Here’s how to change that, with one letter.
It’s February, and if there is one thing I’ve learned after years of disrupting myself, it’s this:
It’s never too late to become the person you want to become.
So, in December, I did something that I started doing a few years ago––I wrote a letter from my December 2026 self — as if she were writing back in time to thank me for how I chose to live this year.
A thank-you note from the person I’m becoming.
I wrote across categories: spiritual growth, emotional growth, family, physical health, work, wealth, home… even a few miscellaneous joys.
The structure was simple: “Dear Whitney, thank you for doing x, y, and z. Because you did, this became possible.”
For example:
“Thank you for your continual efforts around your health. Because you worked on sleep, nutrition (protein!), strength training, mobility, and 7,000+ steps a day, I feel strong and healthy.”
“And thank you for finishing your book, for being all-in on the process. For finishing something that mattered so much to me. Love, Future Whitney.”
I got the idea from Ben Hardy‘s book Be Your Future Self Now. Here’s why it works:
Psychologist Hal Hershfield at UCLA (I interviewed him on the podcast here) has spent over a decade studying how we relate to our future selves. He found when people think about who they’ll be in ten or twenty years, their brains respond the same way they do when thinking about a stranger. It’s hard to make sacrifices for a person who doesn’t feel real to us.
Hershfield also found that people who do feel connected to their future selves — who can picture her vividly, who feel a sense of kinship with who they’re becoming — are more likely to save for retirement, make healthier choices, report greater life satisfaction, and even behave more ethically. The connection itself changes the decisions we make today.
And writing a letter? It’s one of the most powerful ways to build that connection. When you sit down and let your future self speak to your present self with gratitude — “Thank you for…” — you’re making her real. You’re closing the distance between who you are and who you’re becoming.
Research from UC Berkeley found that people who wrote gratitude letters showed significantly better mental health — not immediately, but weeks and even months later. The benefits built over time, like compound interest for the soul. Writing in a spirit of thankfulness seems to rewire how we process our experiences, shifting attention away from what’s lacking and toward what’s possible.
So a future-self letter that begins with gratitude? It’s doing double duty. It’s building a bridge to the person you want to become and it’s anchoring you in appreciation for who you already are.
Once I’ve written the letter — which usually takes me a couple of weeks — I use it as a compass. Most Sundays, I look back at the past week and ask: Am I allocating my time in a way my future self will thank me for?
Then I look at my upcoming week and ask the same question.
And where I need to, I course correct.
Have you ever written a letter from your future self to your present self?
If you’d like to try it, start small. Maybe just one category. And maybe just a letter from yourself a week into the future. And then let your future self be generous — effusively, specifically grateful to who you are today.
If you have written one — are you noticing you’re changing faster? Or are you simply noticing, for the first time, that you are changing?
Either way, that’s the point.
All best,
Whitney