Question

给未来的自己写一封信 2018-05-11

Answer 1

Writing a letter to your future self is an exercise which I thought of back in 2006. It was inspired from when I chancedupon 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 yearslater, 10 years later, or even 20 years later!

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

1.Look at today’s date . Now imagine you writing to yourself, exactly X years from now. What do you want to say to you rfuture self?

◦How do you want your future self to belike 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 areasof 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 withtoday’s date.

3.Safekeep your letter.

◦Put the papers in an envelope. Seal it.

◦On the cover, write “To [Your Name]. To beopened on [Date]“. Replace [Your Name] with your name, with [Date] the datethat’s 1 year from now.

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

◦Put this envelope in a safe place where noone can access to it.

4.Live your life like you’ve never lived itbefore in the next 1 year. Open the letter 1 year later and relish innostalgia, love and joy as you read the letter from yourself 1 year ago.

You can either write it as hard copy (for agreater sense of nostalgia due to the aging condition of paper by then) or haveit as a digital soft copy. I personally wrote a hard copy, then transferred itinto soft copy document on my computer just in case I lost the hard copy. Youcan also try FutureMe.org, an online time capsule service that stores and sendsinformation 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, inFebruary 10th 2008. The first letter I wrote to myself in Feb 10th 2009 (1 yearfrom then); the second letter was to myself in Feb 10th 2013 (5 years fromthen). A week ago, I opened the first letter I wrote. It was an enthrallingexperience reading it, since it felt like my old self was talking directly tome

Reading the letter, it is interesting tonotice how I was in the past and how I have changed. One of the biggest changeswas my materialism tendencies. While I was already not a very materialisticperson when writing this last year, I’m even less materialistic right now,given my added revelations on my relationship with material wealth and goodssince quitting my job last year. My consciousness has also heightened, which isnot 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 personaltime to really introspect and dig deep into my personal growth.

In terms of goals, I have reached andexceeded several goals. For Health, I correctly predicted I will still be avegan and loving every minute of it. Weight-wise, I have pretty much reached mydesired weight/look, something I’m really proud of as losing weight is apersonal goal I had struggled with since 5-6 years ago. For Career, I leapedahead of myself compared to my predictions – I predicted I would still beworking in my ex-company while working on my purpose on the side; Turns out Ihave already quit it and I’m working on my purpose full-time now. The endresult? 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 bynow, but I haven’t. It’s perfectly okay though due to my revelation a fewmonths ago on how we are actually already perfect, complete and whole assingles. Finding and being together with my soulmate is something I want andlook forward to in the future – In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy andcomplete as I am.

In terms of Friendship, some friends whom Ithought I would still be great terms with had slipped away; in place of thatother people had entered into the foray and have become great friends of minein the past year, especially the past few months. In a way, it’s sort of anequilibrium at work when you think about it.

There were goals I didn’t reach because Ihad abandoned it halfway, since it lost meaning to me. An example would bewanting to buy a car – when I received my pay rise last year and was in thecapacity to get a car, I realized that owning a car in Singapore, where publictransport 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 hadlong been shedded away as part of my old self. Not to mention the environmentaldamage I would be causing too with a car.

All in all, this comparison between my pastvision for myself and who I am right now made me aware of several things. Itmade 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 ofsome of the visions I had in the past which I lost track of along the way. Itmade me appreciate how far I have come. It made me look forward in excitementto the future.

Take out a pen and paper right now andstart writing your letter to your future self. Identify a time period to writeto, 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 wouldhave accomplished then, the kind of thoughts and feelings you will experience,and so on.

At the end of the letter, seal it in anenvelope, write the date to open it on the cover and put it in a safe storagespace. Fix the date to open this letter in your personal calendar. When youopen this sometime in the near future, you might gain additional insights aboutyourself and your journey in the past few years that you were oblivious to.