Time Travel: Have You Lived Up To The Expectation Of The Person You Were 5 Years Ago?

Often we feel that our life is stuck at a saturation point. Be it your career, health or relationship, it is usually difficult to perceive the small changes that happen on a daily basis. This is why I often perform a time travel back to my past.

No, I haven’t been luck to invent a time machine or stumble upon a magical lamp. This is a simple exercise that I strongly believe everyone should once in a while. Time travel in this context, is done by writing a letter from the past you to the present you.

Take a piece of paper, and imagine yourself to be the person you were 5 years ago. Write a letter, dividing it into 5 major sub-headings. Each of these sub-headings would focus on important areas of your life.

The first area should be your quality of life. What changes would you want to bring in your character and personality? What bad habits would you want to get rid of, and the good ones you wish to imbibe upon.

Young people do not focus much on being healthy, but they should. How healthy would you be in the next 5 years, on a scale of 10 where 10 is healthiest and 1 being not healthy at all?

The third and fourth areas can be interchangeable, considering the importance of each in your life. Some people value relationship or love over career while for others career comes first. Whichever sub-heading you wish to prefix before career and love, here are a list of questions that you can include in your letter:

For career; what are your reasons for choosing a particular profession, and do you see yourself content and successful after 5 years? What is your 5 year’s goal with respect to money, promotion and work-life balance?

Relationship is a tricky scenario as most people starts to mature and think of relationship differently with age. This should be a fun part to write on. State down what is your current view about relationship and love, are you the no-strings attached type or is it happily ever after for you since the first date. Is your present perception likely to stick even after 5 years? What changes you would, if you could bring in your future relationships?

After you are done with the letter, come back to the present and analyze whether you have lived up to your expectations. Note how your life has changed, which areas have improved and which needs working upon.

This simple exercise would give you an insight on how your life has changed over the past couple of years, and how you wish for it to change more during times to come.

By Alison Bourget