Writing letters to myself in the present, to revisit in the future, has become one of my favorite practices. My sister introduced me to this idea 6 years ago. At the end of every year, she writes a letter to herself and stores it away to be opened 10 years later. She is 15 years in and now has what is probably her greatest gift every year, a letter from herself from 10 years earlier. I’ve adopted this practice both on my birthday and at the end of each year.
This idea is what brought my attention to Debbie Millman’s idea of writing out in as much detail as possible, what does your “remarkable life” look like if you were to fast forward 10 years in the future. I wrote mine two years and read it for the first time last week…it absolutely blew me away. There were some bold predictions, an incredible amount of detail, AND, despite all the changes and life events I’ve experienced, it still aligned very deeply with what I want. Even better, it reminded me of some of the things that are longer-term aspects of the type of life I want to design. And lastly and perhaps most importantly, so much fun to read and it brought me so many smiles. What was also fascinating was to see that some of the major stretch goals I had described were things I am in the midst of now, without ever having gone back to read it–learning Spanish, living in South America, & traveling the world for a year. Anyway, I felt compelled to share the format and encourage you to do this for yourself…it is a gift that keeps on giving. Here’s the format and if you want additional context, listen to the podcast in the link above from 1:33:51 to 1:40:00!
Questions to create structure for your letter:
- What could you do in your life if there was no fear of failure?
- What does your life look like? What are you doing? Where are you living? Who are you living with (animals & humans)?
- What kind of house are you in? Are you in the city, country, mountains, or somewhere else?
- What does your furniture look like? What about your bed? What about your hair?
- Do you have kids? Do you have a car? A boat? A bike?
- What are you reading?
- What excites you?
- What is your health like?
Starter: “One day, in January of 2033, what does this day look like for you–start to finish, every detail of the day in what your life looks like 10 years from now. Dream big, without any fear, or risk of failure. If anything is possible, what does that day look like? The longer, more detailed, the more care you put into this, the more likely it is to be affirmed. And after you write it, make a list of everything you want to come true. Write this like your life depends on it, because it does.
Then, what do I do?
- Put it somewhere for safe-keeping where it will be easy to find in the future
- Put a reminder in your calendar and in your phone to re-read once per year
- Wait and see what happens…your future is in your hands
Philoso-Feed 