1. A vision board makes your goals visible. That spiral notebook you scribble on is no match for pictures. For one thing, your vision board doesn’t fit in a dresser drawer. On the other hand, you don’t have to flip through a picture board to find a journal entry. Most importantly, for emotional impact, a single decent photo destroys written descriptions.
2. A vision board keeps your goals in front of your eyes. In our world of information overload, remembering what you have decided to do on this earth is no easy matter. You wake up in the morning, start drinking coffee, and put on a TV show in the morning, “just for the weather.” What you get is a Category 5 hurricane of headlines and hype. Flood your mind with bytes of sound and even more “amazing videos, new arrivals!”
With everything that is happening in the world, it is surprising that you remember to let the dog out, let alone what your goals in life are.
But with a vision board, you’ll see your goals first thing in the morning and as often as you like throughout the day. Even better: if you create a web-based vision board, it will be available wherever you go. You can visualize and focus on your goals at home, at work, even at an airport. Which says a lot.
3. A vision board allows you to choose your goals. If you don’t set your goals, someone else will set them for you: your culture, your family, your employer. Gold TV commercials. Why do you eat at McDonald’s? Um, the TV commercials and the giant M’s have a lot to do with it. But when you use a vision board to advertise your own goals, you’ll pay less attention to the fries and more to your fitness program.
4. A vision board reminds you what you are working for. Are you trying to report to the boss on time? Pierce your time card? Make one more sale? Or do you have a goal, a reason for all the work you do?
If you don’t have a goal, you are simply running from one task to the next. Ask any chicken with a severed head: get old and fast.
But with a vision board, you remember what you are working for. The tough days – or let’s face it, the tedious and boring parts of even the most exciting projects – don’t turn into chores but rather stepping stones on the path to your goal.
5. A vision board acts like a carrot and stick for you. Despite some of the light words floating around on some vision board sites, your fortune will not come in waves of thought. Success in anything requires action. A vision board is the carrot that tempts you to work harder and smarter.
And yes, a vision board can also be the cane. How? Even if you are the only soul that knows about your vision board, it is still a compromise. He’s there all the time – a training partner who always shows up. Count on you. Strange but true: you don’t want to disappoint your vision board.
6. Your vision board keeps you in a good mood. If you’re a person who really wants to see the glass half full, but often doesn’t, turn to your vision board.
Keeping long-term goals in sight helps you feel so much better every moment and day by day. Feeling better means you can connect better, work harder, love more sincerely, and feel good about taking time off, too. Sure, all of that makes you more effective and successful. But it also feels better to have concrete long-term goals.
7. A vision board allows you to create a purpose in life. If you don’t choose your purpose in life, one will be chosen for you. You really don’t want to wake up in a nursing home and find that you’ve lived your employer’s purpose for your life. Or that of your culture. Or even your mother. (Maybe especially your mother’s!)
Your vision board doesn’t just help you establish purpose. It allows you to modify your purpose when necessary. For example, after a major life change or as you grow personally. Best of all, when you choose a web-based vision board site, you get all the inspiration from multi-sensory visualization and never have to worry about cardstock and glue again.