Blogmas | Do THIS before you create your reality with a #VisionBoard

We are 18 days out from 2023.  I hope between the get togethers, holiday meals and gift giving your are making time for YOU.  As a mom of daughters, with a full fledge and progressive career with ambitions of growing my business – goal setting has always been my thing.

But with the new year I definitely try to be more intentional.

Below is the process I’ve developed over the years + sharing my vision board capturing visual cues of all the areas I’m setting goals in (wellness, learning, career promotion, financial abundance, family, friends and world travel).

  1. Retrospective on the past year: I use the life audit wheel and do an audit of the areas of my life that went really well (10) and the areas that I felt I could have put more effort towards or that could have gone better (1 being the lowest on the scale)
  2. Write in words what the life audit showed me: This is really about writing down what went well and what didnt.  So now you have two representations of the past year.
  3. Get clear on what you want to achieve: Now taking the written retrospective, write down all the things you want to achieve.  Be as detailed as possible.  And also make room to jot down the feeling you have when you think about these achievements.  And most importantly, write down actionable steps to get where you want to be (full disclosure: this will take you more than one sitting)
  4. Pinterest, pinterest, PINTEREST! You are gonna grab all images that show you achieving everything you clearly articulated in step 3.
  5. Make you vision board: Now you are going to make a visual representation of what you wrote in 3. Before you make your vision board, make a gratitude list, meditate, light a candle, clense your crystals – just be in the most receiving space you can be in!  Once you love what you’ve created (also: this could take a few tries) PRINT it out, save to all of your desktop wallpapers & make sure you look at it multipe times a day.

You’ll notice a pattern here, we think, write and visualize.  Repeatedly.  Why? Because the brain can’t tell the difference between something actually happening/how it feels when you achieve something vs when you just think about achieving it & feel the feelings.  Once you brain believes you’ve achieved it, you’ll starting behaving in a way and taking actions in the direction of that achievement.

BONUS: Do future journalling – everyday of the new year, potentially as part of your morning journalling practice.  This is where you write down everything of the day as it it’s already happened (ie: these will be the actionable steps you wrote down in 3 aboce).  Again tricking your brain into thinking you’ve already achieved the accomplishment but on a daily basis.

Vision Board, Pinterest, Mood board, Future, Goals, New Years Resolution, Goal Setting, Happy, Abundant, successful, wealthy, prosperity, vitality, wellness

Want more? Follow my Blogmas 2022 journey here!

That girl mentality & systems

Focus on you, and you grow. Focus on sh!t, and sh!t grows – read that again // anonymous

I’ve always known that good routines, habits and the ability to re-focus are important to me.

And I also know I’m a visual person so consistently practicing and seeing my goals in front me does wonders (it’s all about tricking the mind to believe what the heart and soul want are real).

aka #manifest

With all that said, recently stumbled upon the hashtag #thatgirl

If you haven’t heard or seen it, this hashtag has been trending on instagram, youtube & tiktok by that girl as a way to manifest wellness.

The best way to describe it is as a highlight real (like everything else online lol) – but these highlight reels combine artfully crafted wellness video snippets focused on habits that show the person eating healthy, partaking in fitness activities and making progress towards their goals (ie: school, work etc).

There is a lot of talk about how #thatgirl perpetuates a toxic unattainable lifestyle. But I don’t if I see it entirely like that..

Being a visual person and someone who can peel themselves away from the internet – I actually find this trend both aesthetically pleasing and inspiring. I also know that sometimes the day can get away from you and life is full of peaks and valleys.

So how do you focus on your own development while navigating everyday life? Hint the #ThatGirl trend hits it right on the head!

˙ʎɐpʎɹǝʌǝ slɐoɓ ɹnoʎ spɹɐʍoʇ ssǝɹɓoɹd oʇ sɯǝʇsʎs uı ʇnd noʎ ǝɹns ǝʞɐɯ no⅄˙˙˙

Re-aligning to your goals at certain times during the year (months or quarters) helps to keep you connected to your yearly goals. OR (like in my situation) help your get back on track. Systems are activities that focus on the journey as opposed to the end destination.

Systems ensure you find joy in the little things.

Systems ensure that those daily habits become the little steps that will turn into a giant leap.

Systems keep us inspired.

Systems help us stay disciplined, especially on the days, we don’t want to do anything.

Systems can inspire us mentally/spiritually/physically.

Systems help us romanticize our life.

How your goals doing?

*said with Joey Tribbiani voice*

I’m here to interrupt your double vaxxed/tired mom summer with the news that – there are 115 days left until 2022.

Yep, One Hundred Fifteen Days.

I was definitely feeling like I was hitting a wall in terms of my goals. That’s not to say I haven’t had a winning few months I just feel like I was losing focus and slowing down. And I don’t want to do that.

So I started vision boarding for the last quarter of the year, and I mean WHY NOT?

These are my goals and I need to find my motivation. Sometimes adding pen to paper (or picture to board) can help revitalize and re-engerize me. But I also have to remind myself that creating a vision board is just the first step. I then have to come up with actionable steps by month/week to get those goals accomplished. I’m going with the OKRs (being specific and having multiple key results can really drive it home for me).

My point to this whole post is that you DON’T need to wait till MONDAY or the START of the MONTH or the the NEW YEAR. (Although if that is your thing, September is a great month to get back to it!)

Another thing we (well me and you, the collective we) need to get better at is sharing our goals. I’m a little torn on sharing progress (sometimes it makes more sense to keep your head down/disappear while you get sh!t done). But something has to be said about putting your big dreams out into the universe (sounds woo woo because it is, IYKYK)!

So here it is, my Q4 vision board ++ some tips about getting back on track with your goals!

Vision Board, Goal Setting, Idea to Execution,
  1. Goal Setting: It’s important to know what you want to accomplish
  2. Plan your year, months, weeks and days.  Goals without a plan is a wish!
  3. Get enough: sleep, exercise, meditate, drink more water, eat what your body needs journal and find time to relax
  4. Be grateful: Always looking at future goals can cause fear, anxiety and stress.  Practicing gratitude can balance that
  5. Be disciplined: resist the urge to snack, check social media or skip a workout.  Focus on your activity at hand – that’s how progress is made
  6. Get to the other side of consistency: whether you see great results or no results – everything is in the hard work
  7. Invest in yourself: Read books, seek mentors and growth opportunities.  You don’t have to figure it out on your own.  Find someone who has what you are trying to achieve and learn from them

Keep coming back to these principals when you feel stuck or even every day to make sure you stay on track.

Our minds believe what we tell it

I’ve always been interested in how the brain works and how we can train our minds to accomplish our goals.  Lately I’ve been more in tune with information specifically around learning and focusing.

VisionBoard_1 VisionBoard_3

I was listening to a podcast recently where I heard Jim Kwik made 2 really interesting points.  He called our minds a (1) super computer and (2) that our minds are always eavesdropping on our self talk.  I made an immediate connection: our minds will believe what it hears us saying to ourselves.  Our self talk can be hugely centered around what our current focus is on.  Whether it be school test, huge assignment at work, a negative situation or a happy moment – our mind will be listening.

I think it’s extreamly important to train our minds to think positively.  I’ve always been a realest, so changing my mindset to be more positive has been a challenge.  But one way to practice positive thinking is by creating a vision board.  I’ve made a few over the past several years and I’ve found that it always sets me up for success.  Maybe it’s subconscious or maybe it’s about how attention and energy compliment each other, but a quick google search will show you how many other people have used vision boards to bring focus to their life.  Vision boards can help with goal setting by:

  1. giving you a chance to be really intentional about what you want (your goals)
  2. allowing you to organize your thoughts about your goals
  3. giving you a visual reminder of your goals/dreams
  4. creating an emotional connection to your goals

I decided to introduce Miss S to the process and journey of the vision board.  I actually called it a dream board with her and I explained to her what it was and what it’s used for.  She was happy to use glue, scissors and sparkle paint but surprisingly was also engaged in trying to think of the things she wanted try, learn, have or do.

VisionBoard_4 VisionBoard_2

The night before the exercise we discussed stuff she might want to do or see in the summer and in SK.  So I got an idea of what types of images to print.  I also printed some extra stuff that she didn’t mention to see if she would gravitate to those images.  What was interesting was that she picked up things we hadn’t discussed and also told me she didn’t want to use images of things she mentioned in our conversation.

And now that she has her dream board hanging on her wall it’s a constant source of inspiration and a conversation trigger at bed time.  Best part of doing this exercise with her? Was it actually pushed me to complete my own vision board!