Why I No Longer Make Vision Boards

I don’t want what I think I want

Renuka Gavrani
Change Your Mind Change Your Life

--

Image of the author

It’s been 16 days since the new year and I am sure, by now, all the motivation, and internal dialogue of ‘I will make this year the best year of my life,’ would have taken the backseat.

Motivation turns into guilt which leads to even more laziness. And the New Year resolutions turn into excuses. At the back of your mind, you keep telling yourself, ‘from Monday, from tomorrow, or in an hour,’ until it’s 31 January again, and you are watching other people share their success stories on social media whilst thinking, ‘This year, I am going to live my best life.’

I wonder, ‘Why do we do this? Why do we make promises that we can’t keep? Or why do we not do what we promised ourselves to do?’

After wasting years of my life repeating the same cycle of wanting something so passionately just to watch myself not doing anything about it, then regretting, and cursing myself, I have realized,

‘You don’t want what you think you want and this is one of the major reasons why you never work towards the vision board you made.’

This may sound completely rubbish until you actually sit down to ask yourself,What’s the source of your goals? Why did you add the same picture of ‘summer in Italy’ as every other person on the planet has?’

Vision board, if you really understand the term, is a beautiful way to create the ‘vision’ of life you are truly meant for.

But what has it become today?

It has become a TikTok trend that everyone wants to follow. And since it’s a trend, everyone’s vision board ends up looking the same. Everyone wants the exact same thing.

Now, when you make your vision board, you may feel motivated, and certain that ‘this’ life will be yours. Because some random influencer on social media taught you that you deserve this, you can have this too if I did, and all that blah blah bullsh*t.

But what you don’t understand is that — the question was never about whether you deserve something or not. The question was —

‘Do you really want what you think you want?’

If no, the answer of which you don’t even know, no matter how many times you repeat a magical affirmation that got this influencer a Birkin bag or a luxurious apartment, you will not have IT. Because the inspiration to have IT never came from you.

Your logical brain will make you believe that this is your dream life. But there is a wisdom in you, there is something in you that knows what you are meant for, and if the things you have added to your vision board don’t align with the vision of life that your soul knows you are fit for, you will end up feeling miserable, guilty and not good enough.

Why?

Because:

A) You add all the goals and resolutions that were never yours. You thought you were working towards your ‘dreams’ whilst it was just an illusion sold to you as a promise of a good life.

B) Since it never came from you, you never felt the true inspiration to work towards it. Mentally, and in your journal, you had plans for how to go about it but in reality, you never worked on it because you knew deep inside that this is not what you want.

And how can you have what you know you don’t want?

So you see, if you take a trip back to your past, the story will change.

You couldn’t have what you planned not because you were not good enough but because, in truth, you never wanted those things.

The Undefeated Spirit:

‘The things you desire are already yours. The only condition is the desire should be honest and truthful to your heart.’

When I was a kid, all I wanted was to have a career that had a lot of money. I remember how I ditched journalism because one of my professors told me that the money is in peanuts and success is delayed in this field. At that time, I was so sure that I wanted to be a journalist.

However, when I moved my entire focus on writing — just writing my heart out and eventually publishing my book, there were so many days when my mind tried to convince that it was a stupid idea. I had given up all my freelancing clients, and I shifted with my parents so I can focus on my writing.

To give you a little bit of context, only a handful of writers make good money. Some even die and years after that, their work starts to get recognition. And if you are from India, know that you will never be respected in your country for your work because all of them are either crazy for celebrity or have a innate belief that Indian authors are trash until someone becomes really popular and become an ‘exception.’

So I knew what I was doing to myself. Yet, I was sure that this is what I wanted even when I couldn’t see ‘how’ it was ever going to work out. I never sat any goals about how much I will write every day or how will I publish my book or even what will I write about?

YET…

Against all odds, I knew this is what I wanted.

So, I took it lightly and gently. Writing was and still is the only thing in my life for which I was so sure of. I didn’t want anyone’s intervention so I never watched any YouTube video on how to make it big as a writer or how to make money as a writer. I just wanted my writing to be mine only.

I wanted to make mistakes. I was open to mess up. All I wanted to do was WRITE.

So, I did.

And years later, I published ‘The Art of Being Alone’ which became a best-seller.

Then I wrote ‘The Magic of Creative Living’ which is healing people and helping them understand how they can build a life that comes from them not at them.

But why am I telling you this?

Because, when you work towards what you are meant for, or when you honestly give a chance to the little wishpears of your heart, it doesn’t matter if it looks promising, certain or glamorous, you just want to keep DOING it.

If you notice, when you move in the right direction, your focus changes from what you will HAVE to DOING the work.

Like mine did.

I was so happy writing that I never cared if my writing was popular or not. I never cared how will I make it as an author. All I knew was — what I wanted to DO as opposed to what I wanted to HAVE.

Vision boards are good if you add the images of ‘ACTION.’

But the way people are making their vision board these days, it looks more like a fest of greed and chasing an illusion.

Today, vision board are distracting you — teaching you how to demand ‘BIGGER’ things from the Universe. And somehow you end up feeling that if you add all the pretty pictures and believe hard enough, then with some magic, you will have it all.

STUPIDITY!!!

Why?

Because, while it’s true, you can have anything you desire. It’s also true and most important that the desire should be true, innocent and based on faith not greed.

The influencer market asks you to focus what you WANT by first teaching you what you should WANT.

This is the one of the biggest reasons, why you feel like a failure within a month of new year.

I believe, whatever I desired in my life, I never really worked towards it long enough to have it.

Do you know why?

Because, maybe the desire was never mine. It was a reflection of what I thought would be safe or certain. It was a learned desire, perhaps.

Though, when I desired to be an author, I am one. I worked on becoming one for long enough with no help or direction. I never felt that it was ‘heavy’ for me. It felt easy even on tough days.

When I focused on DOING my work with love and honesty, the Universe blessed me in ten folds. I have achievements for which, I still think I am not good enough. And yet, it’s my reality. I have such good things that I don’t think I would have been able to add in the vision board.

Because apparently, Universe’s vision for you is far more different that what your vision board looks like.

You want what everyone wants.

Universe wants to give you something special. Something that is just yours.

All you have to do is LET GO of your desire of what you have been told to desire so you can be alone, and in dark with nowhere to move towards.

It’s in these moments of darkness and solitude, you will begin to listen to a voice so deep inside that wanted to speak to you for a long time, but you kept silencing it, knowingly or unknowingly, with the noise of the world.

There is something in you that calls you home. That wants to show you a path that is your destiny. That is your journey back to the life you are here for. Move in that direction. Let yourself be free from the five year long plans so you can follow your intuitions and curiosity. So you can do what you desire instead of doing what you planned.

Conclusion; The More You Should Chase:

As you begin to move in this new direction, as uncertain and doubtful it might look, you will begin to feel like you are finally doing what makes you happy. You will feel satisfied despite having ‘less’ materalitic possessions. But you will feel more at home. More peaceful. More happy. More content.

I will leave you with a question now, ask yourself, ‘What kind of more do you want?’

For the good kind of more, you can read my book — ‘The Magic of Creative Living: A Conscious Path to a Joyful Life.’

--

--

Change Your Mind Change Your Life
Change Your Mind Change Your Life

Published in Change Your Mind Change Your Life

Read short and uplifting articles here to help you shift your thought, so you can see real change in your life and health.

Renuka Gavrani
Renuka Gavrani

Written by Renuka Gavrani

I talk about slow & Intentional living - taking you closer to a happy life. I am a published author of the book 'The Art of Being Alone': https://a.co/d/531JIFq

Responses (12)