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

1.Look 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?

2.Once you’re done, sign off your name with today’s date. 3.Safekeep your letter.

?Put the papers in an envelope. Seal it.

?On the cover, write “To [Your 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.

4.Live 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 FutureMe.org, 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

an equilibrium at work when you think about it.

There were goals I didn’t reach because I had abandoned it halfway, since it lost meaning to me. An example would be wanting to buy a car – when I received my pay rise last year and was in the capacity to get a car, I realized that owning a car in Singapore, where public transport is readily available, does not resonate with my highest self at all. My original intent of getting a car was more for imagery reasons, and that had long been shedded away as part of my old self. Not to mention the environmental damage I would be causing too with a car.

All in all, this comparison between my past vision for myself and who I am right now made me aware of several things. It made me more conscious of how much and how exactly I have changed vs. the past, in a tangible manner (rather than just relying on memories). It reminded me of some of the visions I had in the past which I lost track of along the way. It made me appreciate how far I have come. It made me look forward in excitement to the future.

Write Your Letter To Your Future Self

Take out a pen and paper right now and start writing your letter to your future self. Identify a time period to write to, imagine how you will be like during that time period, then start writing. Think about the type of person you will be, your place in life, what you would have accomplished then, the kind of thoughts and feelings you will experience, and so on. At the end of the letter, seal it in an envelope, write the date to open it on the cover and put it in a safe storage space. Fix the date to open this letter in your personal calendar. When you open this sometime in the near future, you might gain additional insights about yourself and your journey in the past few years that you were oblivious to.

Be sure to check out Day 29 of 30DLBL Program on writing a letter to your future self.

写给未来自己的一封信

2006年，偶然受雅虎“时间胶囊活动”的启发，我萌生出给未来的自己写一封信的想法。本质上，“时间胶囊活动”与时光贮存机的概念相似，就是给未来的自己写一封私人信笺，密

封起来，等到未来一个特定的时间再打开它。保存时间没有限制--你可以在1年，3年，5年，10年，甚至20年后再拆开它。

为什么要给未来的自己写一封信呢？ 这将是一次让人见解深刻的体验。

想象一下给5年后的你写一封信，5年后再打开它，看看你做成了哪些事。这是一项能够帮助你实现目标的辅助措施，因为它可以帮助你将未来的预期转化为在特定的时间需要实现的具体目标。

未来读这封信时，你会发现过去你的期望实现了多少，并想想为什么会这样。往往由于各种各样的困难，难以预期的环境和不断改变的重心，我们设立的时间，目标，计划容易受到外界的干扰而改变。这封信使你从宏观的角度重温你最初的愿景，并思考现在的愿景和过去有什么不同。

除此之外，写信的时候，你的意识完全集中于其中。因此，打开信封时，未来的你就可以与现在的自己做比较。这使你看清，从过去到现在你改变了多少，着实是一次有趣的经历。看看写信时的自己成长/改变了多少很有意思。 写些什么呢？

1. 看下今天的日期。现在，想象你正写信给X年后的自己，你想对未来的自己说些什么呢？

你期望1年后的自己变成什么样？

到那时，你想要实现哪些不同的梦想和目标？

那时候，你理想的人生状态是怎样的？事业，生意，学业状况如何？财务，家庭， 朋友关系，爱情，健康，精神，娱乐活动，个人成长，贡献状况都是怎样？ 2. 一旦写完，签上你的名字和日期。 3. 保存好你的信件。 用信封装好信笺。密封起来。

在信封上写上“致[某某某]。请于[某个时刻]打开”。用你的名字替换前者，时间改为1年之后。

在日程表上确定1年后打开信封的时间。 将信封保存在一个安全，别人找不到的地方。

4. 在之后的1年里，你要像新生一样生活。1年后打开信封，读着一年前的自己写来的信，就能细细品味出怀旧，欢喜之情。

你也可以将它打印出来（泛黄变旧的纸质文本可激发更强烈的怀念之情）或者存储为电子文档。我自己打印了一份，然后又转成电子版保存在我的电脑里，以防丢失打印稿。你还可以试试“未来的我”这一网络上的时间贮存服务，它保存你设置的信息，然后按时给未来的你发送一封特殊的邮件。就我个人而言，我更喜欢身边有一份打印稿。 打开过去自己寄来的信件

去年，即2008年2月10日时，我给自己写了两封信。第一封是写给2009年2月10日（即1年后）的自己，第二封则是写给2013年2月10日（即5年后）的自己。一周前，我打开了自己写的第一封信。读信的经历让我着迷，就像过去与现在的我直接在交谈一样。

读着信，意识到过去自己的模样和现在的改变很有趣。其中一项最大的改变就是我的物质倾向。去年写信的时候，我已经不是一个很物质的人了，但如今考虑到去年辞职后产生的对自己与物质财富，商品关系的反思，我的物质程度甚至变得更低。我的意识也得到了提升，由于我一直努力朝着这个方向发展，这也不是什么怪事。我的辞职的确给了我无限的时间去真正的反省自己，深入挖掘自己的成长与变化。

目标方面，我已经实现并超额完成了几个目标。健康方面，我正确预期了我还是一个严格的素食主义者，并热爱其中的每时每刻。体重方面，我几乎达到了自己期望的体重/看，这是我很自豪的一件事，因为在5-6年前，减肥就成为我一直奋斗的目标。事业方面，我的进步远远超过预期--我预计自己还会在原来的公司里工作，闲暇时才做做自己想做的事；但事实证明，我已经辞职，可以专心地实施自己的计划了。结果呢？我真是爱极了现在的每一分钟。

有些目标我还没能实现。比如爱情，我原以为现在的我将找到自己的人生伴侣，但我没有。但因几个月前我进行了反思，意识到单身的我们实际上已经很美好，充实，幸福，我并不沮丧。找到并和精神伴侣共同生活是我未来的追求。同时，我独自一人时，也很开心，充实。

友谊方面，原先我认为，有些人还会是我的好朋友，但他们已经离开；而去年，特别是前几个月，我又交了很多好朋友，填补了这些空缺。当你回想时，这在某种程度上，也是一种工作的平衡。

还有一些目标我没有完成，对我而言，它们失去了意义，只得半途而废。就举我想买车这个例子--去年，在我加了薪买得起车时，我意识到，在公共交通极为便利的新加坡买车并不符合我内心深处的愿望。原先想买车，更多的是出于形象考虑，而今，它作为旧有自我的一部分，也渐渐消散了。更不必说有了车之后将给环境造成的不利影响了。

总而言之，过去和现在自己的比较使我弄清楚了几件事。它以一种实体（不是只依靠回忆）的方式让我更清楚现在的自己，和过去相比，都有了哪些改变。它让我记起过去我曾有过的沿路丢失了的一些愿望。它更使我学会欣赏我走过的远途，让我对未来充满了热切的希望。

给未来的自己写一封信

现在，拿出笔和纸，给未来的自己写一封信吧。确定写给自己的时间，想象那个时候自己变成的模样，然后开始写。想想你将成为哪一类的人，生活中的位置，那时已经实现的目标，你将经历的感悟，等等。

写好了信，装进信封，在信封上写上打开的日期，将它放到安全的地方保存。在日程表上定好开封的日期。当你在未来的某一天打开它，你可能会对都快忘记的自己和过去几年的人生之旅产生一些深刻的见解。

一定要在29号给未来的自己写一封信，以验证“30天后，生活更美好”的活动哈。

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/03wr.html