The Magic of Vision Boards

I try every year to make a vision board. 

You might think that sounds a little too woo woo for you. 

You might think it sounds hokey.

That's okay. Not everything is for everyone.

But what if I told you everything I've ever really dreamed has come true? What if I told you everything I've truly wanted has come into my life like a magnet? What if I told you that everything YOU want you can have? 

Still hokey? Probably, right. But hokey can work. Hokey can be magical. Hokey can give you the life you've always dreamed of. 

I'm not Tony Robbins. I'm not your guru. I'm just a chick with some scissors, a stack of magazines, a little scrapbook paper, and a glue stick.

And a lot of dreams. 

I didn't realize that I started myself on a path of living intentionally when I was in high school, and maybe even a few years before. I've always made lists and collages, but when I was about fifteen and feeling particularly surly, my mom forced me to read The Secret. I read it and thought it was whatever, but didn't put much of its recommendations into action. About a year later, the DVD came out and I got it for my mom for Christmas. She kept it on a loop. I suppose it was osmosis, along with my daily 4 p.m. dates with Oprah, that got me thinking about creating a life I've dreamed of, instead of letting life happen to me. 

I'm not going to get too preachy because how you roll is up to you, but what I can say is that sitting down to cut out fun pictures and gluing them onto a piece of paper helps me stay focused in a visual way on what my broad goals are for the upcoming year. It helps me really narrow in on where I want to take my life and helps me keep those goals in mind as I'm making decisions. 

Last year I had a baby and a buffalo on my vision board (I got one and saw the other ;)). So, using those two as examples, let's say I had the opportunity to go to Montana or to...Southern California during a similar timeframe and could only pick one. If I haven't seen my buffalo yet, I'm much more inclined, even subconsciously, to choose Montana. 

This year, I have a lot of mountain time photos and family-centric words. I have a picture of pizza, because I could always use more pizza in my life. Visioning puts my subconscious on paper. I hang it on the back door of our shoe closet so when I open that door I see it. Raz was talking about his ideas for a future mountain cabin, so I had him draw out his ideal floor plan and I hung that up, too. 

My point is: putting my ideas and goals on paper—whether through cutting out pictures or writing them out—and revisiting them is a very tangible way of dreaming them into reality. I do both because I believe in this kind of magic, and if there are various spells I can cast in attempts to make my dreams come true, I am allllllll in. Try not to get too literal, though. Let's say you're currently renting and you want to buy a house in the next two years and you cut out a picture of a house to put on your vision board. You don't have to know today how you're getting the house. You just have to put the picture on your paper to remind you to start making space in your life to get that house. It's about putting your subconscious in motion—not about having all the answers. 

I should note, too, that there are a few dreams of mine I'm not ready to see into reality. I heard about an exercise where you write out a perfect day in your life ten years from the date you're writing it. I started that and I stopped after the first sentence...honestly, because I'm afraid of writing down what I want that day to look like. I'm not sure I'm ready to visualize it yet. I'm giving myself permission to work up to writing out that day. For me, visioning is all about having fun with being intentional. Since my brain loves lists AND art projects, I always try to make a fun and broad vision board that can be interpreted all kinds of ways, and then I also write out more specific lists for Personal, Professional, and Health goals. 

The way I like to think about things like this is: what do you have to lose? A little time doing a fun art project? If that's the cost of dreaming up a great reality, ring me up, baby.