Why A Letter From Your Older Self Can Change Your Life (& My Letter)

By author | November 3, 2014 |

I was invited recently to write a letter to myself. From a self much older (and hopefully wiser) self, who has lived out the story I want to live, who wants to invite the me of today to learn the lessons he learned, to be fully prepared for the life he has.

The challenge is to look forward. To think about our own stories. To think about what life itself means. To confront the truth of who we are, what story we are currently telling, and the urgency of our need to stop procrastinating & live the story we were born to.

Undergoing this process has brought lots of things in my life to focus. Who I am called to be. The story I want to tell.

It’s helped me gain a more realistic perspective on life, and inspired me to take action to get my story going. And later I’m going to invite you to take up this challenge too.

So, here’s my own ‘letter from an older self’:

Dear 37 year old James,

I won’t ask how you are. I am you, remember. I know how you are. I remember reading this letter myself.

I remember the hopelessness you felt on the train that day.

Trust me James, you have a long journey ahead of you.

Yes. Really.

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Knight Rider, Apple Watch & The Tower of Babel

By author | September 15, 2014 |

In the 1980’s there was a show called Knight Rider. It was incredibly cool. And the big star of this show – and due respect to David Hasslehoff here – was the car, KITT. A self-aware supercomputer in a groovy black trans-am. And a watch which the car’s owner, Michael Knight, could talk to the car on.

Last week Apple announced the launch of the Apple Watch. A watch we will be able to talk to and command, but which will also receive and send text messages, and connect online. Technology is advancing at a rapid rate.

It’s amazing to think the first space aircraft which went to the moon were powered by as little electricity as it takes to run a kettle. The average iPhone is a million times faster than the first home computer.

Social media is already making the world a far smaller, and quicker place, changing the way we live. The next big advancement is likely to be the pursuit of artificial intelligence and research into how transfer human consciousness onto a supercomputer. A technology which may be as little as 20 years away.

But many say technology is destroying us. They say we need to stop the advancement of technology, scale back, and go back to how things ‘used to be’. According to them technology is the cause of many of the problems in our world, and ultimately damages us. They say we need to limit and control it, stop advancing.

However, this is to fundamentally misunderstand both technology and humanity.

To understand this issue further, we need to go back in time.

To the brick, and the tower of Babel.

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