Creativity in 30 Days (Day 29) — Write a Letter to Your Future Self

The future depends on what you do today.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

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​Envisioning yourself in the far future can sometimes seem that you’re viewing the life of a stranger, as if you were somehow removed the scene. Although, when we envision ourselves in the near future, say in just a few days, weeks or months time, we tend to see (more or less), the same person.

This is because the far future can often seem a long way away, far from our current experience.

But how often have you heard or used the phrase “Time flies”? When you get “there” (your future), it’s almost like no time has past at all. This is what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the ‘Now’ — there is no past or future, only what happens right now.

Writing to your future self can help you visualise yourself with more of an outsider’s perspective and with more objectivity.

If you have important goals and ideals, you can help yourself stick to them, work towards them and assess them, by writing yourself a letter.

Writing a letter to your future self increases your self awareness.

Have you ever gone back through your old social media posts or emails and been embarrassed by something you posted? If you answered yes it’s because you’re confronting your own shortcomings. But it also shows you how much you have grown.

This exercise helps you to get your thoughts out of the present and focus on what is to come, and more importantly, what you want to become.

Your Task:

Start by writing about who you currently are, talk about your interests and accomplishments.

Talk about your values and beliefs but also your fears.

As well as the things you want to achieve, write about what you want to stop (the things you want to stop doing because they are detrimental to your health or happiness).

These questions should make the current you reflect on what you’ll need to do to become the you who you want to be.

Focusing on where you are now and the decisions you made in your life that led you here can help you evaluate those decisions and what you can change to lead to a different future.

Extract from the forthcoming book Think It! Make It! by Richard P John of The Creativity Toolbox