I have a new, fun, and amazingly powerful tool for you to start using in your life today.
It’s called the Future Self Letter.
This is a very practical tool you can use to start manifesting (i.e. creating) the results you want most in the future.
This fits very well with Visualizing Your Future Self, where you’re creating new neuropathways in your mind to get your brain to create a new reality instead of repeating the past. It also fits well with the Being List episode and the Direction vs. Intention episode.
All these tools I teach are different takes on “how” to become the person who has the result you want.
This tool, in particular, is a very practical way for you to make shifts in your life in as little as a week. I love it and am kind of obsessed.
Let’s start with why this is more important than anything on your current to-do list…
Why You Should Write A Future Self Letter
You should write a Future Self Letter because advice from your future self is always the best advice.
Always, always, always.
It requires you to go inward and get answers from your highest self.
When you make decisions from your highest self, you create the best results for you.
Remember what I teach… your future only exists in your mind. Literally, the only place the future exists is as sentences in your head.
Without doing the work I teach, your body is dragging you into a predictable future based on what you did in the past.
If you want a different future, you have to practice detaching from yourself. All your thoughts, feelings, and actions have been memorized in your brain. You have to become someone new, with new thoughts, feelings, actions, and results.
The biggest part of this is changing your thoughts and feelings. The actions and results flow naturally from who you’re being.
No one changes until they change their energy. When you change your energy, you change your life.
If you don’t have a daily practice where you’re BEING the person who has the result you want, then you’ll be stuck repeating your past, waiting for circumstances to change.
You cause an effect by changing your energy which then changes your reality. Not the other way around. (This is quantum physics.)
- More on this here: How To Improve Your Mindset (7 Steps To Take Right Now)
What’s even better (and what I’m getting to with the Future Self Letter) is that your body doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s not real.
For example, if you feel fear from a movie or fear from quitting your job, it’s the same emotional fear. Another example is when my law school friend had to stop listening to political podcasts because she was getting stressed and it was stressing out the baby, per her OB/GYN. It was real stress on the baby even though it was just from her listening. Why? Because it’s never the circumstance that causes the stress. It wasn’t the podcast causing the stress. It was her thoughts about the podcast that were causing the stress. The events she was hearing about in the podcast may as well have been happening to her. The body doesn’t know the difference.
Your body doesn’t know whether you’re the one under the stress or whether you’re thinking about someone else under stress. Same stress.
This means by deciding and visualizing your future from your thoughts and feelings, you’ll create your reality. (More on how to visualize correctly here.)
Now, to today’s topic: the Future Self Letter. To really uplevel your self-coaching and visualization practice, I highly suggest writing future self letters.
How To Write A Future Self Letter
To write a Future Self Letter, you write a letter FROM your future self TO yourself now.
You can do this for any time in the future, such as one year, five years, or twenty years. I love to do the one year and five year Future Self Letters.
For example, I’ll write a Future Self Letter from Natalie in 2024. Some of the things in my Future Self Letter are…
- I’m a non-drinker.
- I work out daily and have a personal trainer.
- I’m married.
- I have two dogs.
- I live in a beautiful condo downtown Chicago.
- I have a home office.
- I read a lot during my down time.
- I work 3-4 days per week.
- My business creates $2M in revenue.
- I sell programs, coaching, and live events.
- I have thousands of members in Grow You.
- I have a team of five people.
I don’t just write about my results either. I start there. Then I go to my actions. I think about what I did to create that. Then, I think about what I have to feel and think to create those results. My energy is very different because I’m a completely different person.
So for you, what results do you have in the future? How did you get those results? What would you be thinking about with these results?
If you want to lose 50lbs and in your future, you’re 50lbs lighter, you’re not thinking about losing 50lbs.
What advice do you have for you now? How would you make decisions now if you had the results you wanted? This one is HUGE! What about your life is different with these results? What about your life is the same?
Ask yourself these questions and answer them in a Future Self Letter. Sit down and actually write it (it’s not enough to just think about).
When you write your letter, study it. Spend time visualizing being the person who has those results. Practicie being that person in your mind (thoughts) and body (feelings).
Remember what I said above about your mind and body not knowing the difference between what’s real and what’s not? That’s where this comes into play. The more you align internally with who you want to become in the future, the sooner you’ll create the results you want as that person.
The Future Self Letter is a really fun and practical way to do this.
I love getting advice from my future self. She always knows what to do.
When I Quit Drinking
When I quit drinking I had this experience. My future self was a non-drinker. In all my letters for the last year and a half, I was a nondrinker.
I don’t know why, that’s just the wisdom that came to me. So, I just got tired of seeing it in the future and decided to do it now. I decided to be the person. Now, I’m a nondrinker. I didn’t go to the place of limiting my drinks or reducing drinking.
I decided to skip all that and instantly become a nondrinker. I’m not someone who wants a drink and can’t have one, I’m someone who doesn’t think about drinking.
The difference is everything. It isn’t exactly instant, but it’s pretty close (there are still a couple of times where I forget who I am and I think, “I want a drink” then I use that as an opportunity to coach myself).
It’s like wanting to lose weight. Skinny people don’t think about being skinny all the time. Who thinks about being skinny? People who are overweight. You have to become the person who doesn’t desire food to become that skinny person. Thinking about being her doesn’t work. You have to be her.
It’s like wanting to meet the man of your dreams. Think about all the qualities you want in a partner. Then YOU become that person. When you’re the person the person you want is looking for, you’ll attract them. It’s not the other way around.
Don’t Get Stuck In The “How”
If you’re getting stuck in the how, you’re not doing this right.
Take a step back. Go into visualizing and creating your being list.
Write another Future Self Letter.
Then, you’ll get really clear about being that person now.
That’s the secret.
If you’re focused on how to do something, you create more of “not knowing how.”
If you’re focused on becoming the person who thinks and feels like the person who has the results you want, you will take action from that place, try a bunch of things, fail a few times, then get the result.
If You Do It Right, You’ll Find Peace
If you do the Future Self Letter right, you’ll find peace along with other higher level emotions, like gratitude and appreciation.
This may even be awkward for you. You’re giving up one personality for another.
You’re creating an entirely new identity. All new thoughts, feelings, and actions. The results come from taking action but only from the person who has the thoughts and feelings that get those results.
Look Back At The Last Five Years
Another fun component of this exercise is to look at present you as once being the future you that you would’ve thought about five years ago.
Five years ago, what did you think, feel, and act to get you to where you are now?
Five years ago it was 2014. I was just starting a blog. I was a lawyer. I had a ton of student loan debt. I decided to imagine a completely different future for myself. Over the last five years, I’ve created her from my future. I got out of debt. I switched careers (twice!). I became a life and business coach. I moved to Chicago. I stopped dating guys who didn’t fit my future vision and started dating someone who is thoughtful, loving, caring, and wants the same things I want.
I’m SO happy I decided to go all in on me. Five years ago my future self hooked me up. I’m so appreciative of her.
I created my future from my future instead of my past.
This is totally available to you right now.
It’s not easy. You have to give up your identity. But you get a completely new identity that is alligned with your highest self, which is the person who has the results you want.
Hard? Yes.
Worth it? Totally.
A Final Note!
There’s something fun you can try at https://www.futureme.org/.
You can type out a letter and have it emailed to you at some time in the future. It’s supposed to be from present you to future you, but I don’t see why you can’t do it from future you to present you and have it delivered in the future, just for some fun.
Remember, whether you realize it or not, you’re creating your future right now. If you keep doing what you’re doing now, where will you be in 5 years?
Up Next – watch the YouTube video…
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