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The new year is full of energy and a desire to take advantage of the blank slate presented to us. Forbes reports that upwards of 40% of Americans make a New Year’s resolution. For perspective, that’s MORE than the number of people who watch the Super Bowl. That’s a lot of people! Unfortunately, Business Insider reports that 80% of people fail those resolutions by February.
In just 31 days, people give up on themselves and their goals.
Two of the main reasons failure occurs are vague goals and relying on motivation for execution. If you haven’t read my post on goal setting – do that now. It’s a sure way to design and strategize your goals in a way that promotes successful succession every week. If you’re feeling good about your goals and the steps that you’ve laid out but you’ve slacked here and there, then check out my 3 quick fixes to get back on track. These are practical ways to keep from being discouraged and quit on yourself.
One quick fix to getting back on track with your goals is to create a vision board. A vision board is a tool with a compilation of visual reminders and motivation used to provide focus and clarity of your goals. In this blog, we are going to review the power of visualization, examples of who uses creative visualization and how to create your own vision board today.
What is creative visualization?
In 1978, Shakti Gawain, who was the pioneer for practicing and researching visualization, published Creative Visualization: use the power of your imagination to create what you want in your life. Over 10 million copies have been sold and the book has remained a bestseller every since. This is on my list for next month’s Audible and I am so excited! If you’d like your copy, get that here:
Here is an excerpt from her book that explains creative visualization and the purpose:
“Imagination is the ability to create an idea, a mental picture, or a feeling sense of something. In creative visualization you use your imagination to create a clear image, idea, or feeling of something you wish to manifest. Then you continue to focus on the idea, feeling, or picture regularly, giving it positive energy until it becomes objective reality…in other words, until you actually achieve what you have been imagining.”
Does this sound like a stretch? Before you toss out the idea, know that some of the most influential and successful people have used the strategy of creative visualization and claim it’s benefits for some of their successes. Examples are, Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This method counters the very reason people let go of their dreams and goals – they lose sight of them. They forget what exactly it is that they’re after and why it’s important for them to stay on track. Visualization is the key to staying honed in on your goals.
How to use a vision board as a creative visualization technique.
A vision board is a fantastic way to start exercising creative visualization. It gives you the mental images that manifests what your goals look like. It could be pictures, quotes, scripture, colors, etc. The vision board serves as a daily or moment-to-moment reminder of what you’re after and why it’s important to you. This focus keeps you from losing sight and forgetting your goal. As Mel Robins says, “motivation is garbage.” You can’t rely on motivation to get you out of bed and ready to conquer your goals.
When you have a constant reminder of what you’re after and why it’s important, you shift your mindset from “I’ll do it when I feel like it” to “it must be done.” This is a powerful transition and one that will get results.
Make a vision board today!
There are no rules with vision boards. It can be at whatever scale you find most useful. However, think of this as an investment in your future. You really want to create something that is going to touch every area. For example, you know your weaknesses and the areas you tend to fall short. Maybe this is procrastination, lack of confidence, time management, etc. Make sure you address these areas for a safety net against failure. Something simple I keep on my vision board is a little saying, “do the next thing.” This small saying helps me get out of my funk when I want to slow down. It jolts me back on track.
The steps to creating a vision board are very simple: 1 find a board to work off of, 2 gather visual content, and 3 place in a high traffic area. To make things even easier I have gathered some fantastic resources for you.
Resources to get started!
For a super simple start, here is a 23x17inch cork board. This is great size, especially if you have different categories for goals. Simply pin your visuals with push pins and you’re set. The nice thing about a big board, like this one, is you have plenty of room to separate your goals. Use ribbon to divide your board up.
To dress it up a little, this 14×14 inch board is small enough to put anywhere, home or office, but still big enough to layout your vision. Same concept, using the push pins. The cute frame really makes this a nice piece to display as well.
Then, what I like to refer to as the ‘mother board’ is this fantastic setup that is split between a white board and cork board. It’s dual purpose give you space for your vision as well as free form. This is 36X24 inches and fantastic!
I found this kits that is pretty neat. It is a premade bundle of images and goal cards with space to write. It’s a great way to get your creative juices flowing.
Lastly, if you want more information on this topic, here are a couple of quick reads for you.
Need anymore motivation?
Check out this article on Make a Vision Board that dives into the MANY success stories of a number of celebrity and influencers who use visualization!
I hope you found inspiration today. If you did, please share this on your social media platform so that more women and families can be inspired, enlightened and striving towards their best selves! When you get your vision board complete, make sure to post a picture of it in the comments! It might be the motivation that someone else is looking for! Thanks for stopping by and, remember, YOU are a lady well-loved.
I hope you found inspiration today. If you did, please share this on your social media platform so that more women and families can be inspired, enlightened and striving towards their best selves! When you get your vision board complete, make sure to post a picture of it in the comments! It might be the motivation that someone else is looking for! Thanks for stopping by and, remember, YOU are a lady well-loved.
Photo credit to: <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background”>Background photo created by asier_relampagoestudio – www.freepik.com</a>
Could you tell me what theme are you using on your web site?
It looks good.
Hi Aubrey, thank you so much for the complement 🙂 Currently, I’m using the ‘WOW Blog’ theme in WordPress. I’ve also use “Optimistic”, but liked the larger home screen picture with this theme. Let me know if you have any other questions on setting up a website in WordPress. I’m happy to help! Thank you!
Do you have any suggestions for composing articles?
That’s where I constantly battle as well as I just end up staring vacant screen for long period of time.
Hi Mei, I’m so glad you asked! I totally understand where you’re coming from. When I first started this blog, I was writing about various interests. My topics ranged so much that it was an inconsistent experience for readers. This also lead to me not knowing what I was going to write about next – similar to what you’re experiencing. I changed my strategy and added some vision to my blog. Some questions I asked myself was what is the purpose of my blog, what are cornerstone topics that I could aim to cover over the course of the year and then what are sub-topics that support those goals? THAT’s what I would write about! To have a road map of where I’m going with my blog helped tremendously. If you want some help putting that together, I suggest checking out the post called KNOW YOUR VISION. It comes with a free download workbook to walk you through that process. I hope you find that helpful and let me know if I can help any other way! Thank you!