Work that matters

Print it out

December 29, 2025

In a world of screens and never ending interfaces we are faced with an infinity of blank pages if we need it.

Your writing is at the top of the google doc, and below it is a sea of white pages deeper than that trench who’s name I can’t spell (Marinara? Mayo-nana? Sriracha?)

The ‘never ending blank’ offers us endless new beginnings which is awesome.

And it also offers us… endless new beginnings which is awful.

I feel I’ve just hacked the system. To edit a short video script to day, I did away with my computer entirely. I printed the draft out.

Printed.

Yes on real life paper I can write on with a pen or pencil and that the beetroot from my lunch can stain- yeah that kind of paper.

It was glorious. Suddenly I was an artist again. A worker. My thoughts had real weight in the world. My scribbled notes reflected the messy and quick thoughts in my head.

There comes a point where we need to get out of the interface of a screen and just hold the blimmin’ thing in our hands.

When in doubt, print it out.

What you trained for

December 28, 2025

The only time you would actually use martial arts is a situation you don’t really want to think about.

You’d hope you never actually have to fight someone- yet you still train.

Sure, there is learning to be had in the pursuit, but when it comes down to it, the purpose of it is to fight.

I think it’s similar for self development.

It’s easy and enjoyable to learn about it and apply the theory in hypothetical situations…

But it only matters when things get hard.

When the going gets tough, that’s your real chance to use it.

It might feel uncomfortable and not as fun as the other stuff- but this is exactly what you trained for.

If it’s hard right now, that’s good. This is what you trained for.

Use it.

See it to see it

December 25, 2025

Visions work the same as film scripts.

To see it… you have to SEE it.

In order to realise the production of a feature film, the screenwriter has to build the script page by page. Each word adding to the tapestry. The script is a written vision.

“Here, this is what it will look like.”

Years before the projector shines the the magical lights of a movie on the silver screen, the movie existed only in someones head.

And it was just as vivid as you’re seeing at the cinema.

Before anything exists it first has to be a crystal clear vision.

To see it in real life, you have to see it in your head first.

Don’t skimp on the script. See it first, so we can too.

The missing piece of cake

December 24, 2025

They say that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

I think the same is true for things we know.

Something that is a piece of cake for you might be the missing piece for someone else.

One person’s breakfast is another person’s breakthrough (Trying to coin a phrase, is it any good?)

We’re often too close to our own abilities, skills, stories, distinctions and remarkable results to see the potential value they can provide to someone.

So don’t be stingy with the magic you make, it’s your responsibility to share it.

Do and be

December 23, 2025

Here’s a frame to set abstract outcomes succesfully.

An abstract outcome is what I call something that doesn’t necessarily have a finite beginning or ending. Want to enjoy a day with the family? Have a restful day? Feel like a cool uncle?

These are all abstract and so they require a frame that pulls them from the abstract into something you can action while not necessarily being able to measure or quantify them

What do you want to do?

Stealing from the actors’ methodology of objective and action, have a think about what it is you want to do.

-I want to make my mum feel special.

-I want to make my niece feel heard.

-I want my friend to feel inspired.

These could qualify as objectives for an actor to play in a scene. And if they’re good enough for an actor they are good enough for you! They say a good objective for an actor should have it’s test in the other person. Said another way, is your objective set up in such a way that allows you to, at any moment, use your senses to ascertain how successful you are in your pursuit? This is what keeps actors active and it can do the same for you too.

Who do you want to be?

This one is less useful for actors, but super useful to you. The strongest force in human psychology is to remain consistent with our identity. So choose the identity you will live into. I will be a loving son. I will be a strong partner. I will be a playful prince. What ever is is for you! When we are intentional about who we are being when we show up, we are far more likely to act in congruence with it when we pursue our outcome.

So using the frame we put the two together.

“I will make my mum feel heard and be a loving son.”

“I will light my students up and be a master of ceremonies”

-What you want to do?

-Who you want to be?

When the outcome isn’t clear cut, see if this fit instead.

The worst and the favourite

December 22, 2025

Here’s a game, make your least favourite thing the favourite thing.

What is something you’ve been avoiding? What is a task or activity that either completely bores you or you may even dread?

Would you be interested in changing that? Okay, here are some questions for you…

-What would you have to do to that experience to make it your favourtie thing?

-How would you have to picture it?

-What would you change about the way you approach it?

-What would you have to believe about what it’s giving you?

-In what ways could it be fun?

-What about it actually benefits you?

-How could you make the worst part of it actually the most interesting or fun part?

Most people don’t want to do what it takes to get where they want to go. Life get’s pretty interesting if we can make the undesirable and necessary things unbelievably easy and fun for ourselves.

I’d say that’s an advantage worth working for, wouldn’t you?

In theory

December 20, 2025

Most things are comfortable in theory.

We can follow through, we can be vulnerable, we can take rejection, we can weather failure easily….

… in theory.

It’s why they say talk is cheap.

It’s really easy to talk about the hard stuff in the abstract. “Someday if things are hard…” or “if this ever did happen…”

When it comes to the moment, how can you be sure we can still make good on your talk?

Becoming the phone

December 17, 2025

Opportunity is attracted to movement.

Ever notice how job offers, new clients and requests come flying in the moment you decide to focus on your own creation?

This seems to be true in the acting world. It’s like a Murphy’s law of sorts; you wait for the phone to ring and it never does. Then you decide to go build a sand castle and it’s ringing off the hook.

We have to be careful though…

We mustn’t make the sand castle to try and coax the opportunity; it doesn’t work that way.

We also mustn’t create movement for movement’s sake; creating more busy-ness doesn’t help.

The real secret is building a sand castle so grand and so exciting, that when the phone rings you genuinely consider not answering it.

That’s where the real juice is. When your sand castle is more compelling than someone else’s (and it will be, because you made it the way you like) you end up leaving them to do their thing and guess what?

You’ll be picking up the phone to call in some talented people looking to apply their skills.

Don’t wait for the phone.

Become the phone.

Take time to make time

December 16, 2025

There’s a super persistent myth I fight with every day.

It says that I’m better off to push through on the work I’m doing than to take a break or a walk.

In my head, the walk is lost time. Time I would be much better off investing that time in my work.

The trouble is sometimes pushing through leads to diminishing returns.

While it seems obvious that continuing to work gives you more time on the work, taking the walk gives you more quality on the work.

I fight myself every day and when I do end up taking the walk, I’m inevitably hit with new ideas, distinctions and ways forward that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

To get time we have to give time.

Take the walk, Justin!

The actor in rehearsal

December 15, 2025

The actor in rehearsal is simultaneously like a kid on a playground and a bomb squad member cutting the red wire… or was it the green one?

Nowhere else have I experienced the utter joy of play and the deepest danger of humiliation.

Actors are uniquely bred to weather both of these.

Play too much and it dies for the audience (you can’t have all the fun, you have to let them it!)

Don’t risk anything and we might as well give the show a miss.

Great actors toe the line.

Andrew Scott said the job of rehearsal is for the actor to try everything they can possibly think of. He often feels humiliated, small, silly or dumb in rehearsal. And the fact that he is willing to do that, over and over again means he gets to deliver ‘Andrew Scott’ performances.

What can we learn from the actors rehearsal room orientation in other aspects o work?

JUSTIN ROGERS

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