Are you currently stuck on what to write with your journal? Need ideas for free-writing? Well, you've come to the right place! I am starting a new blog post topic, in which I'll be regularly providing writing prompts. Today's topic is a journal prompt: writing a letter to your future self.
The way this works is I'll let you know what you'll need to write. I'll also give you a series of questions and a guideline to follow. However, as this is a free-writing exercise, you don't need to stick 100% to the guide or to the prompts. Once your ideas start flowing, you won't need my help anymore! So grab a journal, a sheet of paper, a pen, or even your phone's notepad, and let's begin!
What is a letter to your future self?
A letter to your future self is like any other letter, except you're addressing it to yourself in a set amount of time in the future. It's a form of self-reflection, memorabilia, and capturing time.
Why should you write a letter to your future self?
Writing a letter to your future self, as mentioned before, is a form of self-reflection. You can establish your hopes for the future and compare your place in life to your past. You can picture how you want your life to look like and see what changed and what didn't. Overall, it's a fun way to express yourself and can bring you back on important moments in your life.
However, the REASON why you write this time capsule is totally up to you. Ask yourself: Why am I writing this letter? What do I want my future self to know? Where do I want to be in 5-10 years? If you can answer these questions, you're on the right track to starting this letter.
Starting the letter.
First and foremost, determine WHO you are addressing. Yes, it's yourself. But who exactly? You 6 months from now? 5 years from now? You in 10 years? 20 years? In my personal letter, I addressed myself 10 years from now because I wanted to find myself at a different point of life, but not too far down the road. I found that 10 years is a good medium, but it always helps do to these letters frequently so you should also consider doing one for a short-term amount of time (for example in 1 year from now).
After you determine the why and the who, then determine the WHAT. We'll discuss more about this under the next subheading.
The contents of the letter.
What you're writing about is totally up to you, but I'll give you a few ideas to follow along if you're stuck on where to go with this letter. The format is pretty simple:
Start with a greeting: "Hey me in 10 years from now, it's you of the past!"
Follow up with some questions you may have for yourself: "What's it like in the future? Did you get that degree? Did you get that job? Are you still with your partner? Have you published that book?" There is no limit to the amount of questions you can ask yourself of the future, because trust me, it'll be extremely fun to answer all of these when the time comes!
Update (or remind) your future self of your current status: "Right now I'm in university working towards a degree. I'm trying to get a job. I'm in a new relationship. I started a new project. I am working towards some goals." Whether if it's important or trivial, I encourage you to write about it. Your future self will love having this blast to the past. It'll be a moment of nostalgia for sure!
Tell yourself WHY you're writing this letter: This part is the body. Here, you'll include reflections/realizations, advice, hopes, and even pictures. If you're stuck on this part, go straight to the next part, where I offer you four prompts to get your clockworks turning.
Ask/answer some prompts: First, write three good things you learned about yourself. Then, write three bad things you learned about yourself. Next, write three pieces of advice you would give to a friend. Finally, write three pieces of advice you wish someone gave you.
End with a goodbye: Give yourself a well wish and a piece of advice, perhaps a value you hold strongly to yourself that you can't ever imagine changing, or with a joke that you know will crack yourself up in the future! Or, end with a simple goodbye, and give yourself an incentive to either write your past self a letter back, write another letter to another future version of yourself, or do both!
Above all, the point of this letter is to be a fun time-capsule exercise that gets your clockworks moving and your writing process functioning. In the long run, you'll appreciate yourself for doing this activity, and I highly encourage you to try it out. You can even publish your letter to futureme.org, which will actually email you the letter you wrote in any amount of time you set it to.
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