Vision board

”To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.” 

– Anatole France

The first week of 2024 I decided only to sleep and read and spend time with family and friends therefore the first article of the year is published today on the 9th instead of Sunday morning, since when decision to become a productive person again showed up - my computer started acting out.

Ever since this article about visualisation showed up the plan was to have the first article of 2024 on the topic of Vision Board. It is a study that shows that imaging a threat elicits almost the same response in the brain as if it happened in real life. This visualisation is used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with great results when it comes to phobias.

What is a vision board? It is a collage of images, writings, words, washi tape representing a person’s wishes and visions of goals. The purpose is to serve as inspiration or motivation. This is a great way to train your brain to work for your goals by searching for ideas and occasions to make things work in your favor. And what is the connection with the visualisation I’ve mentioned? Well if we visualize our goals we are closer to achieve them.

Knowing how our brain works and how it is an amazing machine, we can harness that power to actualize our objectives, ”no voodoo involved, but science” like one of my coaching clients says - and he is right - it is all science. Creating a mental image and wanting to make it happen it will activate your neuroplasticity and the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

Neuroplasticity is our brain ability to reorganize itself by creating new neuronal connection at all time, regardless of our age. This science is also being used for Positive Intelligence and in working with habits (new or replacing old ones). Creating mental images our brain creates new pathways perceiving that is going through a real experience.

RAS is a network of neurons located in the brain stem and it plays a crucial role in filtering information for our brain. Let’s say we talk during coffee about orange cars - after that conversation your brain will pay attention and make you ”see” all the orange cars that pass you by. They were there before yet your brain was filtering them out since there was no interest on the topic. RAS can be used in recognising opportunities when we are talking about our goals and visualising them, opportunities and invitations that might otherwise gone unnoticed. I will not bore you with more studies about this at this point, but a google search will reveal them with you.

Now returning on visualisation goals an easy exercise that you can do is creating a vision board for yourself. It is a great tool I use with my coaching clients and they love it! So here is my first invitation for you this year - create a vision board with me.

Grab a coffee or a tea and make sure you have some time booked in your calendar for this activity. The vision board can be for the whole year or monthly if you split your yearly goals into smaller ones. You can download my design from resources area in here.

Write your goals on a paper, in your journal or if you already have them bring them closer to you. There are several ways in which you can create this! Here are my recommendations: in your journal, on a piece of paper and frame it, or print it directly and put it on your fridge or somewhere where you can see it often.

You can do the next steps in 2 ways.

• digital (Canva, Powerpoint or Keynote can be a great tool) if you choose to have it all done on your phone or computer (might be downloaded later or put as a wallpaper for your phone, into Notion or Digital Planner)

• hard copy by printing from resources the design and gluing, writing, drawing things on it.

Now after you decide how you will do your vision board, search visual representation of your goals (on google or photo libraries or your phone). You can even cut them from magazines, books or old planners. Save them and add them on the board. Be free with your imagination - might be words, quotes or whatever you feel that it will represent your vision, don’t block your imagination at pictures only. You can write the words with a pen in your own handwriting.

Spend time and imagine what it would feel to have the final imagine as reality, what would you think about yourself and how would you celebrate the achieving of that goal. Make sure you create the mental image of that and give yourself time to enjoy it. This is the way you will support your brain in its work.

On the visual example from resources I used some general categories - but you can disregard them and create your own areas. It is your vision board so it should have there what is in the interest of your development (personal and professional).

Now that you created your vision board make sure you place it in a space where you can look at it all the time. Every other day spend some minutes of connecting with your vision - make sure you keep your brain active to search for opportunities for making the vision real.

And remember that in order to make things happen some action is also needed so don’t just take the first steps, also create paths towards the life you want.

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash