Vision Board SZN
It’s December 31st and probably one of the most popular days for working on your vision board or setting your intentions for the year. Even though I have worked on vision boards for the past few years, I haven’t always necessarily shared them because sometimes I get super specific including desired salaries and exact numbers I want to have in my savings account. However, I shared my vision board from last year with a few people and they found it to be helpful so I figured I’d blog the process for my 2019 vision board so I can help even more people to work on theirs or at least set some intentions for the year.
I know I can get wordy so I’m going to try to make this as concise and easy to follow as possible. As always, if a certain part doesn’t apply, let it fly. With a vision board or any goal setting strategy, it’s important to do what works for you so that you’ll be more likely to follow through throughout the entire year.
Firstly, my vision board is all words no photos. The first year that I did a vision board, it was mostly photos like the classic cookie cutter magazine cut out vision board that a lot of people post to social media. Personally that didn’t work for me. It’s still hanging in my room in Freeport like artwork - yet years later I haven’t accomplished much from it at all.
Secondly I like to break up my vision board into 4-6 specific categories that I’d like to work on for the year. I find doing it this way helps to make the goals a bit more manageable. Also even if I only accomplish 1 or 2 goals from each category I feel more accomplished than just finishing random things that have nothing to do with nothing.
Last year I did 5 categories: Personal Development, Savings, Travel, Professional Goals and Personal Projects.
My savings category had both specific savings amounts AND strategies. My travel category was EXTREMELY ambitious but forced me to save to make at least some happen. Personal development included things like a gratitude journal, reading more, finishing duolingo. Personal projects focused on my blog and ways to express my creativity. And finally professional development included a salary I wanted to achieve among other professional goals.
This year, I’m not including travel because I really want to focus on savings so I’m paring my travel down and I’m giving my blog it’s own category where I’ll be including things I MUST work on for the blog. So far I’m looking at 4 categories: Personal Development, AyetoZee, Financial Goals and Personal/Passion Projects.
Once I have the categories down, I work on a list of goals related to that category. For example this year, one of my categories is once again Personal Development (necessary every year tbh) and so far listed under that, I have: work on my #30before30, maintain a gratitude journal (last year I think I made it to March so this year I want to work to make it further through the year) and to workout at least 30 minutes at least 3 days per week.
The most important part of working on a vision board is being introspective and completely honest with yourself. You know what you need to work on and what you want to achieve. I rarely share my complete vision board how personal it can sometimes get. I usually work on the categories and goals for my vision board weeks before I actually make one.
One thing that’s important for me is to be ambitious on my vision board. Of course that causes me not to always achieve everything, but it helps you to aim for more. I never accomplish everything on my vision board but what I don’t, I save for the next year if it’s that important to me. You can be ambitious or practical or a mix of both.
Once the important parts are done, it’s time to “decorate” it. I don’t do much when it comes to that. I literally write out the goals on note cards and pin them to a cork board. Last year to fill the space, I included small piece of paper with dollar amounts I can put in my travel fund. In previous years I have added inspirational quotes, This year will likely be money amounts again since I’ve recently added quotes to my work space and saving is really important to me this year.
Lastly, hang the vision board in a space you see or pass everyday so you can constantly be reminded of your goals. Even if you’re not actively working on them, seeing them everyday will help you subconsciously.
If you’d like to see the vision board in progress, I may post updates to my Instgram stories. If you have tips for creating or following a vision board, feel free to comment below and let me know.
