Vision Boarding: The Power of Putting Your Dreams on Paper
Don’t be a waking accident.
-Unknown
Every year, a few weeks before New Year’s, I deep clean my home and then settle down for an intense few hours of vision boarding. The sequence of events is intentional and symbolic because I feel that by purging my space, I’m in a fresh and light state of mind. There are few versions of vision boards, with some more visual than others utilizing clipped pictures from magazines. I prefer to write everything out in my handwriting, on paper. Words just resonate more for me but I think both methods are equally valid. Below are two illustrative examples of vision boards that I found online.
I use the vision board to plan for the next year, normally under the umbrella categories of career, travel, relationships and health (mental and physical). In an earlier blog, I spoke about not settling [link to blog here] and the importance of setting lofty goals to push us past the limitations of what we think is possible. This is a wonderful time of the year to do just that.
When we’re young, most of us dream big. We say what we want to be without shame or shyness, no matter how improbable the aspiration—”I want to be an astronaut” or “I want to be a <insert some sort of animal>” are common ones. The burdens of other people’s judgements or limitations haven’t yet crippled our imagination of what’s possible. Then as we get older, the concept of risk and investment of resources start to creep in with reality, and slowly but surely realigns our expectations for what life could look like. We limit our dreams.
As 2018 comes to a close, again I’m going to do what I do every year and challenge myself to dream bigger than ever and put those dreams on paper. They’ll be in plain sight for me to see every day as a reminder of the promises I made to myself. Visitors will never see them because I take them down when I have company because, similar to a diary, these are thoughts and aspirations that are sacred and close to me. I’m not going to claim that I achieve all of my goals, because I don’t. But that’s ok because those goals live to prosper another year or simply go away if I no longer feel that they are worthwhile endeavors.
I’d like to challenge you to create your own vision board. It doesn’t have to be fancy—pen and paper can get you on your way to making your biggest dreams a reality. I believe that there is immense power in the written word and although it may sound corny, I’m a strong believer that it works. I hope you’ll give it a try.
See you in 2019!
Aji
