Monday, December 11, 2017

Started Thinking About Your 2018? Start Here, With Five Questions and Answers About Creating a Vision Board

I’ve made more new year’s resolutions than I can possibly remember. Like many people, I’ve struggled to act on them consistently enough to see the results I want. That’s one reason I’ve turned to a visible, tangible representation of what I want: a vision board. 

At this point I hope you’re intrigued enough by the concept to ask: “what’s a vision board?” To this point, I’ve identified five frequently asked questions about vision boards. I share them here with my responses. 

ONE
What is a vision board? 

  • It’s a visual representation of what you want in your life over a certain point in time. In other words, it’s a display of what you want to feel, think, do, and have in different areas of your life.
  • It’s a depiction of your goals in several areas of your life: personal relationships, health, family, spirituality, career, finances, travel, hobbies, volunteering, and any other domains you choose. 
  • It is a collage of words, quotes, aphorisms, affirmations, pictures, and other materials. You get to decide what to include from any or all of these types of content, among others.

TWO
Why create a vision board?

  • It helps you to clarify what you want. Putting together a vision board challenges you to get clear about your goals and the paths towards achieving them. 
  • Its presence enables you to focus your energy on what you want. The picture you create will be readily visible, either in front of you, and/or in a convenient place so you can review it often.
  • A vision board melds the power of the visual and emotional. As you see what you want, challenge yourself to envision what it will be like to attain it. In this sense, the vision board can help you align your time and energy to achieve your goals. 


THREE
How do you create a vision board?            

  • Get clear about your goals and desires. Meditate, journal, or call on any other technique you find useful to do so. The intent is to use your imagination to create a clear image of something you wish to manifest. 
  • To this end, I’ve found it helpful to note and write about things I think about or say I want. This extra effort enables me to ponder my true motives. In so doing I move away from thinking that I want something because believe I should want it. That’s just one example of how my thinking can obscure what I really want. 
  • You’ll want to pinpoint areas of focus (e.g., financial, relationship, health, physical, intellectual, family). You may choose to one vision board, or several with each dedicated to a separate area of your life. 
  • Collect content related to goals. That means, people doing what you want to do, things you want to obtain, and things you want to achieve. There are no limits as to where you can find content to include in your vision board. It includes photo albums, scrap books, magazines and newspapers, maps, and the Internet (e.g., check out royalty-free images at sites like Pixabay.) 
  • Organize your content based on specific goals you’ve set
  • Lay out content on your board to get a sense of how it fits together. Then make any additions, deletions, or changes before affixing it 
  • Affix content to board piece by piece, section by section
  • Indicate the date you created your board by writing it in the lower right or left-hand corner

FOUR
Should I make a physical vision board or an electronic one?

Both options are potentially valuable. You can:

  • Create a PowerPoint or other electronic presentation that includes different materials. These include words, quotes, aphorisms, affirmations, and pictures that you mix together. You can find them on the Internet or scan documents to manipulate them for your purposes. 
  • Decorate a poster board with different kinds of materials cut out and affixed using glue or another adhesive.
  • Affix your content to a cork board or wall

FIVE
How should you use your vision board? 

  • Incorporate your vision board into whatever personal spiritual practice you enjoy, whenever you choose to do so. 
  • In the morning, viewing your vision board helps to focus your thoughts and actions for the day.
  • In the evening, you can review your vision board to identify what you’ve achieved during the day.
  • In fact, you can check out your vision board anytime to gain inspiration and guidance. Placing your vision board strategically so you can see it during your work day helps in this arena.
I offered a workshop on January 13, 2018 where individuals created a range of vision boards. Check them out here

Have more questions about vision boards? Contact me at mitchell (at) mitchellfriedman.com or 415-517-5756. 





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