The Vision Board — How to Map Out Your Future
The first thing that I ever wrote about when deciding to start my own business and blog was #goals! Why? I’m a firm believer that goal setting is a foundational element for sustained success. Further, it’s proven that you’re more likely to accomplish your goals when they are written down!
In addition to having goals, it’s important to think about the habits that you must form in order to accomplish them and maintain the gains. This is what James Clear refers to as “building the system” in his book, Atomic Habits.
But how do I know what goals to set? Where do I start?
Now introducing…The Vision Board!
Vision Board Intro
You may often think about the things that you want to have #wonday in the future, whether it’s the beach home, CEO title, traveling family, etc. How often do you place yourself into the future and look backwards?
The purpose of the vision board is to place yourself in the future, maybe it’s at your dream beach home, and then fill in the boxes as to what will help you get there from where you are now.
The Vision Board concept is something that I adopted in 2018 after working with a couple of my mentors on my future plan, one of which who inspired me to make the board and the other who is responsible for the quote on my board.
“If you’re sitting on the beach with a drink 40 years from now and looked back on life, what would you have wanted to accomplish?”
- Jim Wigfall, CEO, Sound Generations
I use the Vision Board as a guide for my annual goals list and believe that it has taken my goal setting ability and focus to an entire new level. This is also a tool that I use with mentees, clients, and family!
Build Your Vision Board
Place yourself in the future for a few minutes and look backwards. How’d you get there? What did you accomplish along the way? What did you become known for? What kind of mark did you leave on important things to you?
These are all important questions to ask yourself when you’re making your Vision Board.
Step 1
- Create boxes for three decades beyond the current decade that you are in
Step 2
- Fill in boxes beginning from the oldest to your current decade
- The boxes in later decades should be more broad, as you get older, some things will change. Do not get too specific in the out-years
- The box for your current decade should contain the most items, as you have the most amount of time to focus on them and they’re within your reach
- Some items may not fall within a desired decade, and they shouldn’t have an exact timeline. Something such as marriage should be organic, not forced to occur within a certain time period. It’s completely fine to leave this box in between decades!
Step 3
- You now have a vision board! This does not need to be revisited as frequently as your #goals list, but it can and should evolve as time goes on!
Think and dream big! Nothing is out of reach in this beautiful world that we live in.
Personally, I envision a life where I can always be adventuring with my family, extremely philanthropic, and helping as many people as possible achieve their goals and dreams by building the right foundation.
Make it your own!
Win Today!
