I finally finished my vision board last week. It took me a month and a half to put it together this year.
At the end of December I talked about not rushing into making a list of resolutions. In addition to resolutions I also do a vision board. The resolutions usually come first, but this year the ideas of a list of resolutions just didn't come to me. At all. I had a list of a few big things that I wanted, but no idea how to get them. I was having a lot of trouble seeing the bigger picture of what I wanted for my life. So, I decided to focus on my vision board instead hoping that if I figured that out my goals and resolutions would follow.
I looked through piles of magazines looking for images that jumped out at me, but nothing did. I continued to feel uninspired and directionless. After several sessions of this I saw an Instagram post by Design Sponge, which was expanded on in her stories, about her vision board. In her stories she reflected on her boards from year's past and observed that her older boards were really focused on what things looked while her more recent boards focused on what things felt like. It reminded me of some advice a good friend of mine gave me last year. If you don't know what you want it to look like, figure out what you want it to feel like.
Looking at my board from last year I realized that this was exactly what I had done. I had focused on what I thought my life should look like. But that wasn't satisfying any more. It didn't feel right. So, I tried the other approach.
I spent some time journaling about the feelings that I wanted in my life. The feelings that are missing from my life right now. I took the list of big things that I knew I want and asked myself why I wanted them. How did I expect them to make me feel? A central theme emerged. Curiosity. Creativity, Freedom. All things that bring me joy.
With this in mind I looked through the piles of magazines again. At first I cut out words that reflected the way I wanted my life to feel. Once I had a pile of those images started to jump out at me. I made my pile and grabbed my board.
In past years when I've redone my board I always look at the images from the previous year. There are some that I love and really speak to me. I allow myself to keep these as long as the feeling they provoke is strong. But everything comes off, I use a bulletin board and pins rather than paper and glue, and I start fresh.
There are always surprises. I didn't end up needing many words. A lot of the images expressed the words I'd Many of the new images I chose this year are pink or blue. Soft pinks and deep blues. No idea what that's about, but that's part of the point of the exercise. The main thing is that it feels right. When I look at it I get the feelings that I want in my life.
Did you make a vision board this year? What was your experience like?
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