JUSTIN ROGERS

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Work that matters

Is it alive?

February 5, 2026

A director I worked with gave me a key question that I use to guide all of my work.

It was after a show and he’d given us all a few pages of notes for things to focus on and improve in the show. A collection of ultra specific tweaks.

He turned to us, knowing that hitting all these in one show was a long shot. He acknowledged this and said simply “All I’m looking for is the life. All these notes are there just to support that. So all your job is is to search for the life.”

“{Is it alive?”

That’s it. We have tonnes of technical moments to hit, emotional beats to play, connection to each other, the material, the audience- one million things that culminate in a single outcome; life.

When I act I come back to the question.

When I rehearse. When I create. When I teach. When I converse. When I collaborate. When I build. When I help. It’s all in service of the same question:

Is it alive?

Outcomes by accident

January 28, 2026

Whether consciously or not, we all have outcomes as teachers.

And depending on the day, they will be of varying qualities. If I’m a bit hungry and tired, in the middle of a school day my outcome might be “To get through this in one piece”

On a better day, my outcome might be “To light these kids up and get them excited about this lesson”

Taking a second state my outcome is always a good idea. We’re all here to do a job and it’s too important to let outcomes be left to chance and to be decided by the whim of your biochemistry or mood.

What is your outcome for your work today?

Useful metrics

January 25, 2026

Measuring things is useful. But not all metrics are useful at all times.

Like anything, it depends on your outcome.

How many likes you get on a video might not be a useful metric when you’re using the video to explore an artistic idea for yourself.

But if you made the thing for the likes, you ought to measure them.

Weighing yourself mightn’t be helpful… but rating yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 on how comfortable and strong your body feels might be.

To know what to measure we must know what we’re after. And to measure the right thing, we have to be strong enough to only care about the thing we are actually measuring.

Some metrics are louder than others. Real growth comes when you can listen to only what matters for your journey.

Ready or not

January 20, 2026

I’m beginning to wonder whether progressing in life is a series of doing things before you’re ready.

The nature of growth is that it is something just beyond where you are now. So in the moment before growth, by definition you aren’t there yet; you’re not ready.

I did not feel ready to teach for the first time

I did not feel ready to launch my own business

I did not feel ready to hit send on my first offer

These events only have two things in common: I was never ready and they completely changed my life/

Hmm- interesting.

Could it be that the life we want is just outside of our comfort zone?

I think it might be.

Why things that don’t matter matter

January 17, 2026

I like talking about silly things. Specific moments from a reality tv show. Why the painters of a wall I walk past chose that shade of blue. Discussing whether flying or invisibility is a better super power.

An over-optimised life is always on the precipice of making you feel obsolete.

When I’ve done all the things; automated, delegated and streamlined the work to make valuable things in the world… I’m suddenly in danger of having nothing to care about.

Worse still- I might be so addicted to the doing that I seek more tasks.

When I talk about things that ‘don’t matter’ it sends a signal to my brain that re-affirms the absurdity of it all, while maintaining my conviction that when my work finishes, I go on.

I make room for the meaningless to find the meaning.

So I ask you-

What would your super power be, flying or invisibility?

(I do think flying would exhaust you the same as running, so there’s that consideration too)

The one true metric of success is…

January 11, 2026

Well, it’s up to you isn’t it? The meta marker of success is the ability to reach desired outcomes.
So if you set an outcome to write a short story over the Christmas holidays and you write a short story over the Christmas holidays- you’re a success


1)Two mistakes I’ve made in the past are:
I don’t choose an outcome.
If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll never get there. Sometimes I’ve felt success was alluding me and realised I didn’t even know what I was trying to do or get to. This is an easy fix- figure what you want!

2) I use other people’s metrics of success to judge my own progress even when I don’t value what they value.
Picture this: your friend runs a marathon and you suddenly feel like a failure because you haven’t run a marathon. Sure, they are successful because they set an outcome and achieved it. But you did not set out to do that, so the fact that you didn’t do that is fine!
Set your own outcomes and don’t get sucked into other peoples metrics. Stay in your game

You’re on a spaceship

January 7, 2026

Imagine if you were on a spaceship with a group of strangers.

Imagine as well that it was common knowledge that in approximately 60 years the spaceship would crash into an asteroid.

And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

How do you spend those years? Do the people stay strangers?

If you knew you’d be gone after the asteroid, how would that affect your day to day?

Earth is a bit like a giant spaceship isn’t it?

And our inevitable end is an awful lot like an asteroid.

With stakes like this, it’s not just about using our time wisely, it’s about using it lovingly.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Building and dismantling

January 6, 2026

There’s two types of communications:

Building and dismantling.

“Yeah but…” dismantles

“Yes, and…” builds

Our job is not only to find the ones that build, but to eliminate that ones that dismantle.

The ones that dismantle are good at hiding from us.

They hide behind our need to protect ourselves, our ideas and our egos.

If we can release the need to protect whatever it is we feel we need to protect, we can focus instead on the ‘yes, ands”

Resourcefulness follows commitment

January 5, 2026

Said another way: If you’re committed you will find a way. What does it mean to truly be committed? Well I think it means there is no other option. If you’re hungry you’ll find a way to get food. So the magic doesn’t actually come from the ‘how’ but from the commitment. Let’s not look for resources before we commit. We don’t need to vet our commitments. We just need to decide this is the way it will be, ensuring it aligns with higher human values of love, generosity and growth and we will simply find a way. With commitment comes resource. Don’t worry about the level of your resource. Concern yourself with the level of your commitment.

All the kings horses

January 2, 2026

Mark Duplass has this great speech he gave a few years back to aspiring film makers.

He warned us about waiting for the cavalry. That as creatives we can fall into the trap of thinking that the cavalry is coming and that any tiny incremental improvement we make in our work might trick us into believing that.

Big breakthroughs make us think the cavalry is coming. Those small wins can be intoxicating too.

Mark says the cavalry is not coming. It might feel like they are and people will tell you they are. But they’re not.

And Mark says this isn’t something to be sad about. The truth is, you don’t want the cavalry to come and save you.

The truth is, you get to a certain point of success of your own creation and the cavalry kinda is coming. Massive career changing opportunities come to you. The cavalry!

But when that happens, you don’t want ‘career changing’

You’ve worked hard for this career, thank you very much.

They came too late and you’re not interested in all the kings horses.

Because you are the king of your own castle now. And you are your own cavalry.

Mark is pretty on to it, I reckon

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