not the result.

Fall in love with providing outstanding educational opportunities for your students.

Fall in love with creating amazing value for your clients.

Fall in love with being the most alive and attentive parent.

The action is the thing we can control. The result is not… so it’s not worth the heartache.

Fall in love with the action. Then you may get some pleasant surprises along the way.

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.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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