Writing A Letter To Your Future Self

Writing A Letter To Your Future Self

Writing a letter to your future self is an exercise which I thought of back in 2006. It was

inspired from when I chanced upon the Yahoo! Time Capsule project. Essentially, this is

similar to the concept of a time capsule, where you write a personal note to your future self,

seal it and only open it at a future moment in time. There are no restrictions on the time

duration either

–

it can be 1 year later, 3 years later, 5 years later, 10 years later, or even

20 years later!

Why Write A Letter To Your Future Self?

Doing this exercise can be a really insightful experience.

Just imagine

writing a letter to your future self 5 years from now

, then opening it at that

exact moment 5 years down the road to see how much of it resonated with you.

It is a

useful supplementary tool to be used in goal achievement, because when you write the

letter to your future self, it helps crystallize exactly how you anticipate yourself to become

at that specific moment down the road.

As you read the letter in the future, you can assess how many things match up (or not) vs.

your expectations in the past and think about why that

’

s the case. Often times, the goals

we set and our goal achievement process are subjected to a lot of changes along the way,

due to varying obstacles, unanticipated circumstances and changing priorities. The letter

gives

you

a

macro-view

of

your

initial

vision

and

lets

you

recognize

how

your

current

vision differs from the past.

In addition to that, at the very moment you are writing the letter, your consciousness is

captured and stored right there in those words. When you open the letter in the future, you

as your future self gets to compare how you used to be in the past and compare with how

you are currently. This lets you see in totality how much things have changed since then

–

and this can be a really intriguing experience. It

’

s interesting to just see how much you

have grown/changed since you wrote the letter

What To Write About

at today

’

s date. Now

imagine you

writing to yourself, exactly

X years from now

.

What do you want to say to your future self?

?

How do you want your future self to be like 1 year in the future?

?

What are the different dreams and goals you would want to be realized by then?

?

What

is

your

desired

status

of

the

areas

of

your

life

wheel

at

that

time?

Career/Business/Studies?

Finances?

Family?

Friends?

Love?

Health?

Spirituality?

Recreation? Personal growth? Contribution?

you

’

re done, sign off your name with today

’

s date.

ep your letter.

?

Put the papers in an envelope. Seal it.

?

On the cover, write

“

To [Y

our Name]. To be opened on [Date]

“

. Replace [Your Name] with

your name, with [Date] the date that

’

s 1 year from now

.

?

Set in your calendar to open your letter 1 year from now

.

?

Put this envelope in a safe place where no one can access to it.

your life like you

’

ve never lived it before in the next 1 year. Open the letter 1 year

later and relish in nostalgia, love and joy as you read the letter from yourself 1 year ago.

You

can either

write

it

as

hard

copy (for a

greater

sense

of nostalgia

due

to the

aging

condition of paper by then) or have it as a digital soft copy

. I personally wrote a hard copy,

then

transferred

it

into

soft

copy

document

on

my

computer

just

in

case

I

lost

the

hard

copy. You can also try , an online time capsule service that stores and sends

information to a specified email address any time in the future you specify. Personally I

prefer to have a copy by my side.

Opening My Letter From My Past Self

I wrote 2 letters to myself last year, in February 10th 2008. The first letter I wrote to myself

in Feb 10th 2009 (1 year from then); the second letter was to myself in Feb 10th 2013 (5

years

from

then).

A

week

ago,

I

opened

the

first

letter

I

wrote.

It

was

an

enthralling

experience reading it, since it felt like my old self was talking directly to me

Reading the letter, it is interesting to notice how I was in the past and how I have changed.

One of the biggest changes was my materialism tendencies. While

I

was already not a

very materialistic person when writing this last year, I

’

m even less materialistic right now

,

given

my

added

revelations

on

my

relationship

with

material

wealth

and

goods

since

quitting my job last year. My consciousness has also heightened, which is not a surprise

given it is something I

’

m constantly working on all the time. The time period after I left my

job has definitely given me unlimited personal time to really introspect and dig deep into

my personal growth.

In

terms

of

goals,

I

have

reached

and

exceeded

several

goals. For

Health,

I

correctly

predicted I will still be a vegan and loving every minute of it. Weight-wise, I have pretty

much reached my desired weight/look, something I

’

m really proud of as losing weight is a

personal

goal

I

had

struggled

with

since

5-6

years

ago. For

Career,

I

leaped ahead

of

myself compared to my predictions

–

I predicted I would still be working in my ex-company

while working on my purpose on the side; Turns out I have already quit it and I

’

m working

on my purpose full-time now

. The end result? I

’

m totally loving every moment right now

.

There are some goals I haven

’

t reached yet. For example in Love, I thought I would have

found my relationship partner by now

, but I haven

’

t. It

’

s perfectly okay though due to my

revelation a few months ago on how we are actually already perfect, complete and whole

as

singles. Finding

and

being

together

with

my

soulmate

is

something

I

want

and

look

forward to in the future

–

In the meantime, I

’

m perfectly happy and complete as I am.

In terms of Friendship, some friends whom I thought I would still be great terms with had

slipped away; in place of that other people had entered into the foray and have become

great friends of mine in the past year, especially the past few months. In a way, it

’

s sort of