Living Memory

If you’re pursuing meaningful work, lasting change, impact… you’re always in the past.

Writing notes to the future: I find sometimes I forget what I thought about things in the past. Or how I would have felt if I’d have known about my successes and failures.

What would he/she say? For me, he’d have told me to celebrate the many successes more than I do. He’d have told me to not beat myself up about the losses, asserting they were all part of the process.

How does this help our work? Big goals are risky. They’re a breeding-ground for self-doubt, self-criticism and burn-out. A great way I’ve found to definitively squash those is to write to the future. So future-me can hear it right from the horse’s mouth.

There are enough obstacles out there. Lean into them, and consider doing so with a letter from your past – a living memory – to help you stay the course.