26 – Write a Letter to Your Future Self

Hello and welcome to episode 26 of the everyday confidence podcast from theskillfulmind.com. I’m your host, Steve George and today is about Writing A Letter to Your Future Self
Okay, so let’s get straight into it. Today I want to briefly explain what the benefits are of writing to yourself in the future. So why you should be doing it. Then I’ll go over what sort of things you should be including in it. How to go about sending it. And then I’ll point you in the direction of some of the resources available to help you do that.
So, to start with then, why would you want to do it in the first place? Well, there’s two main reasons. Firstly, As we go through our normal daily routines, we tend to get drawn in to what’s going on around us right now. How we’re going to deal with what’s happening around us in this moment. And because of that, the small, almost inconsequential moments of growth we experience every day, pass us by without any recognition.
By taking the time to recognise these things, we give ourselves permission to actually experience and celebrate our small achievements. This gives us the opportunity to see how far we’ve actually come. Oftentimes, we can go through our lives thinking that over the years we’ve made no improvement at all. And it’s not until we stop and look at the things we can do now, that previously we wouldn’t have even attempted, that we can see how much we’ve really grown.
So that’s the first reason. Secondly, when you decide to write to your future self, you have to look forward obviously. You have to consider the place you’ll be, at that particular point in your life. The trials and tribulation you might have to traverse to move forward and what your hopes and dreams are for when you get there.
So, if you want a simple definition of the process it’s, taking the time to identify and recognise where you are now in your journey, then visualising where you want to be at a particular time in the future. And then explaining to your future self how you actually got there.
Once that’s done, I’ll explain later in the show how you can send that letter to your future self, so they receive it at the designated time. that’s another benefit of this process. You get to actually read the letter in the future, so you can see how you did.
Now, I mention visualisation a lot, both in these podcasts and on the blog, because science shows us that visualisation is one of the best ways to improve our chances of getting there. Using vivid imagery, recognisable sights, sounds and smells, dramatically increases our energy and momentum, giving us powerful motivation and so a much bigger incentive for action.
If you stop for a moment and look back at the last year. It’s easy to see how much things can change in a relatively short period of time. And if the entire world can change so dramatically in just a few months, I’m sure you can see how your personal future can change as well. When push came to shove, all of the world’s leaders needed to make hard decisions to get to where they needed to be. And the same is true of you. If you want to get to where you want to be, you have to make the hard decisions as well. The decision to take a few more risks. Even if they’re only small risks, you need to make the decision to take them. And this process can help you to do that. The letter you send is effectively a promise to yourself of how you’ll make those necessary changes.
Okay, so now you know why you should be doing it, the next step is how t do it.
So. like I said at the beginning, take a few minutes to appreciate how far you’ve come up to this point. Everyday we learn something new about ourselves and sometimes it’s something that’s so small, it just passes us by. But take a little while to realise the things you’re capable of now, that were just a dream a few months, or years ago. Use those memories as motivation that you can make changes and you can, over time make some huge improvements to the way you think about your abilities and achievements.
Once you’ve taken the time to do that. Think about the future. Where would you like to be in 3, 5, or 10 years time? What would you like to be doing, what would you like to have achieved? How would you be spending your free time? Things like that.
Take a moment to image how your life could be if you knew you couldn’t fail. If you knew that with the right mindset and the right attitude, anything was possible. Because that’s going to be the driving force that moves you forward toward those goals. As i said, if the world can change so dramatically in 12 months, who’s to say you can’t change your world dramatically in the next 12, or 24 months, with the right motivation?
So, when you finally sit down to write your letter, write about your difficult goals as well as about the simpler ones. And remember to explain in the letter how you got there. Now you probably won’t know exactly how you got there, but you’ll have some ideas about the sort of things you’ll need to do, or the sort of person you’ll need to become to make them achievable. So, right that down.
Try not to let your current limiting beliefs put blocks in your way. Imagine things the way you want them to be, not the way you currently see them. Every experience we have gives us a new perspective. what you believe today might not one what you believe tomorrow, so don’t think that any current belief is permanent. It isn’t, you just hold on to some of them longer than others.
Try to make your future vision as specific as you can. Imagine a particular date in the future and let your mind be open to the millions of possibilities you might find there. Your letter’s unlikely to reflect exactly how things are, when you do actually get to that date. But when you get there and you look back at the level of growth you’ve experienced on the journey, it can be quite surprising. Remember that goals are not really about achieving things. Things don’t really interest us long term. It’s all about the feelings and experiences on the road to getting those things that’s important.
For example, if you want a brand new car, would you be happier to be the person who randomly won it in a competition, or the sort of person who has the mental acuity and experience to bring those sorts of things in to their world on their own merits?
Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include some lofty goals for your future self. If you want to improve, you have to have something to aim at, so set some goals for the future. Give yourself a specific target. Something where you’ll need to stretch your current abilities and move you out of your comfort zone.
Make sure that the future you envisage for yourself if a positive one. I know with everything that’s been going on in the world lately it might be difficult to imagine a time in a couple of years where everything has worked itself out. But this is your ‘imagined’ future you’re developing, so give the world the benefit of the doubt. What have you got to lose?
Remember it’s the person we become that’s important, not the things we have, or don’t have. So this letter is more about setting a trajectory for our future journey, rather than trying to be an oracle and get everything exactly right.
You totally control what happens in your imagined future. You’re the pilot that flies you to your own destiny. So you might as well make it a good one.
Okay so lastly, how can you go about sending this letter off to your future self, without the benefit of a time machine? Well, there are actually a couple of ways. If you’re happy to get an email from yourself on your chosen future date, then I recommend ‘Letter to my future self.net’. They offer a free service whereby you write the email to your future self on their online email client. Then you pick a date you’d like to receive it on and they hold it securely for you, then email it out to you on that date.
If you’d rather receive a paper letter in the post, then there’s a company called, Letter 2 future over at future me.org, that’ll post your letter out to you. Again on the date you originally set. But, because it’s a worldwide service and it uses regular snail mail, there is a standard charge that’s just under $6 US at the moment. Or, they also do the email version for free if you prefer.
Both of these services allow you pick a date up to 10 years in the future, so you can pick any date up to and including that date. So you’ve got choices and it means you can write several letters, to receive maybe one every three, or six months up to the final date, to help keep you motivated along the way.
And I’ll put all the details for those two services, plus any additional information in the show notes for you. Which will be at theskillfulmind.com/podcast/25.
As usual, thanks very much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends about it. Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll speak to you soon. Bye for now.