This is the Perfect Time to Create Your Vision Board! Here’s How.

With a month of 2016 behind us, this is the perfect time to assess where we are, pick up the resolutions we dropped that are still important to us, and recommit to living a life we love!

One of the best ways to do that is with a vision board. A vision board is a powerful tool that will give you the clarity, direction and motivation you need to achieve the goals you crave. It’s an attention-getting visual representation of what you want to do, be and have in your life–and the way you want to feel! It speaks to your subconscious mind and helps make you more aware of what’s most important to you so you can capitalize on the opportunities you might have missed otherwise.

I’ve been creating and using vision boards most of my life and often facilitate vision board workshops, like the one I did last year for 75 high-potential women at Verizon. When I introduced the concept of a vision board to one of my corporate clients, he was skeptical. “To be honest,” he said, “I thought that was something you’d find in a preteen girl’s bedroom, but now I get it!”

Vision boards have helped me achieve many of my goals, including writing my book and finding our family beach home. I recently hosted a small VisionBoardParty2015workshop at my home with some friends. It was just what I needed to create a fresh board and support others ready to make this their best year yet.

Since many of you have expressed interest in creating a vision board but don’t know how, here are some simple instructions. While you can do this on your own, it’s often more fun and effective to do it with others. If you have questions or would like to talk with me about facilitating a “Picture This!” vision board workshop for your organization, contact me.

The Five Simple Steps to Create and Use Your Vision Board

1) Make a list of your short- and long-term goals. In an ideal world, where you have unlimited resources and no fear, what do you want to do, be and have and how do you want to feel? Include the important steps to get there. For example, if you want to advance in your career, you might need to learn new technology or earn a certification or advanced degree. If you want to be healthier, you might need to be more active by participating in a sport or a yoga class, and eat more fruits and vegetables. In addition to your work and health, consider goals in these other categories: your family, relationships, home, fun, finances, personal development and at least one bodacious big-dream goal, like writing a book or owning a vacation home. Also include words that describe how you want to feel, like peaceful, creative, confident or energized. If you need help getting clear, consider journaling by asking yourself, “What does my ideal life look and feel like?”

2) Gather your favorite magazines and a few you’ve never read. Libraries often give away their old copies. Flip through them and cut or rip out vibrant images and empowering words that reflect your goals. If you come across images that delight you but are not connected to a goal, include those too. You just might be surprised how that image leads you to a goal you weren’t aware of. Need more? Search on the Internet and print out other images and words. Take a break for a day or two and then review your clippings. Throw out any that simply don’t feel right. Store the rest in a large envelope.

3) Assemble your tools. You’ll need a poster board or cork board, tape or a glue stick, scissors, a few more magazines as you continue to search for more images and words, and, if you’d like, colorful markers to draw designs and other words.

4) Arrange the clippings on your board. Refrain from adhering them to the board until it looks and feels right. Recognize that this is an organic process and you’ll continue to add to and prune the board as your goals and focus change.

5) Interact with your vision board. Place the board somewhere you can see it, like in your walk-in closet or bathroom, home office or garage. Take a few moments to look at it each day and consider posing a question, like “What’s one thing I can do today to bring me closer to this reality?” When I do that, I either think of something immediately or have an insight later in the day that I act on. Keep a journal of your goals and the insights and achievements that come from your vision board.

Got an inspiring vision board story to share or questions on how to create and use yours? Please post it here.

 

2 thoughts on “This is the Perfect Time to Create Your Vision Board! Here’s How.

  1. Pamela Miles Reply

    A participant of a recent Vision Board session I hosted texted me three days afterwards. She was so excited to share with me the discovery of what her Board had revealed to her and how it manifested in her life in a very short time.

    One side of her board was centered around work,the opposite side was all about travel to places she dreamed of going one day. She had previously asked her boss numerous times if she could go from Connecticut store she worked in to the California location to share her knowledge of the jewelry department that both stores shared. All previous conversations had resulted in her boss basically saying that he didn’t think this was a good idea, they didn’t have the money, etc.

    Just three days after she completed her Vision Board her boss approached HER and asked if she wanted to go to California for a long weekend to work in the affiliated store. He said it almost as if she they had never had the previous conversations. She gladly excepted the invitation and then realize that her Vision Board now represented the two sides becoming one – travel and business!

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