| This is an e-mail I sent to myself last summer. The idea is that you write yourself an e-mail that is sent on a set delay - I sent the e-mail on August 7, 2009, and set the delay to June 20th, 2010. I wrote this before I got into pick up and I was barely into self-improvement.
-----
Dear Future Self,
Coming from a somewhat disappointed and lost kid, I just wanted to say that I hope you have accomplished everything you have hoped for in this past year. I hope that in the last year of high school you have done everything you promised you would. I hope you have set goals, and completed them with pride and determination; and I hope you have really wallowed in that amazing feeling of accomplishment of what truly matters to you.
I hope you have figured out what you want to do in your future. You have always been confused with what you want to do - I know, I am at this moment - but I really and earnestly hope that you have found something you are passionate about, something that you love that you want to spend the rest of your life doing. However, if you haven't found something, if you still have no clue, you don't have anything to worry about. Life is an adventure and sometimes you have to go with the moment. If the latter is the case, this is what you must do. Go with your gut, ride the wave, hang 10 and enjoy it. Go somewhere, do something crazy, who knows - you might just find your passion. You'll at least have a crazy story to tell.
I hope you made your last year of high school as memorable and enjoyable as you could. Through the good times and the bad I really hope you enjoyed it. Your social life is one thing that I am at the moment really concerned about. I am very nervous to start this year - I want to make a good impression on all the new people at my school, I want to be popular, I want to make more friends. I hope you did. I just want you to know something before you decide to regret anything. If you met 10 people this year, you should be satisfied. If you met more, you accomplished your goal. Even if you weren't the most popular kid in school, and even if you didn't say something you wish you said, or you said something you wish you hadn't - you have to forgive and forget, in this case yourself. Understand that there is a long road ahead of you, and you have just started. The bottom line is, don't waste your own time regretting the last year - spend your time remember the good ones. You should be glad
you made it this far.
At this point in your life you are going to look around you and see what you don't have. You are going to see your friends chasing their own dreams, traveling the world, going to university, being successful. You are going to look at yourself and see what you lack. Don't do this. Don't look at yourself as not having a passion or a dream, but look at yourself as having what they don't have - an open mindset. You should be open minded at your age to anything that comes your way. Don't be afraid to say yes, to any offer that you may hear. Take advantage of opportunities, big or small, and don't let fear or hesitation stop you. Work past irrational fear and do something crazy.
Remember the saying "you only live once"? Well its true. Don't forget about this. It has already been almost one full year since I sent this you. Have you done anything memorable? Crazy? What have you accomplished this year? Or was your year generally mundane and uneventful, because you were too lazy or afraid to do anything about it? I cannot stress enough how important this piece of advice is. Sure, I'm young, and not wise by any stretch of the imagination; but one thing I can do is learn from my mistakes. Coming from a lost kid, this is valid advice.
Life is a thrill, if you make it that way. You must realize that you have control over your life, and it is you that decides how you live it. You decide if you are happy just as you decide what to eat for breakfast or when to go to bed. Happiness is purely psychological, there is absolutely nothing physical about it. Tell yourself you are happy, count your blessings, and you will be blown away by the results.
All in all, I hope you truly tried to achieve what you wanted this year, and I hope you continue to strive for that accomplishment in the future. Life is what you make it; you're in the drivers seat.
Good luck, my friend.
-Past self
|
CHAT
