Writing down your goals in detail, like in a letter to yourself, can be a little awkward, but it’s a habit that works for many successful people, and neuroscience supports it.
Famous science fiction author Octavia E. Butler once wrote in a letter to herself in 1988, “I’m going to be a best-selling author. Good luck with that.”
Bruce Lee, the famous actor and martial artist, wrote to himself in 1969:
Writing your goals down on paper increases your chances of achieving them. This is largely thanks to a concept called the “generation effect,” which scientists discovered in 1978. Basically, ideas you generate yourself are more likely to be stored in your long-term memory than ideas you just happened to read.
Neuroscientist and author Erin Clabaugh says that writing a letter to yourself can not only cement your goals in your memory, but it can also instill a sense of confidence and accompanying motivation that you wouldn’t have felt otherwise.
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Clabaugh, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, says setting intentions about your future path can guide you in the direction you want to go and give you the confidence to pursue it. Similar to the placebo effect, believing you can achieve your goals can impact your ability to succeed, she explains.
But what exactly should I write to myself? Clabaugh recommends crafting your letter around five questions:
What is working in my life? What is not working? What is not in line with the life I want? How am I spending my time, energy, and resources? What are my priorities and values?
These questions can be useful gauges to determine if you’re moving in the direction you want, Clabaugh says. If not, “you can identify those passages in your letter and say, ‘My intention is to act in a way that brings those passages closer to my actual values,'” she says.
Strategies for “all kinds of people, regardless of their walk of life”
This practice is most effective when you keep your intentions open-ended and try to treat yourself with as much compassion as possible, Clabaugh says. The more letters you write to yourself, the more you may find that the same themes keep coming up. She says it can be seen as a sign that you’re making progress toward your goals, even if it’s in a small, unexpected way.
“Do your best every day toward that intention. You’ll make progress toward that goal, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you thought it would.” Clabaugh says.
Neuroscientist Erin Clabaugh says to use these five questions when setting goals in a letter to yourself:
Clabaugh tends to write letters to himself “when I’m going through something difficult.” “I’ve turned 40 pages[of a diary]in the past, and at that point I’m writing a letter to my future self. Then when I’m writing in my diary, at some point I’m sure it will hit me.”
She added that this exercise is also useful in other scenarios, such as if you are simply looking to advance your career. Writing a letter to yourself at least once a year, then reading and reflecting on it weeks or months later is a helpful tool for everyone, she says.
“Setting intentions can make a difference,” Clabaugh says. “I think this is something that all kinds of people should take advantage of, no matter their walk of life.”
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