Crystallize Your Goals with a Vision Board

A friend recently told me that his goal has been to get a car better than his old beat-up clunker that needs new brakes.

Last week, his brother gave him a car FOR FREE. It is one year newer than the clunker, has working brakes, but looks like a rust-bucket.

Instead of feeling happy, my friend is cranky. I asked him what kind of car was his goal? He said, “Anything but this one.”

When your goal is “anything” that’s what you get.

In two books I’m reading, they both touched on that exact same subject on the same day. (What?? You read only ONE book at a time?? Isn’t that boring? Wait-a-minute — hmmmm, maybe I DO have an attention problem) Anyway, they both wrote how important it is to be specific in our goals. What kind of car? What kind of new job & where? What are the qualities you want in a friend, spouse, new organization or place of worship? Give details.

Then, to truly crystallize that goal, both books suggested vision boards or scrap books with pictures showing that specific thing or lifestyle you want. Mike Dooley writes: “The power of a scrapbook lies in the fact that it’s filled with images of the END RESULTS you wish to possess or experience, completely side-stepping the HOWS.” Then you do something to work towards those end results.

You have to know that “side-stepping the HOWS” is not easy for me — the author of “how-to books” even though I’ve been working at it for years. However, the vision board helps me do that. On mine, I put a world map (love to travel) then lots of pictures and quotes such as Napoleon Hill’s “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

About two years ago, I read a fabulous story about the pyramids and have always wanted to see them and so I put up a pyramid picture. And deliberately told myself to stop dwelling on HOW I would get there. Then I continued giving talks and writing.

Exactly one year ago, Bruce and I cruised the Mediterranean for FREE because I was speaking on a cruise ship. They offered us this dream-come-true cruise without us even asking for it. Our trip included Spain, Italy, Greece and….(you guessed it) Egypt.. (For the gazillion of you who also want to do this, you will find tons of help to speak on cruise ships at www.speakerscruisefree.com/now )

When you make a vision board or “goal scrap book”, you don’t give “orders” of how it should come about, you don’t have to figure out the “how”. You find pictures and quotes that simply focus on the end result.

Not — “a car”, but the exact color, make & model you want. Not “a better job” but a picture of where you want to be and what you want to be doing. Not — “make a certain person love or be kind” to you, instead focus on how you want to be and feel (peaceful? cherished? secure? happy? desirable?) and find a photo that looks like a picture you want to be in.

For a vision board, you need either poster board or something large (Mine is on the back of my office door). For a scrapbook, you can use a spiral notebook. Include photos, quotes, whatever has meaning. It sounds simplistic or childish, but it forces you to be specific in your goals, and then helps you visualize the end result — that is, YOU achieving those goals.

AND you might even have fun putting it together. With all those advantages, why would you not try it? Today? Yes![LG]Try a Large TackTile Board for this project![/LG]

Rita Emmett
Author of The Procrastinator’s Handbook,
The Clutter-Busting Handbook and
Manage Your Time to Reduce Your Stress: A Handbook for the Overworked, Overscheduled, and Overwhelmed
www.ritaemmett.com
REmmett412@aol.com
2331 Eastview
Des Plaines, IL 60018
847-699-9950