My little birthday tradition

Photo by AndreaPiacquadio (Pexels)

A few days ago was my birthday. Against popular, I have a strong disliking for my birthday. It is not the day or anything else. It is just I hate the idea of getting older without having achieved anything significant or important. There are things I wanted to do and places I wanted to be before I turn twenty but I didn´t do the things I wanted to do and neither did I go to the places I wanted to be.

Nevertheless, this article is not about how much I dislike getting older each year since it feels like a ticking time bomb. It is also not about how birthdays show me who actually cares about me as a person because with calender notifications it is just common decency to drop a message and if you don’t bother to set a notification then I will know how much you care about me, which is not at all.

This article is actually about what I love to do on my birthdays. Besides eating cake, enjoying the attention, soaking in the sun and opening the present. Even though all of the birthday activities are fun to a certain extent, nothing beats my favourite tradition.

It might seem as if it is a bit childish or a little bit odd but on my birthday I like to write myself a letter. A letter which I would receive one year later on my birthday. For me, any personal letters I would receive are a lovely thing to receive and I really appreciate it.

Before I get into how I prefer to write it, I first wanted to outline why I continue writing letters to my future self, because to me writing a letter to myself just is a very odd thing to do no matter the context. Technically, writing a to-do list is writing your future self but it is still odd.

Since I recently received a letter from my past self, I can say when I received that letter from myself a smile tugged at my lips. I completely forgot what I wrote but to a certain extent, it just felt really heart-warmed when I received that letter, especially on my birthday.

The letters carry significant importance for me because I always include things like the current situation and sometimes it is just nice to receive a reminder telling you how far you have come since last year.

To a certain extent, the letters serve as a guideline as well, since one should always move forward and never backwards. The letters outline how far one has come over the years and I try my level best to not take a step back.

When I need to reflect on my achievements over the past year, without those letters, I would just say that I have been a lazy nobody doing virtually nothing, which, as it turns out, can be a really damaging thing to say.

In each letter, I like to include things like habits I need to break or habits I need to build on. So, receiving those letters the next year can serve as a checklist or a reminder to do something you always needed to do.

My favourite reason to write letters to my future self is that it serves as a little gem from the past. Memories are forgotten over time, but the documented word lasts forever. It is just nice and nostalgic to receive something from the past.

As for my regrets about writing letters to my future self, I only have one, not starting it sooner. It would have been so intruding to see how much one has grown but it is also nice to see how much one has changed. Anything from beliefs to writing style is just interesting to spot the differences (but that is just the tiny scientist in me speaking).

If you read this far, you are clearly interested in writing a letter to your future self. To be perfectly honest, you can write a letter to your future self any way you please since it is no one´s business what you and your future self have to discuss or more accurately what you must remind your future self of.

You can be goofy and completely silly. Your grammar can be completely off. You can write anything you want your future self to know or remember since, at the end of the day, the letter is private, it doesn’t matter what others think since others won´t know.

If you find yourself inspired to write a letter to yourself living in the future. Go ahead. Let your ideas run wild. I am sure your future self would really appreciate the letter you decided to take time for and send. All I can do is wish you and your future self the best of luck… in the present and future.

Photo by Jess Bailey (Pixbay)

If you found yourself continue reading this article, then you are one of two people, you are either a person who finishes everything you have started or more likely you found yourself lost for words, not knowing where to start besides writing “Dear future self…”.

It is perfectly normal to feel at loss for words, trying to convey the messages you want to pass on to your future self. That is why writing a letter to your future self is important, so you can clearly state your goals, anything you want to do or just a word of caution as in knowing your flaw and working on changing it.

If I can be perfectly honest, I found out the hard way that starting a letter, especially to your future self can be quite the challenge. Where does one even start? To be fair, this letter is not a letter to your crush or a letter to your boss. It is a letter for you, yet it seems impossible to start.

Therefore let´s start with how any letter should start. Finding out the recipient of that letter. Silly question, I know but just bear with me for a second. First, you got to know to which future self you are sending the letter to.

Whether it is your one-year-from-no-self or the decade-from-now-self. Either way, choosing a time when the letter would be received could help you with the context and the goal-setting part of the letter.

For me, I always write to myself one year from now since I want to track my progress down the road but I would also like to set smaller, more achievable goals and take smaller steps to ensure success since I seem to be completely paralyzed with big goals and huge amounts of planning.

Then you would like to move on to the person who you are now to let yourself know who you once were since it is very likely that you won´t remember the person you once were in the future or even a year from now. We all change over time and sometimes our memories don´t do those changes justice.

Talking about your current self also includes the not so pleasant parts such as your fears and weaknesses. Knowing and overcoming fears can feel amazing. Sometimes a reflection on your past fears, make you realize that fears shouldn’t hold you back from pursuing your dreams.

Obviously, you should also talk about some of your greatest strengths and the things you are proud of to contrast your fears and weaknesses. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we are capable of until we take a step back and rethink it.

Maybe it would be helpful to also write if you are happy with your current situation, you are in. Since if you are not, then a year from now should certainly be the time to make a change, at the very least.

It can also be interesting to share your current values with your future self. Write about the people who guide you (such as your family and friends), if your health influences your life decisions, if relationships with others drive you, or if it is your career that gets you up in the morning.

Share some morals, memories or anything that can help you remember the values you hold. It is certainly interesting to see if any initial values would change over the course of your life.

You can certainly also write down some fun facts about yourself. The skills and abilities you have picked up. Any worthy achievements, any notable people you´ve met, just very interesting titbits of your life you would like to share.

Obviously, you should also talk about your past. One cannot change that past, but one can certainly learn it so one does not repeat the mistakes one already had to learn from. Note the things your past self did that made you proud, ashamed, happy or sad. It is just nice to see how far you have come.

Outline your goals and hopes. Let your future self know where you are and where you are planning to go. Think about what your future self would be proud of if they should look back. Any experiences, any accomplishments, anything that would make them glad they tried and happy.

I believe the best part of writing a letter to your future self is just talking to them as if they were right next to you, guiding you along the way. It is just like when you would like your younger self to know certain things and give them certain pieces of advice, the only difference is that it is a future yet to be created and not a past that has already been lived out.

In your letter, you should also add bad habits you really want to break, add things you wish your current self should continue and the things your future self should start doing. It is a fun challenge to stop, continue or try things.

No letter to the future is complete without a piece of advice. It might sound contra-productive at first since you normally would only give advice if you have experienced it and your future self will most certainly have more experience than you do. However, think of it another way. You don’t have to have the experience to help find a solution to a problem.

Last but not least, you should ask your future self some questions. It will allow your future self to reflect on their current situation and maybe inspire them to do more. It doesn’t have to be vitally important questions but just general questions you are curious about.

A thing I like to do is reflect on my old letters as well and maybe trash-talking my past self a little for being a worrywart. The point is when writing your letter to yourself, have little fun with it. Don’t take things too seriously and certainly don’t address your future self as your superior, since that person is you and you don’t want to address yourself as a superior.

Now that you have finished your letter, you have two options on how to send it to the future so your future self would receive it during the intended year.

Since I know I am a bit excitable when I know there is a surprise waiting for me. Sometimes, I would find myself unable to keep the time capsules I have buried in the ground there where they should be. Therefore, I always send my letters virtually through websites like FutureMe or schedule the letters.

Most of the time I would forget those letters since they are nowhere near my immediate surrounding and I will get surprised when the arrival date of the letter does come. Still, I should mention that the virtual option is certainly convenient but you can´t be sure if the website you sent it from will be around long enough to send the letter.

Of course, there is also the old-fashioned method of actually writing and sealing a letter. Since I can be easily tempted, I try to hide those things as far away and as unseeable as possible. It would help to seal and mark the envelope. Another neat trick is to set a calendar notification with the time to open the letter and the location of where the letter is hidden.

You can decorate the letter in any way you want and open it anytime you want (but it will only be truly special if you would open it at least a year after writing it.) If you don’t want to spoil the fun for yourself, write a letter every five years. Or write a letter now and send it to five different years all five years apart from each other. The possibilities are endless

Point is, and I can´t stress this enough, to just have fun with it because that is what writing a letter to yourself is all about. Now go ahead, write that letter and let your future self know that your present self would be proud of them no matter what they decide to do and support them all the way.