HOW TO CREATE A VISION BOARD
Few people examine their current life. Can you picture and describe your life’s purpose? What is your level of health, fitness, relationships, accomplishment, security and happiness? Do you have defined goals for getting from where you are to where you want to be? How close are you to having it ‘all together?’ If you already have a clearly defined purpose in life, terrific! Move straight to the action steps to strengthen your accomplishments. If you need help identifying and ‘creating’ your purpose, fasten your seatbelt and pack a lunch. There is adventure ahead. You are not a passenger on this voyage into unknown waters; you are the captain of the ship. We just provide the maps and equipment.
ACTION STEP 1:
Get a vision board (large white board or poster-size paper) and attach it to the wall where you spend the most amount of time (e.g., at work, home office, the car or even in the bathroom!). Now write across the bottom in bold letters, ‘If it is meant to be, it is up to me!’ DO NOT continue reading any further until you can be 100% honest with yourself about this.
ACTION STEP 2:
Describe your purpose in society. Your purpose is not necessarily your job (although those that have purposeful work always seem to be happier).
Rather, it is the way you can contribute to your fellow humans.
How can YOU help mankind and the survival of our species? You may want to spend some time on this step. If you become emotional thinking about your purpose in society, it probably means you are on the right track. Once you have your purpose, write it in the middle of your vision board.
ACTION STEP 3:
When you have identified your purpose, you are ready to note what actions you need to take to fulfill that purpose. No one can tell you what these steps are – no guru, life coach, personal trainer or doctor – but there are a few tools that may help you. Close your eyes and pretend you are watching a movie. The movie is a new release about your life that you have never seen before, one in which you are the lead actor. Make sure you picture this movie in full colour.
WEEK 1 – CREATE 4 LIFE
• What is your role?
• What do you look like in this movie?
• What jobs or tasks are you performing and
do they match your purpose?
• Who are the other key players in the film?
• Where are you living?
Once you have a fairly good idea about what the movie is about, make notes, with arrows pointing to your purpose on your vision board. These are your action issues to help you achieve your purpose in life.
ACTION STEP 4:
Next, look at the action steps you have written and write next to them small things you can start to implement to help you achieve those actions. For example, if your purpose is to ‘improve the lives of others’, one action step may require that you ‘be fit’ so you can lead by example, or be physically strong enough to help someone else. Under ‘be fit’ you need to write those things you will do to get fit, like walk 10,000 steps every day or join a sporting team or club. To take it one step further, you can even find local sporting teams in your area and write their phone numbers down.
As you complete your action steps over time, write new ones to replace the old. For example, if you join a tennis club, replace your old action step ‘get fit’ with a new action step ‘tennis’. Now, draw lines towards ‘tennis’ with steps such as ‘hit five serves in a row’ or ‘play a whole game without stopping’. This way you keep improving your life in ways that help you achieve your purpose.