Letter from Future You: A Simple Tool for Reimagining Your Life
How do you imagine your best life?
Fake it til you make it, goes the classic aphorism — the idea that “acting as if” you are the person you want to be can help make it be so, make it be true.
Delulu is the solulu — or, being delusional [about your hopes and dreams] is the solution [to your life dissatisfaction] — is a persistently trending truism on TikTok.
May your delulu become trululu, one might politely add.
Who do you want to be?
How do you want to feel next month, next year, 5 years from now?
While fuzzy visions of our better or best lives may come easily, it’s common for them to seem intimidatingly big or far removed from where we are today. How do we get from here to there — all the way over there — when we’re starting from here and now? It can seem impossible or too high of a mountain to climb.
(Imagine for a moment that today you could talk to yourself at age 10 about how far you’ve come, and what you’ve been happy about or proud of along the way. They would likely be amazed.)
So, how do you visualize and believe what you could make come true for yourself — starting from today?
“I think anytime you do anything entrepreneurial... you have to start with that delusional optimism.”
What DOES “Future You” want TO say to YOU?
In my professional life as a user experience designer, my teams wrote aspirational press releases set in the future about things we hadn’t even done yet — as a way to both decide if we should do it in the first place, and to fully feel and understand what we were building and how it could improve people’s lives. For example, if it’s March 2024 now, then we’d write it for March 2025 or whatever future target date.
I found it to be such a powerful tool that I started using it my personal life… with a twist: writing a letter from my future self. It helped me to get real and specific and paint a fully-rendered picture for myself on how things could actually be —in order to start to believing in and stepping into that new reality.
The 5 Elements of a Letter from Future You
“I woke up like this!”
Kick things off with a Dear [Your Name Here], what day it is, and describe how it feels when you wake up on a typical day as Future You. What do you see, hear, smell, touch, taste?Throw (loving) shade on your current situation.
What could be better about your life right now? Why did you want to evolve or make a change?Connect the dots.
How exactly did you arrive at Future You? What new things did you try, or risks did you take? What was the first step?TMI! Get into the details.
Describe a “day in the life” of Future You in detail. What are you doing? What are you wearing? What are your plans?Who are your co-stars?
Who’s with you and how do others experience you? Imagine the human and social world around Future You—friends, family members, colleagues, coworkers, teammates, clients, companions, neighbors, or anyone in your orbit.
Dream big or small—and write to yourself as though you are your own best friend.
You can do this in 5 quick sentences over morning coffee or sit down for a more meditative “me-time” ritual with tea or a glass of wine.
This letter is at the heart of my self-guided refresh and ritual One-Day Sabbatical, and it’s an energizing, hopeful, and mindful practice even on its own. It helps you to visualize, believe in, and embody the confidence or role or talent or life you want.
You can find a more detailed walkthrough about how to write your own letter in the book — or check out the free downloadable mini guide below!
Free Download
Write your own letter from Future You with this free downloadable mini workbook — an excerpt from the book One-Day Sabbatical: A 3-Step Retreat for Everyone.
