Hello Reader,

This week I took my son to his first concert: Laufey in Vancouver.

Her latest album, A Matter of Time, feels like a meditation on growth — on learning to live with and within time rather than trying to outrun it. Each song moves with ease, both delicate and deliberate. But it was the last song she performed — Letter to My 13 Year Old Self, from her previous album Bewitched — that quietly unraveled me.

It’s a song written from the perspective of who she’s become, sung gently to who she once was. Hearing it live — at the end of the night, after an hour of songs about love, loss, and becoming — felt like watching time fold in on itself.

And somewhere in that moment, I realized I could write that letter too.

Not to offer advice, but assurance. To tell my 13-year-old self that everything he thought was taking too long was actually right on schedule. That courage doesn’t always come early — sometimes it takes decades of doubt and discovery before it feels safe to be bold.

It took me a little over fifty years to lean in fully. To stop rehearsing and start living. And maybe that’s just how it goes.

Because becoming who you are is rarely a matter of force — it’s a matter of time.

Look

Laufey’s conversation with Nardwuar is a delight — part interview, part time capsule. Watching her meet his boundless curiosity with grace and humor reminded me why I’ve followed Nardwuar since my college radio days. He’s never wavered from who he is or how he shows up. Decades in, his enthusiasm is undimmed and his style unchanged — eccentric, earnest, and entirely his own. It’s as if he arrived fully formed, proof that sometimes staying true to yourself is the longest, most rewarding kind of evolution. Watch the interview here.​

Listen

Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left was released the same day and month I was born, just a few years earlier. I recently picked up The Making of Five Leaves Left, and what struck me most was how his work wasn’t truly appreciated until decades later. Listening now, I’m further reminded that patience often precedes recognition, and that meaningful work ripens in its own time. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music.

Learn

Purpose takes time to mature too — and this month, I’m exploring that very idea in a Grand Connection session on creating profit with purpose. We’ll look at how focus, clarity, and alignment can turn money into a marker rather than a motivator, and how patience plays a part in all of it. Learn more here.​

The Final Flicker

If you could write to your younger self, what would you thank them for waiting through — the storms, the stalls, the slow seasons — that made you who you are today?

And if you listen closely, maybe you’ll hear it too: the quiet rhythm of purpose unfolding, right on time.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. If you’ve ever felt out of sync with time — like everyone else is moving faster than you can — you’ll appreciate my new course, TimeCrafting and ADHD. It’s built around finding a rhythm that works with your attention, not against it. Because, as Laufey reminded me this week, growth doesn’t happen on anyone else’s schedule.

Thanks for reading. Your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. In a world pulling us in all directions, thanks for choosing The Lantern.