It matters not how long you live, but how well.

— Publilius Syrus

STILLNESS

WHAT THIS MEANS

Length is the measure people reach for because it is the easiest one to count. What a life is actually made of is the quality of the days inside it, and that is not improved by adding more of the same. A long stretch of half-attention is not obviously better than a shorter stretch lived properly.

Rather than trying to extend anything, look at the shape of an ordinary week. Ask which hours in it you would be glad to have spent that way. Move one thing so there are slightly more of those, and let the arithmetic of years take care of itself.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

If your years were fewer, what would you spend them on?

MORE IN TIME, MORTALITY & LEGACY

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.