The Importance of a Vision Board
To kick off my blog, I want to share my experience with creating a vision board. I sincerely hope that the information here will provide you with positive ideas to implement constructively in your day-to-day life.
A vision board is a collection of pictures that represent your goals—an object you use to visualize your plans to stay motivated and productive.
Using a vision board has made every aspect of my personal and professional life more enjoyable and planned. There is nothing like visualizing your dreams and goals in one place and seeing it every day. Consistently visualizing your long/short-term goals reminds you of what truly is important and keeps you focused and motivated.
When I was first introduced to the idea of a vision board, it was purely by chance. Feeling stuck in my professional life and unsure how to conquer my goals, my friend George Lehr from First United Land Transfer invited me to an event his company was planning. The motivational speaker, Brad Modrich, spoke about the importance of visualizing your dreams and working on them every single day. Everyone in attendance was tasked with creating their personal vision boards. I joined in, sorted through magazines, cut out pictures, words, and sentences, and glued them onto a board. Ever since, I have been more productive than I had ever been in my entire life. And that is saying a LOT because I STAY busy at all times. However, being busy and being productive do not always go hand in hand.
Creating Your Own:
How to go about your vision board? Please keep in mind that this is just the way I went about it, and whichever way you do it, it is okay! A vision board is very personal and should fit your needs and wants. If you have a piece of paper where you draw each one of your dreams, perfect! If you can tape pictures onto a board, great! If you just want to put some pictures on Google Docs and print that, it will work just as well! The importance lies in putting the vision board in a place where you will see it at least once a day. Here are some steps to think about:
Step One: Make A List
Write down a list of all the things you want to accomplish each month for the current year and all the things you want to accomplish each year for the next five years.
Example:
2023:
August: Start going to the gym, begin budgeting, find ways to save money, make my vision board
September: Travel, Eat better, start paying debt off, meet friends, celebrate special occasions, get some sort of certificate
October: Get a better job, get a savings account, prepare for holidays, new clothes, New couch, New TV, get a raise
November: Save X amount of dollars, talk to a realtor, Educate myself on the home buying process
December: Begin looking at homes, find my home, get under contract
5 Year Plan:
2023: Start budgeting, exercising, saving, Get certifications, get a raise, start the home buying process
2024: Close on a home, prepare myself for becoming a homeowner, travel, start saving for another goal
2025: Get a raise, go travel to X country, get new appliances, plan to be debt-free
2026: Go to Europe, go to conferences, meet new people, get a raise or new job, start that business that I always planned on starting.
Step Two: Find The Pictures or Draw Them
In the event that I attended, there were all kinds of magazines that we could use to cut out images relating to our individual goals. This worked; however, at times, I felt that some of the images from the magazines did not really speak to my goals. When I went home after the event, I took another approach and created a different vision board in which I simply went to Google Images or Bing Images and I printed the exact object or idea that I had in my head. After printing the images, I taped them to the new vision board. This approach brought my goals to life every day that I looked at them.
Step Three: Organize Your Pictures
You can use anything as your board: cardboard, a piece of paper, your wall! Anything!
To organize my pictures, I didn't really put them on the board chronologically due to the fact that you don't always control when goals come to fruition. I taped them on the board and made sure they fit.
Step Four: Location of Vision Board
I decided to put my vision board right next to my computer at my workplace. Every time before I sit down to work, I can look at my goals every single morning.
Step Five: Work On Your Goals
The last and most important step is to work on your goals a little bit each day. If your goal is to be debt-free: make sure that you are taking a good 30 minutes each day to work on budgeting and a plan to save. If your goal is to buy your house: do the research necessary to be certain that you are educated on the pros and cons to assure that you are being realistic about the process. If you are already prepared to buy your house: in your vision board should be what your ideal home should look like.
What To Keep In Mind
It’s Emotional
Working on your dreams is an emotional voyage that must be taken. It’s also an individual voyage with individual needs and wants.
If you have a partner, I suggest making two vision boards, one for you and one for your shared goals alongside your partner.
It Takes Time
Set your expectations from the get-go. Understand that making your goals into a reality is a process that takes time. Nonetheless, If you plan, stay motivated, and are consistent, you will get there!
Celebrate any accomplishment and try to have someone to hype you up for them! If you don’t have anyone, look in the mirror and tell yourself, “I’m proud of you. You’re doing a great job!”
Want ideas on how to organize your vision board? Check out my Pinterest to see more lively examples: Pinterest Link
Up Next…
The next blog will be part of a series about budgeting for beginners: Understanding your expenses and visualizing financial habits.
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