The imagination series (3): Vision boards

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So, it’s time to build a vision board! A lot has been written on how to build a vision board, so, I’m just going to give a brief description of how to build a vision board and give some resources at the end of this post. My focus in this post will be to share some lessons I have learnt from building my vision board. So I’ll just give a brief description on how to build a vision board and then share what I have learnt.

• Now, that you have gained clarity on what your vision is (To understand how to that, please read my earlier post here), put together the following materials
  • A couple of magazines. Lifestyle, inspirational, business review magazines or even newspapers
  • Cardboard
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Markers (optional)

• Get some music playing, review your written vision one more time and then begin to flip through the pages of the magazines
• Cut out pictures or words that strike a chord with you e.g. you see an article title ‘talent in emerging markets’, you can cut it out if it resonates with your vision
• Draw out sections on your cardboard for your vision categories. (to understand vision categories, read my earlier post here)
• Then begin to paste the pictures/word on the cardboard in the different sections in order of the categories. e. you should paste the article title ‘talent in emerging markets’ in the career section
• Leave it out to dry and hang it up somewhere that is in your line of sight every day. I have mine on my wardrobe so It’s in my line of sight when I get ready for work/outings etc. everyday

So let’s move on to two key lessons from my first attempt at building a vision board. It’s very important you have clarity. I can’t stress this enough. Seek clarity and with all your seeking, seek some more. I’ll give you an illustration to show why it’s so important. Funmi wants a career in management consulting, she writes it down as her vision in the career category, gets a picture of a high performing management consultant and pastes it on her vision board. She later gets a job in a consulting firm and finds out it’s not what she really wants to do, she doesn’t enjoy it or it’s not the line of consulting she wants to practice. What happened here? Funmi didn’t drill down to know what she really wanted. Now asking herself should have included reading up about everything about that career path. Talking to people working in those roles. Finding out if she liked the lifestyle etc. You get my drift? Seek clarity. If you did all of that, thought you wanted it and still found out when you get it that’s it not what you want. Then it’s ok. Move on and evolve. The dots will come together eventually. The first vision board is not the final draft. After I put my first vision board together, I started to notice gaps when I looked at it every morning i.e. areas I had not thought about. For instance, I didn’t add anything about my current 9-5 job. I realized that couldn’t work especially since I’m at the office, Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 6pm. It’s either I  put something on my vision board about my 8-6 or I realize I’m wasting my time because my sub conscious doesn’t acknowledge it as my part of the vision i have for my life. I’m sure you’ll keep learning as you build your vision board. It’s just important to start. It’s also fun to have a vision board party with friends. I had one with a couple of friends and it was fun. [caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="392"] Here we are cutting out pictures for our vision boards[/caption] You can plan to have a vision board party with some friends or send me an e-mail ([email protected]) if you would like to attend one of the parties I organize. Stay remarkable Tomie.