A Vision Board Date, that is…
8760- that’s the number of hours in a calendar year. Can you spare 8 hours for planning the following 8760 to include more joy and a sense of direction? If so, let’s set a vision board date.
Here are some things I prepare and do for my vision board date.
I like to create a playlist of music that brings me energy and good memories. I suggest you think about music that reminds you of happy, optimistic times at various times throughout your life. As for me, I enjoy the songs that remind me of summers on go-carts with my friends, car trips with my parents, dates with Earl, ball games, the songs I listened to in high school, the early days in outside sales, and anything that reminds me of happy and confident times. I steer clear of emotional songs that might bring unexpected tears. This playlist reminds me of the days I felt anything was possible.
I make sure I plan easy, simple food for my lunch. Things I like but aren’t complicated or time-consuming to prepare.
I take a simple wire-back calendar for the coming year, and I mark (with pencil) every special event or obligation I currently know about throughout the entire next year. Even my next vision board date. 🙂
The first time I did this, I was marking my youngest son’s birthday, and it was over a year away, but it was going to be his 15th birthday (he’s turning 21 this week), and it hit me how precious time is, and it was even more reason to take time to plan it.
I mark all my obligations first, the things that have no wiggle room. Then I mark work obligations. The things that, again, are unmoveable.
The personal things include birthdays, prescheduled vacations, family reunions, and important dates.
The work things include reminders of how the months and quarters fall. A 27-year career driven by sales numbers and hitting quotas has taught me to plan for last-minute pushes, typical slow cycles that need a little extra work to keep you on the leaderboard.
All of these things contribute to being prepared for a successful year as compared to the ones I didn’t do this way and were a frantic mess most of the time.
I found hitting numbers, while distraught, set me up for a rush and then a crash for a few days. The planning, on the other hand, brought my family, employees, vendors, and, most of all, me more joy.
After all the unmoveable have their place in my calendar, I get to call up my imagination.
I leaf through the calendar, stopping at each month to admire and imagine the what if’s of dreaming and visualizing only what I can control.
For example, I love to play house. I visualize the days in the spring, summer, and fall that I will make my own.
Spring comes first on the calendar, and I know I’ll be ready when it gets here to clear the clutter, move the furniture, and all the things.
I find the days that suit me best. It can’t be the first of the month because sales need to get off to a good start early each month. It can’t be the last of the month. There are numbers to be met.
You see, where I’m going playing house can be planned, but for days during a week that doesn’t jeopardize my priorities in my areas of life that are important.
The weeks I might get to spend time with the boys, race weeks for Earl are also weeks I do not plan playing house.
I plan some family get-togethers, days of creativity, and days for rest. I plan these even though I know it likely won’t happen exactly as I plan. But I will know what is important to me before I get started.
I mark my calendar with a pencil with a plan for the ideal year. Then write a few things about how I feel about the year I’ve just had. I will remind myself what was going well and add what I would like to adjust to in the coming year. I ask myself, what would have made it even better?
Then, I put my calendar aside to begin my search through magazines for what appeals to me. I use the Marie Kondo technique for my vision board.
Clipping and cutting the scenes, the phrases, the words, the objects, the landscapes that spark joy for me. It’s like a scavenger hunt. What speaks to me?
Once I feel I’ve got a good start on my clippings. I go through them. I categorize them somehow, but it’s not scientific or specific. Some categories in the past have been me, my health and energy, my home, my family, my relationships, my career, and my home.
I start to sort them and see what arrangement in each area feels satisfying and inspiring. Then I put the collage together on a pretty patterned piece of scrapbook paper. Sometimes I know right away, and other times I try different combinations.
Eventually, I complete 15-20 pages that speak to me. I can often see a theme. I look for the feeling each page inspires. Usually, I can come up with a word that describes the feeling I hope to feel all year long. Sometimes it comes quickly. It takes a few days.
But, I usually end up with a completed scrapbook at the end of the day, and each page sparks joy and hope for me.
I will establish my word of the year based on my findings, and that is the completion of my vision board, but not my goal setting.
Usually, I find time the last week of the year between Christmas and New Year’s to work out some goals for the coming years. I usually do some reading and journaling along with reviewing the year asking myself some questions.
Questions like what I can do to improve my life. Sometimes my list includes things I need to stop doing and things I need to do more consistently.
I come up with some affirmations that will help remind me of what I want, not of what I don’t.
Then come up with 6 or 7 goals for the coming year. I write them out and prepare for a goal-setting day with my family.
Family goal-setting day takes place around the first of the year.
We usually combine it with a meal. We all join in; Earl, the boys, and Sarah Grace Ben’s fiance, joined us last year.
It’s important to remember these things take time. The first year I tried this, the boys were little, and they joined me, but Earl did not participate in the fun. (it’s important to remember this is a new concept. What seemed easy and fun to me seemed a bit daunting to others.)
I’m glad I didn’t take his not right now that first year as a no forever. He is one of the biggest fans of the goal-setting day now.
It doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea, even if everyone doesn’t get as excited as you. Just do it by yourself if you need to. The others will see you having fun knocking out your goals and perhaps joining in at a later date.
That sums up my vision board date & goal-setting process. Some may say it’s extreme. Even with all this, I often miss my mark and have to push out the completion date. Sometimes I fail and either readjust or throw out that goal altogether. Sometimes I find out I’m not meant for certain endeavors. I’ve learned those things don’t make me a failure at everything, just maybe that particular thing. I’ve failed more times than I have succeeded, but with each try, I get a little stronger.
I also find that this setup helps me discover what will bring me the most ease and joy in the coming year. It is just a reminder of what’s important and helps keep me from going on wild goose chases for what may or may not be what I want.
You can do one aspect of this or a combination. The whole point is to take some time to think about what you want instead of what you don’t want.
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