In the 2020 movie, “2067,” protagonist Ethan Whyte time travels 407 years into the future and returns by changing the future, saving humanity. This is the power of projecting a positive and desirous picture of the future. By concentrating one’s intention and attention on the image of the future self, it becomes easier to achieve the life one desires. This is quite alike Shakti Gawain’s method of “Creative Visualization.” Author and content creator, Sahil Bloom, used the same tool when he wrote a “Letter to my future self” 10 years ago, on January 1, 2014. A decade later, when he opened it, the letter “hit him hard,” as he wrote in a tweet. “Everyone should do this,” he says.
Bloom shared in a video that the idea of writing a letter to his future self came from a sixth-grade teacher who used to assign it. This teacher, he said, used to make them write such letters. Flash-forward to the end of December 2014, the idea again popped up in his mind, and he decided to write a letter. At this time, he was about to complete his graduation. Tipsily drunk and therefore emotional, he poured out his heart, writing all the things he wanted himself to be and have, in the future. After finishing the letter, he tucked it in an envelope and stowed it inside his safe. Ten years later, on January 1, 2024, he opened his safe, took out the letter, and read it while vlogging the entire scene.
“Hey Old Man,” he addressed his future self in the letter, “If you’re reading this, it means you’re alive, so congrats on that, I guess.” He added that it seemed like the appropriate time to lay out his hopes for the future. He included nine points in the letter, each starting with “I hope.” In the first point, he brought attention to his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth and wrote that he hoped that he got married to her and “didn’t f**k that up,” because she’s the best thing that ever happened to him. Later on, he revealed that he did end up marrying Elizabeth.
Next, he mentioned that he hoped his future self would have kids by the time he opened the letter, even though at the time of writing the letter, he didn’t want kids. But people always change their mind, he had wondered. “If you do have kids, I hope you’re a good dad. If you’re even half as good as your dad was to you, you’ll be great,” the letter read. The third point related to becoming a grown-up and emotionally mature over the 10-year-period. “I really hope you’ve worked on yourself and grown up. You have a lot you hide from the world. You’re insecure. You compare yourself to everyone but yourself. You’re so afraid to fail that you always seem to choose the safe path. You’ve got work to do—don’t run away from it,” Bloom wrote.
In the time capsule, he visualized that he would tell his parents and friends, how much he loved them and started living closer to them as well as to his sibling Sonali. He hoped that his future self would be doing something meaningful, even if it was “something like enjoying a random Tuesday.” In the end point he added something that most people forget while chasing success, “I hope you’ve had a little bit of fun along the way.”
“My immediate reaction upon reading the letter was to be overwhelmed with emotion. The raw, real voice of my younger self coming through the words felt jarring after ten years,” Bloom described in an article, and confessed, “I was as dumb, arrogant, and insecure as they come when I wrote those words, but the letter reveals a wisdom and clarity that I had yet to action upon.”
On X, his letter received over 3 million views. In the comments, @ryanashank said Bloom’s letter made him tear up. @thejacobturner exclaimed, “Man what a cool thing to look back at.” @sweatystartup told Bloom, “The self-awareness here is incredible. You are built different my man!”
Other people said how marvelous it was to go from “not wanting kids in the future” to having one and loving it. @rubenhssd called this “time-traveling into your own mind.” In the following tweets in the thread, Bloom shared some tips for people interested in writing out letters to their future selves. “The answers are within you—you just haven’t asked the right questions yet.”
