Making a Vision Board
Making a vision board can be a joyous process. It enables us to think about what really matters to us and where we would like to be in the future. There is a simple pleasure in looking at a magazine and choosing that which inspires us. We have been blessed to have some wonderful sessions from our Mint Team. Hopefully we will expand our thinking about our vision boards and understand how the past and present are crucial to the futures. Here are some supplementary thoughts that might just help you with yours.
What to put on a vision board because our history makes it a more holistic plan.
I have always liked a good plan. I like the term Development Plan because it combines the best of a vision board with a business plan. Mine was a holistic plan that include goals for my health, home, relationships and contributions. It has been like a business for my life. Now that sounds super organised doesn’t it? Well… here is the irony… I started this planning lark when I had very little to plan. I was severely ill for two decades and no hopes of working or even living normally. My goals were tiny, almost laughable. Many doctors and academics told me that to continue to think that my health would improve was pointless and to stop trying to make progress. But all things are relative and I just knew that if I could just improve twenty percent then life might be more comfortable. I kept hoping and had the most magnificent parents and friends who encouraged and enabled much. I started to think about the miniscule things that I could manage to accomplish and then to be grateful for them. This was anchored in writing a gratitude journal each night. My early goals were gloriously small. A shower, feed the birds, study for half an hour and sit up in the front room with my family for an hour in the evening. Feeding the birds became an art form. Then I wanted to plant seeds….that grew into a greenhouse. A degree at one sixth time (yes it was that slow and even then there were numerous hospital interruptions) turned into a Master’s and then a Doctorate ~ large chunks of which were done whilst on my bed. My first vision boards were about listing the essays I had to write, the treatment days and followed by strategies needed to manage them. It was prosaic stuff but the tortoise was outdoing the hare ~ very slow but still steady was the mantra.
Dream boards are made from tiny goals are the foundations for future joy.
If we apply the lessons from our most challenging times to our calmer stages in life then we are taking back some control and using the difficulty rather than it, using us. We have to try to be wiser and stronger from these bumps in our road and share that knowledge with those whom we cherish. Everyone I have met in Mint is working very hard, trying to navigate the inevitable bumps in the road of being self-employed. Lots of people are managing great loads with grace and a bit of glee. Our lives may not look very different from the vision boards but we are building that vision every time we say thank you and every time we keep going and don’t give in.
Powerful tools to manifest your life’s desires ~the business of you.
Why did I get to know about a development plan? Well I saw an Oprah show which had Dr Phil on who said that: “you are your life manager!” We are life managers, family managers and business owners…that’s a lot of management! At the same time, I kept seeing my Dad working through his holidays with a file that was entitled “DEVELOPMENT PLAN & PENDING.” That file was never far from his sight alongside his huge diary. It evolved all the time. He led a large organisation with integrity and courageous wisdom. I never saw the contents of his plan but saw the outcomes which were remarkable. He did all the work and many others benefitted. So how does this correlate with the issue of vision boards? They are often about what we would like to accomplish in our lives. The things we would like to own, the places we would like to visit and the life we would like to have. It is the stuff of the future. However, in order to have the luxury of having a future, we must look to the past and the present. We can start a vision with gratitude for all that we have had and continue to enjoy, making our vision is based on appreciation and contentment. We can see clearly the wealth of abundance that we already possess. Most of us can overlook the richness of everyday life, the normality of just living and blessings we are given and the ones we generate. Part of that vision might be about our loved ones, our health and our hopes. I did my first vision board as a file where I just kept adding images and words. At the time it became a kind of meditation which allowed me to discover more about the things that I truly valued. It facilitated a grasp of my core values and their manifestation. It wasn’t about having a certain type of house, it was having a safe home with loving people in it. It wasn’t about going on a posh holiday, it was about a picnic by the sea with my pals, you get the idea. Scale down the ideal into something very easy and magic happens.
How to make your vision board truly effective with the layout and content.
How to expand your vision to build a robust, resilient and remarkable plan.
- Think about the values by which you live and then work.
- Find the images that relate to them.
- Don’t just write words like success or family ~ define them with photos of your lovedones.
- Put up images of your successes so far…look how far you have come.
- If you are in challenging era in life, think about what you can do to make itbetter or a bit less bad. Action is powerful.
- Have your business plan as part of your wider life plan.
- Have some form of giving as a fundamental part… perhaps the most important part. That’s the heroic part.
Your purpose ~ why it matters more than anything?
Having taken almost a thousand funeral services there are really important lessons that I keep seeing. Living well means loving well. Contentment and appreciation are the foundations for joy. Wisdom is about making consistently good choices even when they challenge us sometimes. It is wise to plan. It is wise to enact those plans and then reassess what is working and adjust. Just keep going and be glad that you can. I have meet hundreds of people at the end of their life and they never talk to me about the stuff they have owned. They talk to me about the kindness they have received and the happiness they have generated. When time is short it becomes very precious. Their vision becomes focused on how to be affectionate, appreciative and acknowledge their blessings. Being in the position to even think about a vision board is a gift that we must cherish. Let’s make sure we fill it with the best things in life from the past and present moments alongside a ton of hard work! Great luck. Go well.
For daily inspiration see Facebook and Instagram with her Lifejoy book available as an E-book from Amazon or for a signed copy, just call her.