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.
This isn’t an easy question to ask…
Hello Reader,
Jim Vaselopolous was my podcast guest this week and I must commend him on writing his book “Clarity” in a challenging style that is hard to do well. So the idea of challenging myself, even in the simmering of the start of a calendar year, was something I decided to pursue this week. I started that pursuit on social media and I’ve decided to pursue it further here. This pursuit came in the form of a single question:
Would you rather live a long life or a full life?
Before you answer “yes” I want to say that you can’t actually choose both. One option is largely out of your control. The other isn’t… but how you define what it means is.
A friend of mine died last year at only 48 years old. So while he lived a short life, every tribute to him shared that he lived a full one. My grandmother lived to 100 and the last time I saw her she told me that she was ready to go because she had lived a “long, hard life.” She stressed the second adjective just as much as the first.
I’m not saying my friend who lived to 48 lived a short life because others have lived shorter. I’m not saying that he lived a full life because he may not have thought that he did. I’m not saying my grandmother didn’t live a full life in the eyes of others. Maybe even what she shared with me was skewed by how she was feeling that day. I have no way of knowing any of that.
What I do know is that how long we live is typically celebrated above how fully we live because longevity is quantitative and fulfillment is qualitative. Length over depth. Speed over substance. Quantity over quality. The former is easier to measure than the latter.
That question I asked might just be rhetorical. Simply food for thought.
By the way, if it’s easy to answer that you’d rather live a full life then my follow-up question is the one you really need to sit with: Is having a full life easy?
Now if you’ve got an answer to share, just reply to this email and send it my way. I’d love to hear from you.
See you later,
Mike
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.
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