Hello everyone – before we get started today I just want to say a huge thank-you to everyone who downloaded a copy of my book, Seven Minute Stress Busters, during the free-days promotion on Amazon this week. Because of your amazing support, my little book made it all the way to the top-ten on Amazon’s bestseller list for free books in five different countries! It actually hit #1 for all stress management books in Canada (that’s right, I have a number one bestseller, woo-hoo!), and it peaked at #3 in the US and #7 in Germany, Italy and the UK for all mental health books. I was absolutely blown away by how well it did, so again, a huge, huge thank you to everyone who picked up a copy during the promotion. Thank you so much. And, once you’ve had a chance to read the book, it would really help me out if you could leave a quick review on Amazon so that other people know what to expect if they buy it – please and thank you! 🙂
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Which brings us to today’s topic, which is actually related to all of this. Today, we are talking about vision boards and how you can use them to help manifest your dreams and desires (and if you’re one of my newsletter subscribers, don’t worry – I’m going to be covering different stuff today than I did in this week’s newsletter… so it’s all good!)
What are vision boards
So. Vision boards. What are they, what do you do with them, and how do you make one? At the core of it all, a vision board is basically just a collage — and whether it’s a physical or a virtual one doesn’t matter – it’s a visual repository of ideas, concepts and images designed to help you focus your thoughts, feelings, and intentions on what you want to create. I’m going to say that again: a vision board is a visual repository of ideas, concepts and images designed to help you focus on what you want to create.
So how does it work? As I said before, you can either create a hard-copy vision board, or you can create a digital version. And there are many ways of doing it, either way you go. You can cut and paste and embellish and decorate a piece of Bristol board with your images and phrases, or you can actually pin them up onto a cork board. Or you can go digital and create a collage of pictures and words in something like Photoshop, or on a site like Pinterest.
Either way, the main idea is the same: you get yourself clear on what you want to see happen in your life, and you find images and phrases (inspirational quotes or words, for instance) that are representative of that vision, and which motivate you to keep working towards it. You can have one big vision board with everything on it all at once, or you can have separate vision boards dedicated to specific things or experiences that you want to manifest, or particular areas of your life that you want to change. But that’s basically it. It sounds so deceptively simple, but it is such a powerful tool.
Vision boards really work
Which brings us back to my book. On my vision board, there is a picture of the Amazon logo. I put it there to represent my desire to have a bestselling book. And voilà… I got it. This sort of thing happens all the time with my vision board, I might add – I put something on it, focus on it for a while and then get on with my life, and then, out of the blue, it just happens. Kind of freaky sometimes, but that is how the Universe works. Set your intention, start moving (take action), don’t insist on particular “hows” and let the forces that be do their thing. And it just happens.
I use Pinterest to create my vision boards (and I have several of them, for different purposes). I love Pinterest for this sort of thing for a couple of reasons: 1) the electronic nature of it makes it easy to add and remove items as I want to – so, as some things get manifested and others get added; and 2) Pinterest allows you to make your boards secret, so you can enjoy the ease of use, without having to share your dreams with the world if you don’t want to. It’s also really easy to create a great mix of quotes, images and even links to motivational videos and music to really bring your boards to life.
3 steps to get your vision board started
So, to get you started with your own vision boards and get that whole process started, I have three tips for you today:
1. Pick a theme for the year
I always like to take some time in October to start thinking about my vision boards for next year. And when I start planning my year, I always start with a theme that I phrase in the past tense (because, from an energy perspective, when you think of something in the past tense, you’re sending out that vibe that it’s already done, that it’s a given). So, for example 2013 was “the year that everything changed”, 2014 is “the year that everything happened”, and 2015 is going to be “the year that everything started”.
2. Pick a mantra for the year
Once I’ve picked my theme for the year, I then choose a mantra to help keep me on track with what I want to accomplish. My mantra for both 2013 and 2014 was “I can and I will; watch me.” For 2015, I’ve picked a new mantra, and this time it’s a quote from one of my favourite authors, Charles de Lint, and it says “I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile.”
My mantra is the catch phrase that will focus what I choose to work on over the coming year. It’s my reason for why I’m doing things, and helps to guide the way I do things to fit into my theme. If the theme is your “what” for the year, the mantra is your “how”.
So, you’ll want to put both your theme and your mantra on your vision board.
3. Pick images to represent your dream
If you have a vision board it’s because there are things that you want in your life. Whether they are actual, physical things like a new car or a house, or whether they are experiences like forming a relationship or getting into shape, or whatever – there are things that you want. So the next step in creating wicked-awesome vision boards is to find images that represent everything your dreams mean to you and add them to your board. So, on my board, for instance, I’m going to leave my Amazon logo up because now that I have a bestseller on the free lists, I want to get one on the paid lists. I also have the New York Times logo up, because I want a NYT bestseller, too. 🙂
How to use your vision boards
If you have a hard-copy vision board, put it up somewhere where you’ll see it often, like up on the wall near your computer. If you have a digital vision board, you can print a copy and put it up (if it’s on Pinterest you can take a screen capture and print that) or you can just make it a point to pop in and go through your pins regularly. This is going to keep you inspired and focused on what it is you’re trying to accomplish over the course of the year.
So, I’ll just recap those steps for you again. To create a really awesome vision board:
- pick a theme for the year and add it to your board
- pick a mantra for the year and add it to your board
- find images that represent your dream or goal and what it means to you, and add those to your board
- revisit your board often to keep yourself inspired, focused and motivated to make your dream a reality
Vision boards really are a very powerful tool for helping you to create the kind of reality you most want for yourself, so be sure to give the technique a try, and let me know how it works for you. I love hearing people’s success stories with this kind of thing, and I know you’re going to have some awesome successes of your own!
Photo credit: Nadia Arbach / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
It is great that you can have more than one vision board. One can be on display at your desk and the other can be private in a saved file or on Pintrest or whatever. Getting it out there is one of the themes.
You can absolutely have more than one vision board. I usually have a main one for the year, and then I often additional boards dedicated to specific things that I want to see happen. 🙂