I know that this might be a bit controversial, but it's the truth.
Before you get too flustered, let me explain.
The problem with creating vision boards is not the type of visions that we put on them but the lack of time that we put into the strategy to make our dreams a reality.
So no, vision boards aren't useless... they're just often left incomplete.
So today, we're going to break down the process to create a vision board that actually works.
First, you need to gather these things:
- Your Why
- Documentation of Your Current Reality
- The Goals and/or Dreams That You Want to Achieve (Long-Term & Short-Term)
- A Timeline For Completion
- Firm Deadlines
- A Reward System
- A Consequence System
Don't worry, we'll get to that later.
It's no secret that making the vision board is the most exciting part of the entire process, but we can't allow ourselves to get so excited that we forget about what is most important.
Let's break these 7 core elements down a bit more.
1. Your Why
The first step, and honestly the most important, is to know what your why is.Your why is your true north. It will help you stay true to what's most important in your life and help to keep you on track for success.
When you know why you are doing something, you are less likely to give up on it.
Your why is someone, something, or some reason that drives you to be a better version of yourself.
2. Documentation of Your Current Reality
Documenting your reality is an underrated part of creating a vision board."Documenting" makes it sound harder than it actually is. The only thing you need to do is take pictures, videos, screenshots, or notes of the areas of your life where you want to see change.
This can include your living conditions, bank statements, weight, car, business analytics, etc.
This simple process will:
- Give you a sense of urgency now
- Give you the push that you need in the future
- Act as evidence that it can be done for the next originator
Although this task appears simple, it can be one of the hardest things you will do.
You will no longer have anywhere to run when you take on this task. You will be forced to face the reality that you've been running from.
But do so knowing that something worthwhile is waiting on the other side.
3. The Goals and/or Dreams That You Want to Achieve (Long-Term & Short-Term)
Your goals and dreams that you want to accomplish are the meat and potatoes of your vision board.Typically when creating a vision board, we set lofty goals and talk about our wildest dreams.
We still want to do that, but we're going to take it a step further and map those goals and dreams out.
You do this by:
-first creating your BIG goal
-then breaking that goal into small progress goals that are easier to accomplish
-And finally, create bite-sized tasks that can be completed by a particular deadline.
This transforms your vision board from pretty to impactful.
4. A Timeline For Completion
Your vision board should act as a timeline for what you expect from your life in a given timespan.The length of this timeline should be realistic, and you have the freedom to map out as many months or years as you feel comfortable doing.
It's important to remember that this timeline is not meant to be a concrete rule that you must stick with but rather a guideline that gives you direction.
You want to try your best to predict how long each goal on your vision board takes to accomplish.
For example, it's reasonable to expect to graduate from undergraduate school within 4 years because that's the typical amount of time it takes.
But just because it's typical, it doesn't mean that it's practical for you, so you want to adjust your timeline to fit your pace. Just don't let moving at your own pace stop you from pushing your limits.
5. Firm Deadlines
For your vision board to be effective, you must impose strict deadlines for yourself and your goals.Without a sense of time, you will continue to float aimlessly and accomplish nothing.
Deadlines help transform your goals and dreams into a plan of action.
If schools assigned homework with no due date, when would you ever take the time to do it? I think we all know the answer to that.
Choose a spot on your timeline to position each of your goals and set a definitive date for them.
Then use that deadline to reverse engineer your goal, creating smaller steps and shorter deadlines for those steps.
6. A Reward System
Having a reward system in place is critical to your long-term success.I know that depriving yourself of what you want is popular with today's gurus, but you have to give yourself a reason to keep going.
To reach your goals and dreams, you're going to have to win the war over your mind, and this is where most people fail.
Rewarding yourself for the milestones that you reach is a great way to prove to yourself that all of that hard work that you're doing is for something.
Just don't overdo it. Make sure that the reward matches the milestone and the work that you put in.
You want to create a reward for each milestone.
It can be as small as a piece of candy or as big as a house. Reward yourself on your level, not based on what you see the next person doing.
Remember, the goal here is to train your mind to know the difference between success and failure.
Setting up a reward system for yourself will reinforce your vision and give you the energy to charge towards completing your next goal.
7. A Consequence System
It is equally important to have a consequence system in place.Again, we are training our minds to know the difference between success and failure.
By not holding yourself accountable for the goals that you set, you send a message to your mind that says that this sort of behavior is acceptable.
Continuing to let our lack of effort slide creates nasty patterns that are hard to break.
And it is easy to mask these patterns with excuses for why we are not reaching our goals or accomplishing the things that we set out to accomplish, but this will not get us anywhere.
Now, we are not saying to treat yourself harshly. You should never do that. Always remember to be gentle with yourself.
Doing the opposite of whatever your reward would have been can be a good enough consequence.
For example, if you were going to reward yourself by treating yourself to a nice meal out, your consequence could be not eating out for the entire month.
The goal here is to acknowledge your failure, examine why it happened, and take steps to keep it from happening again can be enough, not to break your spirit.
Just make sure that the consequence fits the crime because that is what it is.
Every time you allow your lack of effort to stop you from achieving something that can change your life, you commit a crime against yourself.
Once you have all of these things, you may start constructing your vision board.
You can choose one of two paths... a physical vision board or a digital vision board.
We can't help you with the physical board, but we do have a free digital vision board template that you can have.
And don't worry, you can still paste your pictures on your digital board, and you won't even have a mess to clean up after.
It's the same one that my team and I use to create our vision boards, so if you want a copy click here: https://vision.blackoriginators.com