I Sent a Letter to Myself in the Future
Does your inner voice sound like an encouraging friend always cheering you on?
Or do you ever catch yourself speaking negatively?
Berating yourself for being lazy? For not working hard enough? For your work not being good enough?
Have you ever spoken more harshly to yourself than you’d ever speak to anyone else that you loved?
If you have, you’re not alone. I’ve done the same thing too.
I have to constantly be on guard against my perfectionist tendencies. That’s when I find myself criticizing everything that I write, every new idea I have. Sometimes my perfectionism drives me right into a creative rut.
I was in one of those creative ruts back in November when I picked up a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
I saw it on a list of recommended books for creatives and decided to give it a try, hoping it would give me some motivation and inspiration.
Well, it was just the book I was looking for. It’s composed of twelve lessons that you complete over the course of twelve weeks.
Each lesson has exercises that help you pinpoint why you are facing a creative block, work your way out, gain self-confidence, and restore joy and pleasure to your creative endeavors.
There are reviews on Goodreads that criticize the book for sometimes being a little woo-woo. I can understand that. Like that one exercise to gather stones from outside and carry them around in your pockets.
But most of the exercises I found immensely helpful.
I now do “morning pages” nearly every morning. That means filling several pages of a notebook with longhand, stream of consciousness writing before getting started on your work for the day.
Journaling is actually proven to be therapeutic and helps you work through negative self-talk.
And I make a point to get away from my desk and do something fun or adventerous at least once a week. Cameron calls these “artist’s dates”, and they’re supposed to help you gather new experiences to recharge your creative energy.
But there was one exercise that I nearly didn’t do.
Cameron tells you to write and mail an encouraging letter to your inner artist. She admits it sounds silly but promises it will feel very, very good to receive.
You see, your inner artist doesn’t thrive so much on the approval of others as it does on your approval.
It needs your confidence in your work. Your pride in your accomplishments. Your recognition that you are working very hard. And though your work might not yet be as good as you want it to be, you are making progress every day.
I put the exercise off because…it did sound silly. And I’d recently moved and didn’t know where I’d packed away my stationery. Excuses, excuses.
But then one afternoon I found myself with a little free time, and I wondered if I could schedule an email to arrive in my inbox at some point in the future.
I googled this question and the answer was: of course! There’s a website for that: https://www.futureme.org.
How cool!
(Maybe you can do this in Gmail too, but this website looked so much easier than figuring out why my Gmail account didn’t have a scheduling button.)
I wrote up something quickly. I’m copying and pasting it below if you want to write yourself a note too and would like some inspiration for what to say.
I scheduled the email to arrive in a month’s time. I wanted it to be a surprise and hoped that I’d forget all about it and then discover it in my email inbox one morning.
Well, I did forget exactly what I’d written, but I didn’t forget the day I’d scheduled it for. And as the day drew nearer, I was growing more and more excited to open my inbox that morning.
It was like when you buy yourself a present on Amazon and keep checking the front stoop to see if it’s arrived yet.
Reading those words that morning did feel very, very good. It had been a busy week, and those encouraging words from myself in the past were like a hug from a good friend.
Why not be kind to yourself today and send yourself some fan mail too?
I’m sure your future self will be very happy to receive it. 🙂
Nicole Bianchi is a writer, copywriter, and storyteller at nicolebianchi.com. By day, she works with business owners and creatives to help them clarify their websites’ messaging and craft compelling words that resonate with their audience. By night, you’ll probably find her writing a story or reading a good book.
I Sent a Letter to Myself in the Future
Research & References of I Sent a Letter to Myself in the Future|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source