The Lantern is a thoughtfully curated weekly email from Mike Vardy designed to help you craft a better relationship with time. Each edition brings you insights, inspiration, and practical tools through a simple yet powerful framework: Look (a thought-provoking video or visual), Listen (a compelling podcast or audio insight), and Learn (a deep dive into a key concept, article, or book). Designed to inform, inspire, and illuminate, The Lantern helps you navigate time with clarity and intention—without the overwhelm.
Rejection is a Skill (and Here’s How to Build It)
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Hello Reader, Here’s something you might not hear often: Rejection is a skill. In this week’s episode of A Productive Conversation, I sit down with Alice Draper—founder of Hustling Writers and host of My Rejection Story—to unpack how building rejection resilience can quietly fuel your productivity, creativity, and clarity. One idea that really stuck with me? “Imposter syndrome is a form of self-rejection. And that’s the most insidious kind.” If you’ve ever talked yourself out of hitting publish, sending a pitch, or asking for an opportunity because you felt like you weren’t “ready,” this conversation is a must-listen. We get tactical, too—Alice shares:
You can listen to the full episode here Even if you don’t hit play, take this with you: The fear doesn’t vanish. But the more you move through it, the less control it has over you. Talk soon, P.S. A curated selection of podcast episodes of A Productive Conversation are available in short-form audio over on Blinkist. You can check it out here. (And just a heads up: not every episode is featured—Blinkist picks select ones to spotlight.) |
The Lantern: A Weekly Guide to Navigating Time with Intention
The Lantern is a thoughtfully curated weekly email from Mike Vardy designed to help you craft a better relationship with time. Each edition brings you insights, inspiration, and practical tools through a simple yet powerful framework: Look (a thought-provoking video or visual), Listen (a compelling podcast or audio insight), and Learn (a deep dive into a key concept, article, or book). Designed to inform, inspire, and illuminate, The Lantern helps you navigate time with clarity and intention—without the overwhelm.
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 14 | May 31, 2025 Hello Reader, You’ve started something. A habit. A project. A shift in how you think or work. At the beginning, everything feels clear. Motivation is high. You’ve got a plan, a spark, maybe even a fresh notebook or system to keep it all together. But then comes the middle. No launch. No milestone. No applause. Just the day-to-day repetition of effort without the novelty of starting or the payoff of finishing. This is where most people...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 13 | May 24, 2025 Hello Reader, The hustle promises momentum, validation, and progress. But it rarely delivers without a cost. Move fast. Keep going. Do more. Before you know it, the pace owns you. Because when you’re always in motion, you stop noticing direction. And when your worth is measured by output, you become easier to manipulate. That’s how you get hustled. So what’s the alternative? Pace. Presence. Proportion. Choose what fits—not what...
The Lantern by Mike Vardy Vol. 1, Issue 12 | May 17, 2025 Hello Reader, In a world obsessed with quantity, quality is a quiet rebellion. We're told to do more, produce faster, and ship sooner. There's a rush to fill time, fill feeds, fill calendars. But quantity without quality? That’s just motion without meaning. Noise that fades fast. It’s easy to confuse productivity with progress. But what you check off your list isn’t as important as how it moves the needle—on your work, your values,...