Why You Should Write Letters to Yourself

Dear Future Self,

How many times have you looked back?

One year. Five years. Even a few months later, and realized how fast things can change?

Life is impermanent and we often encounter obstacles that feel overwhelming. But it only takes a little reflection to realize how far you’ve reached. How much you’ve overcome and how brief circumstances are.

We have so much to appreciate and learn from our past.

Photo by Wix Media

Around three years ago, I discovered “FutureMe”, a platform that invites you to write letters to yourself. It allows you to create a bridge between the person you are today and the person you aspire to be. It’s a pathway to communicate with your future version, navigating through your goals, ambitions, and personal growth.

I mean, who knows you better than you? Who else can provide better insight and entertainment? Using this platform has shaped me in countless ways, and I will highlight a few.

The first one is that it allowed me to cultivate introspection. By writing these letters, you are encouraged to reflect on your current circumstances, feelings, aspirations, and fears. You engage in a dialogue with yourself and explore aspects of your existence on many levels. In my case, it helped me to identify patterns that, otherwise, I might have overlooked, and even practice more gratitude toward the most mundane details of my life.

Secondly, I was able to exercise goal setting. Through the writing process, you are able to outline what you hope to achieve in the intervening time. And personally, I have found that this serves as a powerful motivator; a constant reminder of habits I've committed to. It's like having a person who will incentivize you, someone who understands your motivations completely because, well, it's you!

After a year of writing letters, I had a realization. By writing my goals to another version of myself, I had been abdicating a responsibility - thinking that this person from the future would do everything for me. And understanding this completely changed the way I think about goals. I had to redefine my thoughts to accept that both my future self and I need to work hand in hand.

Lastly, there's the gift of perspective. When you receive these letters in the future, you are offered a glimpse into your mindset from the past. It is an insightful reminder of the hurdles you've overcome and the progress you've made. It's a testament to your resilience, adaptability, and personal growth. Reading my old letters has often served as a beacon of hope, reaffirming my belief in my ability to handle whatever life throws at me. In many ways, they've served as records of personal triumphs, a collection of snapshots of the journey I've embarked on.

Writing letters to yourself is not a new revolutionary activity in itself, but the well-designed digitization of it is what changes the game. Through the ease of being an online tool, you can make edits to a draft, add images, or videos, copy others into your email, and even see other people’s letters. And best of all? You won’t misplace it!

So why should you try writing letters to your future self? Because it is more than just an activity - it is a journey of self-discovery, a ritual of self-love, and a testament to personal growth. By writing letters to your future self, you create a dialogue that transcends time. You become your own mentor, cheerleader, and confident. You build a bridge between who you were, who you are, and who you aim to become. So open up your web browser, or pick up a pen if you must, and start this enlightening journey. You never know what you might discover.

Edited by Lorena Marau and Megan Gibson