Last week, we celebrated the new year. I take a break from work between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day each year. I use the time to reflect on resolutions and goals I would like to achieve for the coming year. My process usually involves a motivational book from Rachel Hollis that I listen to on walks. Her books make me feel like I can take on the world. I usually follow up my listening sessions by sitting at my desk to compose an extensive list of priorities I want to accomplish in the coming year. Writing out my dreams and goals is effective, but it is a lot of effort. Also, I typically put too many things on my list than I can realistically accomplish in a year. I love writing my thoughts, but I found a visual tool that worked better last summer. This visual tool is a vision board, and it was exactly what I needed to chart my way out of Twenty Twenty-one.
Twenty Twenty-one brought substantial change for me. In July, my husband and I decided to separate, and in 2022, we will divorce. It was a difficult decision, but it is the only path forward. We have been married for fifteen years, and it is a significant change. As a result, I found myself very anxious about my new reality. I shared my concerns on a phone call with my dearest friend. She was a friendly ear. She listened and encouraged. The one suggestion she made was for me to create a vision board. It was a good idea, but I didn’t immediately act on her recommendation. A few weeks later, I talked to a neighbor friend of mine. She divorced several years ago and has children. She also calmed my anxiety, gave me tips on details of a divorce, and suggested I create a vision board at the end of the conversation. Hearing this suggestion from two people I trust, I knew they were on to something, and I decided to do a vision board before the end of the summer.
I set aside a Saturday morning to create my vision board in late August. Divorce is a substantial change, but no matter our circumstances, it is unclear where the future will go, and the time it will take to adjust to any change. Therefore, I decided to use an 18-month timeline and titled it Vision to 2023! I gathered the materials below and got to work.
- A 22X28” poster board
- Every magazine I could find
- A few printed pictures/images
- My favorite-colored markers
- Sketch paper
As I looked through my materials, I thought about the areas of my life that are important to me. I started with the center and worked in a clockwise direction with the areas of my life that I felt would bring me joy and fulfillment. My board includes family, health, activities that bring me joy, home, finances, and personal goals.
What is your vision for 2023?
At the Center: A Family Vision
As I flipped through pages of a magazine, I found the most fitting words for my life and family. I want to live a creative, adventurous, inspiring, confident, innovative, and bold life. I want to live that life alongside my children. I bookended these terms with images of two active and happy girls to represent my girls.
What is your vision?
The Top of the Clock: A Healthy Lifestyle
A top priority is my health. A healthy life is essential to my vision. I need to be in physical shape to be a good mom; this is my number one role in life. My list includes foundation work to strengthen my pelvic core; I also want to continue exercising and eating healthy food. I believe these efforts will make me strong for life and the images I chose remind me of my intention.
What would make you healthier this year?
Around the Clock: Activities that Bring Joy
Life changes cause stress, and therefore I need to be mindful of my mental health. Having something to look forward to will help me combat depression. My vision board includes a couple of trips. One was to Texas to attend The Productive Women “Planning Retreat.” This I have already done. Having it on my vision board drove me to make my attendance happen. It was exactly what I needed. The second trip is to Seattle to visit my dearest friend. I am working hard to save money to make this happen right now. In addition to trips, I included activities I love, such as gardening, skiing, ice skating, and Xabeat dance (exercise while dancing to my favorite tunes).
What brings you joy?
Half Past the Hour: A Peaceful Home
My home needs to evolve. It is now accommodating a family of 3 vs. 4. This next year is an opportunity to make the home function better for myself and my children.
I am looking forward to decluttering and ordering our home to be warm, relaxing, pleasing, and calm to suit us better.
What would make your home better for you?
Bringing it Home: A Financial Plan
I have not managed a budget or created a financial plan for fifteen years. I need to get a handle on this aspect of my life. I want to build savings for a new (used) car, increased retirement savings, and college savings for the girls. I won’t achieve this without a budget and a financial plan, and therefore I included an image of building wealth to remind me of this critical step.
Where do you want to be financially in the next year or two?
The Top of the Hour: Personal Goals that Bring Joy
This blog, Star Stunning, is a personal goal of mine. I started it in 2021, and I intend to continue in 2022. It takes time and energy, but it helps release my creativity, which is a priority for me. I included the Star Stunning logo on my board, along with a sketch of one of my favorite authors, for inspiration to keep going.
What personal goal will bring you joy in 2022?
Once I completed my vision board, I purchased a poster frame, framed it, and placed it prominently above my writing/thinking desk at home. I look at it every day. This completed board inspires me, and it has become an excellent tool in guiding my decisions. Over the last six months, it has saved me from my bad habits more than once. My bad habit is that I tend to follow the next great thing. For example, if a new book is released, I buy it without mind to the stack of other books I have yet to begin to read. If I learn about a new sport, such as pickleball, I am drawn in despite my desire to improve at the activities I am already engaged in.
Additionally, if a new course on making a better me comes to my attention, I have signed up to take it, even though I have no time to follow through. Through this board, I committed to myself the following; if it isn’t on the board, I permit myself to pass; if it is on the board and I want to do it, I find a way to make it happen. I am also realistic, and I do not take the board literally; as the year evolves, the illustration may change into something different, but the intent is behind the image that I am interested in achieving.
Above all, the vision board gives me hope. It is difficult for me, but as I put my energy towards the important things, I feel much more confident, secure, and happier each day.
What about you? What are your priorities? What are you hoping to achieve in 2022, or the next 18 months, three years, five years? Pick the proper timeline for you and create the vision of your dreams.
This brings me to today’s Star Stunning realizations:
- Visualization can bring clarity. Images can speak louder than words and stay in front of your mind. What do you vision for yourself on January 1, 2023? Grab your stack of magazines today and cut out anything that speaks to you. You may find what you are looking for to compose the next year of your life.
- Balance helps bring a holistic vision. Consider all the areas of your life that will bring you joy in the coming year. Consider the balance of each of these areas. Does one place need special attention, and therefore does it warrant a more significant focus in the coming year? Keeping an eye on all that is important may bring greater joy.
- Images don’t have to be literal. The images do not need to be literal in developing a vision board. Your needs and wants will change as time progress. What is important is the feeling that the image represents to you. The feeling is what you want to strive to achieve, and the specifics of the image may change.
- Create a decision-making guide. Allow the vision board to be your guide. Look to it often as a source of information and use it as a tool to have a conversation with yourself. The visuals can help you navigate the little things to reach the big things in life.
I used to do vision boards — whether annually or when I wanted to be very focused on manifesting. The last one I did, I felt was so powerful that I didn’t do another. It still has it’s place in my yoga room, where I glance at it regularly. As these words are written, it occurs to me that that vision, while awesome, is not current. And I need to continue evolving, growing, focusing on what it with me now. Thank you for this post and sharing your process. I’m inspired 🙂 And I look forward to seeing how your board manifests for you through this coming year.