Letters to Myself: Entry Thirty-Four
Prompt: If I Met My 80-Year-Old Self Today, What Would They Beg Me to Stop Postponing?
A reflection on wisdom, time, and the quiet urgencies of life, imagining what an 80-year-old version of yourself would beg you to stop postponing.
This prompt stopped me in my tracks. There’s something profoundly humbling about imagining yourself at the far end of life. Looking back, carrying decades of wisdom, memory, and clarity that only time can offer.
I’ve always believed there is a version of ourselves that exists beyond the present moment. That’s why it feels so important to listen to elders. They’ve lived through history, endured hardship, witnessed joy, and learned what truly matters. Their wisdom is the closest thing we have to a life manual.
If I met my 80-year-old self today, I think the first thing they would beg me to stop postponing is letting go of the need to control everything.
For years, I chased perfection, being hypercritical of myself, measuring progress too harshly, believing that tightening my grip would somehow create certainty. While challenging myself has helped me grow, my older self would remind me that growth doesn’t require constant self-pressure. It requires grace. Showing up matters more than controlling every outcome.
I believe they would tell me not to abandon ambition, but to release rigidity.
Another thing my future self would beg me to stop postponing is travel.
One of the most transformative experiences of my life was traveling to Italy. Stepping outside my familiar environment and immersing myself in another culture shifted my perspective entirely. Travel doesn’t have to be extravagant or international, it just has to be intentional. Adventure wakes something up inside us that routine can’t reach.
There is so much of the world left to see. So many cultures, languages, climates, and ways of life that challenge our assumptions. Seeing them firsthand builds empathy, humility, and gratitude. My older self would tell me not to wait until “someday,” because someday has a way of disappearing.
The world is not something to observe from a distance, it’s something to experience.
This reflection also brings clarity to the quieter promises I want to keep. I hope my older self would thank me for never abandoning learning. For continuing to read, question, research, and absorb wisdom from credible, thoughtful voices. Knowledge keeps us alive internally. It keeps us curious. It keeps us connected across generations.
Wisdom comes in many forms, but it must be sought deliberately.
Above all, I think my 80-year-old self would beg me not to dim the light I give others. To continue leading with kindness. To teach when I can. To guide without ego. To live with a stoic steadiness that offers peace to people who need it in that moment.
If I listened closely, I think they would say this:
Don’t wait to become who you already are.
Let this year, and the ones that follow, be guided by peace, curiosity, and courage. So that when the time comes, I won’t be begging myself to live differently. I’ll be grateful that I already did.
This post is part of my "Letters to Myself" series — a weekly free-write blog where I explore personal growth, curiosity, and healing through simple prompts. Sometimes reflective, sometimes fun, but always real. Thank you for being here.
References:
Photo by Kyle Gare
