Posted: 9th January 2018
How many of you made New Year’s resolutions only to find that a week later you hadn’t kept them? Often, they’re made in the moment, they’re goals that you do want but often they’re not backed up by the belief these goals can be achieved and often the emotion of ‘why’ you want to achieve them is missing.
Vision boards are a great way to make our New Year’s resolutions stick and come to life. They do work! Creating a sacred space that displays what we actually want, helps bring it to life. What we focus on expands. When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, essentially you end up doing visualisation exercises throughout the day.
Visualisation is one of the most powerful mind exercises you can do. Olympic athletes and top sports players have been using it for decades to improve performance. Psychology Today tells us that the brain patterns activated when a weight lifter lifts heavy weights are similarly activated when the lifter just imagined (visualised) lifting weights.
So, how do you create a vision board that works? It’s simple. Your vision board should focus on how you want to feel, not just on the things you want to achieve. It’s not wrong to include the material stuff however the more your board focuses on how you want to feel, the more it will come to life. It’s important to connect to your ‘why’.
Here’s an example. I have a picture of my friend’s soft top sports car on mine. Not necessarily because I want to own a soft top sports car, but I love the feeling I get when I go out in it with him. I feel so happy and free, on top of the world, as if I can achieve anything, as if I can meet any challenge that may come my way, head on. That’s the person I want to be, so I can be the best version of myself when working with my clients. So, on the board that picture went.
As well as pictures, words and quotes, I sometimes add a few physical objects like a beautiful pebble or shell from a beach. Or items from venues where I felt incredible energy and motivation. When I’m in my home office, I want to feel the same way I felt at those places. A few inspirational cards from friends or print out of texts I’ve received, together with emails from clients telling me what they’ve achieved with my help, also go on there, to remind myself why I do what I do.
There is only one major rule to creating a vision board that works, and it’s that there aren’t any rules. It’s highly personal to you. It can be about just one aspect of your life such as your career or you can incorporate all areas of your life. Some people like a central vision board to look at every day and have a few theme boards for specifics events. For example, a wedding day theme board will help you focus on what you want to feel on your big day, or a career specific board can help you work towards that promotion.
You don’t have to cover each area the same; just take a mental inventory of what you want each of those aspects to look like and write them down. It’s better to handwrite your goals instead of typing them as the energy involved in writing them down is important. From your goals and aspirations, think about what you want on your vision board. Remember, what you focus on expands. Set the intention for what you want and how you want to feel. Remember, the purpose of a vision board is to bring everything to life.
So, what do you think? Will you create a vision board if you don’t have one already? I hope the answer is yes! Happy 2018 and I hope you achieve all your goals and aspirations.
