Personal letter writing in bengali telling my father that what I want to become in future
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Doing this exercise can be a really insightful experience.
Imagine writing to your future self 5 years from now — what would you say? What kind of person would you be? What goals would you want to have achieved? Not only is it mind boggling, but it gets you thinking about your goals 5 years from now. As you write your letter, you will start to think about the actions you should take to realize them in your expected time frame.
Subsequently when you open your letter 5 years down the road, you get to assess the things that match (or don’t match) up vs. your expectations, and reflect why that’s the case. Often times, our goals are subject to a lot of changes due to unanticipated circumstances and changing priorities. Reading your letter lets you see how your life trajectory has changed since writing it. It also makes you pause and think about how you are doing, and whether you are where you want to be in life.
In addition, when you write your letter, your consciousness and thoughts are stored in your words. When you read it, it’s like you are being contacted by the old you. It provides you a different perspective and lets you see how much you have changed since then.
Opening My Letter From My Past Self
Back in 2008, on February 10, I wrote two letters to myself. The first letter was to my future self one year from then, on February 10, 2009. The second letter was to my future self 5 years later, on February 10, 2013.
A year later on February 10, 2009, I opened my first letter. It was interesting seeing what I was like in the past and how much I have changed. One of the biggest changes was my materialistic tendencies. While I was not a very materialistic person when I wrote my letter in 2008 (I was 23 years old then), I became less materialistic since, given my revelations on my relationship with material wealth and goods. My consciousness was also higher as I had been working a lot on my growth.
In terms of goals, I had reached and exceeded several goals. Weight-wise, I had reached my desired weight/look, something I was really proud of as losing weight was something that I had struggled with for years. For Career, I leaped ahead of my predictions — in my letter, I predicted that I would still be working in my ex-company while working on my purpose on the side. As it turned out, I had quit my job and started working on my purpose full time!
There were some goals I had not reached yet. For example for Love, I thought that I would have found my relationship partner by then, but I had not. This wasn’t an issue as I came to the realization that we are already perfect as singles (I would later meet my soulmate, now husband in 2013). In terms of Friendship, some friends whom I thought I would still be on great terms with had slipped away. Instead, I formed great friendships with other people in the past year. In a way, it’s like a natural equilibrium — when you let go of certain old connections, new connections will take their place.
There were goals that I didn’t reach as I abandoned them halfway, because they lost meaning to me. An example, buying a car. When I received a pay rise last year and was able to consider getting a car, I realized that owning a car in Singapore, where public transport is readily available, does not resonate with my highest self. My original intent of getting a car was more for image reasons — which is true for many car owners in Singapore — and that desire had long been shed, along with my old self. Not to mention, having a car isn’t exactly environmentally friendly.
All in all, reading my letter made me realize several things. It made me more conscious of how I have changed vs. the past (vs. just relying on memory). It reminded me of some of my past visions that I lost track of along the way. It made me appreciate how far I have come. It made me look forward to the future.
Subsequently, I opened my 5-year letter and share my results in here: Writing a Letter to Your Future Self [Video]
Write Your Letter To Your Future SelfGrab your pen and paper now and start writing your letter to your future self! Identify a time period to write to, imagine what you would be like, and then start writing! Think about the kind of person you would like to be, what you would want to be doing, what you would have accomplished by then, and so on.
Follow the steps in the exercise above. Get working on your goals, then open your letter with pride a year from now!
Update Aug 2014: I’ve created a video tutorial on writing a letter to your future self, where I share more tips plus open my 5-year letter to myself! Watch: Writing a Letter to Your Future Self [Video]
For those of you with Live a Better Life in 30 Days Program, the task for Day 29 is on writing a letter to your future self.