Dare to Dream: Create a Vision Board

It is true. I am a dreamer.

 Ever since I can remember I would dream about what I wanted my life LOOK like…where I wanted TO BE… and what I wanted my life to FEEL like.

 No wonder New Year’s eve is my favorite holiday. The anticipation and celebration of the year past along with the new year to come…I love it.

It’s a fresh start. A clean slate. I can dream up whatever I want. But I have to be honest… at times my dreams feel larger than life and I get scared about writing down these dreams due to fear of not accomplishing them.

But someone wise once told me to “Dream so big that others tell you it is impossible.” I am here to tell you that it’s true. Now stop procrastinating and hiding what you really want and get those dreams and goals down on paper. Statistics vary, but it is reported that a person has a 50%-90% higher chance of accomplishing their goals if they write it down.

But I like to go even deeper than just writing them down in words- I believe in the power of creating a vision board or in my case a “dream board.”  It not only speaks to the mind but it speaks to the heart. Who wants to get started on dreaming with me?

Here is what you need.

Materials needed: Magazines, paper, scissors, and,  glue.

Step 1: Find a quiet time when you can reflect. I like to to set the mood with some soft tunes and eh hem…some chocolate… it is a must to quiet my chatter-box mind and get myself reflecting on what I want to see happen for the year.

Step 2: Ponder.  Analyze your different roles and parts of your life that are important to you and write them out so you can see them.

Step 3: Dream. Close your eyes and go through each category and visualize what your ideal would be in each category. What does that look like for you? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? What does it taste like? Then write down words that come to mind in describing each category. For instance, I wrote down the role of being a wife. When I envisioned my relationship with my husband, I saw a partnership. I felt us being in sync and on the same page when it came to parenting our children and heard us having weekly meetings and pillow talks about our life. I felt us being strong. Unbreakable. I envisioned us willingness to serve one another and could smell the dinners I prepared for him and tasted the popcorn or ice-cream on our weekly dates. I felt his embrace and saw us flirting and heard a lot of laughter. This is my ideal- why not seek after it?  So, I wrote down the first words that came to mind about this vision in each category.

 Step 4: Set your intention. Now that you have identified the areas of your life- choose 1-5 areas that you want to focus on for the year and intentionally be working on. Now, decide if you want to do one larger board with all of the areas or if you want to divide them into individual categories. I chose to divide them out to be a bit more specific and intentional on what I want in each area of my life. Either way is great.

Step 5: Find images that speak to you. Browse through magazines and find images that speak to you. Get out of your head and just go with what your heart tells you. What I mean by that is to not specifically go looking for images or words but instead let those images find you. It doesn’t have to be literally what you are hoping to achieve but may embody a feeling instead. Then when you feel like you have enough images you are ready to get them on paper.

Step 6: Begin to place the images on the page. I usually start placing the larger images in the back without any real set plan on how it will look. Try to stay in the moment and not to analyze each image. This category was my home and family board. These images just had a feeling about them as to what I wanted my home to feel and smell like.

Step 8: Glue it on the paper. As you can see I shifted and added some images until it felt right. Something felt like it was missing in the the image above ^ but then I found the word “laughing” and placed it across the page and it felt more complete. See below. I knew I was done when it felt done.

Step 9: Set an action item for each category. Taking an additional step in writing verbal action items can help give you a place to begin. On the back of each category I decided to write down 1-3 goals that I would specifically achieve in each area. I made them very specific and clear in order to know how to begin.

Step 10: Hang it where you can see it and revisit it often. I put mine in a photo frame and hung it in my office where I can see it on a daily basis. In 3-6 months I am going to revisit the goals again and see where I am at.

To find out more about vision boards and what I specifically am working on this year- find it >here< at: www.weedstowishes.com

xo