One way of beginning a New Year (or month, or other milestone) is to create a list of resolutions and goals. Whilst these can be useful in framing your focus and attention, some goals can fall flat easily or lose momentum. Creating a vision board alongside or even instead of resolutions can be a much more sustainable way to achieve the things you want.
Rather than a written list of goals, a vision board is a visual representation of what you are aiming for in life. This may include tangible goals, the way you would like to feel, experiences you want to have, the kind of lifestyle you are aiming for or even motivational quotes and affirmations to motivate you on your journey. A vision board can be digital or on paper and is usually hung somewhere prominent as a constant reminder of the vision.
Many people may wonder ‘are vision boards effective?’ and the answer is yes.
Many high-flying business people, TV personalities and wellness experts recommend vision boards because they get results and have a number of benefits:
Although taking the initial time to create a vision board may seem like a luxury, it can pay dividends over the course of the year as it is a constant source of motivation and direction for the year ahead.
No… they aren’t magic. Just because someone creates a vision board doesn’t mean their goals and aspirations will just manifest. Instead, they are the start of a journey towards working hard for your goals.
The Law of Attraction
Many advocates of vision boards cite the ‘law of attraction’ as the main mechanism for how they work. This principle states that you will attract into your life whatever you focus on. For example – an optimistic person is likely to attract positive experiences whilst a pessimistic person is likely to attract negative experiences. Your mindset informs many of your behavioural choices, how you frame events and how you utilise (or miss) opportunities that come your way. By creating a vision board, you are being explicit about what you want to attract into your life and so you are more likely to notice – or say yes – to opportunities which lead to those things.
Motivation
Part of the power of a vision board is that it is a highly emotive reminder of your goals. There’s a well known saying that a picture is worth 1000 words. Rather than recording SMART goals in writing, using pictures to represent goals adds more depth and emotion to those goals so that they become compelling. This helps you to achieve more – especially during times of challenge or low motivation – because you have a consistent reminder of what you are aiming for and are able to ‘dig deep’ and persevere through challenges.
Intentional Planning
Again – just sticking a picture to a board is not enough to make good stuff happen. Part of the vision boarding process includes very intentional reflections about priorities and goals which helps you to select things that really matter to you. Although a vision board is not an action plan, by selecting a few focus areas in life this can help you to curate your short-term goals more purposefully in order to achieve the vision AND then do the hard work associated with enacting those goals.
Creating your vision board is a beautiful and motivating process in itself – but that is not the end of things. If you really want to achieve goals and get the law of attraction working then you actually have to use your vision board on a regular basis – this is where the magic happens.
Ideas for using your board:
Taking some time to reflect on your priorities and get create is a really beautiful way to bring a sense of focus into your life, get motivated towards your goals and hold yourself accountable. It can also be a positive bonding experience if you involve other people in the process such as a work team vision board or a family vision board.
One of the most exciting things about it is that there’s no right or wrong way to do it – just authentically express your desires and vision of the future in a way that is meaningful for you.
Ready to unlock your inner self-leader with a powerful vision? The Self Leadership Initiative provides bespoke training workshops to individuals and teams to help them identify their priorities, set meaningful goals and build sustainable action plans for change. Get in touch today to kickstart your goals for the coming year.
