Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? What about travel into the future? There’s an easy way to do it…well sort of.

One way the you of the present can make a time travel journey is by writing a letter to your future self to be opened in the future. To your future self, the letter will be a visit from the past.

What can be gained by writing a letter to yourself? Depends on how good your letter is. You have the opportunity to say something to your future self. What would you want to communicate? You’ll be able to talk to yourself 5, 10, 15 years down the road. There may be instructions for your future self, or you may have goals that you will want to check up on.

There are a lot of things you could include in your letter or letters to yourself. The more you include, the more beneficial the letter will be to you.

What to Include in Your Letter

Here are some ideas of things to include in your letter:

  • You current thoughts and feelings about life, religion, politics, society, etc.
  • Your feelings for your family
  • Where you are at in your life and where you want to be. This could apply to where you want to be physically, financially, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and any other “lly” ending word.
  • Your current likes and dislikes
  • Your goals
  • Your dreams
  • Places you want to see
  • Where you want to live
  • Habits you want to have formed
  • Habits you want to have changed
  • The type of person you want yourself to become

Be creative with what you put in your letter. Include a current picture of yourself or family to help emphasize the period from which the letter came.

Storing Your Letter

You can store your letter in a number of different ways. Below are a few ideas for saving your letter to be opened at a future date.

Give the Letter to a Friend or Family Member

Depending on the reliability of the individual, give your letter to a friend or family member to keep and mail to you. Be careful giving your letter to a family member or friend who has a high level of curiosity and a low inhibition because they may read your letter. Still, it’s an option you could pursue. If you can get others to participate, have them write letters to themselves as well and designate someone to be the letter holder until it’s time to send the letters.

Use a Service Online to Store Your Letter and Email it to You

There are a few services out there that will store your letters and then email or mail them to you at the specified time. Some services are free while others have a fee attached. A website that provides this service for free can be found at http://www.futureme.org and will email you on the date you specify the letter you created. When writing and submitting your letter, chose the “private” option to keep your letter private.

Write and Save the Letter

Type or hand-write your letter, and seal it in an envelope. Label the letter “Personal Letter to Self (add your name) Do not Open Until (add date).” Store your sealed letter in your safe with other important documents.

Save the Letter on Your Computer

You can create your letter, and store it on your computer and not read it until the date you specify. Name the file “Letter to Self (your name) open after (date)” and that should help you from opening the document early. Store the letter in a special folder away from your regular documents.

Don’t Limit Yourself

You don’t have to limit yourself to writing letters only to yourself. Write letters to your future children. You could set specific ages for them to open their letters. You could also have your children write letters to themselves.

A fun activity is to have your children write letters to their future children. Keep their letters safe until they have children. For example, have them write a letter at age 16 to their future children when they reach the age of 16 and so on.

You can also create letters to be opened at specific events rather than a specific time. Write a letter to yourself to be opened before you get married with gentle reminders about the type of person you want to marry. Write a letter to be opened when you have your first child or grandchild or are considering a career or life change.

Remembering

To many of us, these letters are a good reminder and a proverbial “kick in the pants” to get going on what we thought we’d be accomplishing in the future. Make the most of your letter writing, and you’ll help your future self make the most of the present.

Good luck with your letter writing, and we’ll see you in the future.