Based on some great feedback and comments, we’ve decided to re-post our Vision Boarding blog with a few updates:
Every year, each member of the Artisan Creative a.team works on their New Year’s goals and creates a vision board. They present their boards at our first meeting in January. These boards are a collection of our short and long-term goals, that include both personal and professional aspirations.
Presenting to the team develops accountability and enables the group to learn more about each other’s ambitions, dreams, and commitments. Some people set a theme for their board or their year—others use inspirational quotes. They all have in common a shared use of imagery that inspires, tells a story, and conveys a message to create a powerful visualization tool.
In addition to sharing our vision and goals at the onset of each new year, we review our boards mid-year and share a recap at our year-end meeting. This creates a sense of accountability that helps keep us on track during the course of the year, which can have many twists and turns. This activity is one of our strongest team-building exercises, as it stays “evergreen”.
Here are some tips to create your vision board and get your new year off to a good start!
- Select words and images that inspire and are true to your core values.
- Create positivity and inspiration for yourself and others.
- Imagine the integrated life/work you want to live.
- You can either divide your board into sections for business and personal or mix the elements together throughout. The important point is to create an integrated board where your personal and professional aspirations are represented.
- Hang the board where you can re-visit it daily—read the inspirational messages out loud— and often! Mine is right in front of my desk, so I get to see it every time I look up from my computer.
- Share with others. Having an accountability partner will help you get closer to achieving your goals.
Tools needed:
- A large poster board to give you plenty of space to visualize your year, yet small enough to hang on your wall. We use the 22 x 28 size available from Staples.
- A good pair of scissors and a strong glue stick so the pictures stay on all year long.
- Variety of magazines to look through and find those inspiring words and pictures.
- (Optional) Markers/stickers to write on or embellish your board.
- Patience and Creativity.
- Time to reflect. I cut images and words throughout the month of December. Then one day between Christmas and New Years’, I create the actual vision board. For some, it’s easier to start with a theme and for others, the pictures and words shape the theme of the board. There is no right or wrong method, harness your creativity any way that works best for you.
Although electronic versions such as Pinterest also work, going old-school where you physically search for and cut out imagery and words from a magazine and decide where to place them, is in itself an opportunity to reflect and plan via a very tangible exercise.
What is your goal-setting process?
Happy New Year!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the 456th issue of our weekly a.blog.