Erica's #41 - Write a letter to myself to be opened when the 1001 days are over (10/21/2013)

I've never been one of those five- or ten-year plan people, looking ahead to what I expect life should look like over the next decade, and, inevitably, setting myself up to feel like a major failure when I'm not an accomplished musician and published author traveling the world with 2.5 perfect children, only coming home to our house with a white picket fence (and a full-time housekeeper) when we get bored exploring the wonders our planet has to offer.

 I *despised* any exercise in high school,college, or job interviews that asked me to ponder what I wanted my life to be like in ten years, and coming up with concrete steps I needed to take to achieve those goals.

I still recall in vivid detail a conversation once had with a former boss about how I wanted my career to advance over the next five years.  Feeling like a caged animal, and after contemplating my answer to that question over an agonizing minute of silence while wiping my sweaty palms on my khaki pants, I responded with the truth - "I'd honestly like to be self-employed".  Silence...

I'm still not one of those big picture plan people.  I tried once to put together a five year plan with time constraints in a lovely Excel Spreadsheet (I have spreadsheets for everything - nerd alert!).  After wracking my brain for an hour, I came up with one measly goal and couldn't pin down a time-frame for this thing to save my life.  Finally realizing I was stressing myself out for nothing, I deleted the whole thing and crossed "Come up with five-year plan" off of my to-do list.

So, as you now see, it's a big deal for me to put in writing a bunch of things that I want to accomplish in the next 2.75 years.  My saving grace on this challenge is the fact that there isn't much more in this life (other than Excel Spreadsheets) that I love more than crossing something off of a list.

Not to mention the fact I am not forced to think big picture.  Some of these things will take no more than a few minutes to accomplish.  You'll notice that there are no major career expectations on my list.  Call that a lack of ambition if you will - I call it not letting work define me.

So how does this relate to writing a simple letter to myself to be opened when these 1001 days are over?  Here's how - I didn't want to word it so that it deflates me when I read it in 2016.  I've also never written a letter to my future (or past, or present for that matter) self, so this was a slightly weird concept for me.  But I got through it.

Here's a blurred photo of my letter.  See, I couldn't even write an entire page to myself.  And I blurred it because it's likely embarrassing drivel in there.  But hey, it's done, and crossed off the list!