Since experimenting with my first Vision Board in 2016, I have become an avid practitioner of Vision Boards both at home and at work. If you wonder how and why to adopt a Vision Board, be it at home or at work, see below a few thoughts to get you started:
- Fun: As an adult with a gazillion of commitments, it’s quite fun and relaxing to spend some time cutting pictures out of magazines and dreaming about the future. For a first time this year, I also spent the first day of the year doing this with my kids. It quickly became a project for a half day but it was all worth it to see them all excited about new activities to try out, and new things to learn about.
- Focus: A vision board makes you ponder and select what are the goals, values, needs and aspirations that resonate the most with you in all areas of life. As interruptions, distractions and new demands bombard our lives, a vision board will recenter, refocus and reset towards the goals, priorities and values that are the most important to you.
- Visualization: There is a lot of litterature about the power of visualisation. By seeing and visualizing your goals every day, they become engrained into your mind and being. They progressively become easier and more natural to attain, as it’s something that your brain will be tricked more easily into making it happen, especially if it’s something taking you out of your comfort zone.
- Plans and discipline: As you can’t escape your goals, you are more inclined to find ways to plan for them and discipline yourself. For instance, not too long ago, I secretly hoped that all the pool lanes would be closed during my son’s swim class so I wouldn’t practice my swim in prep of my first triathlon. But guess what, having completion of a triathlon on my Vision Board, it forced the discipline on me when finding one pool lane open.
- Excitement and celebration: Having a list of goals is exciting. Every first weekend of the month, my kids and I will be pulling out our vision boards to discuss and celebrate progress. Granted, over a plate of ice cream cake we all enjoy (full disclosure, I had to find a reason to buy an ice cream cake every month).
- Grit and perseverance: Having fixed a goal, you won’t let it go easily. You will more naturally persevere, brainstorm and devise how to make it happen and avoid listening to naysayers.
- Progress and long term growth: With focus and attainment of goals, you will gain the practice of moving from one goal to another, from one area of improvement to another. What this equates to on the long run is more success and growth.
- Daring: A Vision Board will challenge you to dream beyond expectations or what can reasonably be achieved. After all, why not dreaming big?
If you think the above cannot apply at work, well think twice. As professionals, we also need to have fun, be focused, count the wins and persevere. The application of a Vision Board at work could be something along those lines:
- Have a list of priorities and goals for the team for the year or quarter ahead.
- As much as you can, tie them to the company’s goals, such that your team contributions to the “bigger picture” are obvious.
- In team meetings, go through the list and mark where progress or wins have been made. Counting wins allow for the opportunity to recognize individual credit and instill a “can do” attitude in your team.
- As you discuss progress or lack of, encourage sharing of lessons learned, frustrations or needs. Such type of discussion is conducive to creating a trust environment where mistakes are permissible, vulnerability is allowed. It can also foster new ideas or collaborations which are thought of only as result of an honest exchange.
If a Vision Board sounds cheesy or silly to you, I am daring you to try it out.
You will be amazed how much improvement you will experience in focus, discipline, and daring!
Something life and the process of growing have taught me is that there is more loss in not trying, believing and dreaming than when you actually dare to try, believe and dream…
Growth Is A Journey 