10 Years From Now, This Will Be Your Life

If you write the letter today

I’ve never been a fan of the ‘where do you see yourself in five years’ idea.

How do I know where I’ll be or even who I’ll be?

But I read something recently about writing yourself a letter from ten years’ time.

There are many different coaches and articles that suggest that you write a letter to your younger self for reassurance that things work out, but this is writing yourself a letter from you in 2032 to you in 2022.

When I think back over the last ten years, there are so many things that I could never have guessed at? I didn’t know that I’d get cancer once, let alone twice. Or that it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Ten years ago, I owned a home on the outskirts of London, and my partner and I have rented a place on the beach for the last seven and a half years.

Who’d have thought?

This experiment isn’t about time travelling but more about what you’d like to tell yourself now about your life in 2032?

Will you still be working?

I can’t see myself not working in ten years because I love what I do so much, but will I still work as a coach, or will I become a full-time writer?

What are you working at now, and is it something you still want to be working at in ten years?

What were you doing for work ten years ago?

You can’t go back ten years to change your career, but you can start making changes right now. If there’s an area that you really want to work in, what are you waiting for?

You’ve heard the saying, when is the best time to plant a tree? Ten years ago. When is the second-best time to plant a tree? Right now.

How do you want your relationship to look?

How about relationships? I’ve had many clients who wish they’d got into, or out of, a relationship years before. But, just like whatever you do for a job, you can’t change what you could have done, but you can change what you’re going to do.

What do you want your relationship to look like in ten years? If you’re going to be with the person you’re with now but want things to change, make some changes now. Make a small change and then keep making small changes incrementally. If you want your partner to be more loving, look at how loving you are?

If I want a cup of tea, I can sit and will my partner to ask me if I want tea. I can imagine that I’m sending telepathic messages for tea; I can drop hints and get upset that he isn’t making me tea.

Or I can get up and make tea. I can ask him if he would like a drink?

It’s the same if you want a hug. You can wait, sulk, get upset, or you can hug your partner.

In ten years, when you look back at your relationship now, what might you wish you had changed?

Where do you want to live?

How about where you live? Ten years ago, I used to dream about living by the sea but never expected to make the move.

I hope you love where you live but, if not, why not? What are you waiting for? In ten years, do you still want to be waiting?

The British comedian Frank Skinner talks about warming the audience up before a show and chatting to the people in the front row. He asked a guy what it was like living in this part of the UK, and the guy said that he hated it.

‘Why don’t you move?’ asked Skinner. The man looked confused and said, ‘because my house is here,’

I know that it isn’t always easy to move across the country or even to a different country, but if it’s something that you think you want to do one day, make this the day.

Imagine that you are either where you want to be. Or where you are now in ten years.

There are two different scientific studies about this type of fantasising. One study surveyed 261 undergraduate students who engaged in positive fantasies about the future. They also measured the participant’s depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory. They found that some people became depressed when they fantasised about their future without taking steps to make it happen, and others became depressed if they believed that this future was unlikely to happen.

But other studies have found that if someone loves to play with the idea of making changes but accepts that they probably won’t, they can enjoy their imaginative flights without beating themselves up or feeling upset about what they currently have.

A little like imagining what you’d do with a lottery win without getting upset when you don’t win.

How about your health?

What will your future self write about health and weight? How do you imagine you might look or feel in ten years if you want to lose weight but aren’t doing anything about it?

Would you like to write your letter from a place of feeling comfortable about your body, or will you still be running the same habits and feelings you have now?

How did you feel about yourself ten years ago?

Just like with work, relationships or where you live now is the right time to make some changes. If you have weight to lose, start now by losing a pound per week. That isn’t a lot, and you might feel that it’s hardly worth the effort, but that’s over 3.5 stone a year. And so if you lost 2 pounds per week, that’s seven stone in a year. Just one year. Think about how pleased you’ll be looking back at the changes you made this year.

How about how you’re looking after yourself? How often you’re moving your body? Looking after yourself by eating well, eating real food that helps your body work properly, and exercising is not just good for you today; when you look back in ten years, what do you wish you’d changed? Do you wish that you’d eaten less processed food? Less sugar? Drank less alcohol? Drink more water? Make the changes today.

I’ve had so many clients tell me that they wish they’d made changes years ago. It doesn’t matter your age; now is the right time. It’s never too early or too late because now is all there is. It’s fun to write to yourself now from the perspective of yourself in ten years, it can highlight where you want to be and what you want to be doing, but you can only get to that place if you start now. If you begin to make the changes now, in ten years, you might look back and see that you’ve spent the last ten years in a place, mentally and physically, that felt good to you.

Today, write that letter from yourself in ten years’ time to yourself today and tell yourself how proud you are of all the changes you’ve made.