Before last week I’d never even heard of Evan Esar let alone had any familiarity with his work. He was born in 1899 and lived until his mid-90s. Esar has been tagged a humorist because of his many funny quips and witty quotes. Here are a couple of them:

• “All things come to him who waits, but they are mostly leftovers from those who didn’t wait.”
• “There are two kinds of leaders: those who are interested in the flock, and those who are interested in the fleece.”

But what drew me to him was not his humor but rather this meaningful quote that popped up on my Facebook feed: “You can’t do anything about the length of your life. But you can do something about its width and depth.”

Consider that for a moment.

Like a meandering river, the length of our human lives vary considerably. I’ve said before that I intend to live until I’m at least 100. But who knows? While I can take care of myself by eating right, staying strong, and being proactive about my health, there is no guarantee that I’ll still be here in 2050.

That means, if my single life is to have the impact I want it to have after I’m gone, I need to focus on the wide and the deep. As I began pondering how I would define that, I started to feel like some of the nice people I’ve coached in public speaking: Some want to tell an audience everything they know on a topic in 45 minutes.

P.S. – It doesn’t work well.

So taking my own advice to “pare it down; focus on the most important aspects,” I’ll limit myself in this post to sharing just three aspects of widening and one way to go deeper on each one.

Wide #1: Be a dependable nurturer of my family and friends by devoting time each day to reaching out to someone I’ve neglected or someone who is alone.

Wide #2: Be a person closer to her Christian faith by devoting time each day to spiritual reading and discerning what the message means to me.

Wide #3: Be more successful in my role as a children’s author by devoting time each day to working my marketing plan instead of the hit-or-miss way I’ve allowed myself to slip into.

You will have your own ideas for what wide and deep means to your life. I encourage you to think about them and how you can fit them into your day. Set aside some quiet time and give the topic some consideration.

I’d love to hear what you come up with!