Have you ever made a vision board?
I attended a workshop last week that was hosted by a colleague – it was called Grilled Cheese and Girl Talk. Why on Earth would I not attend such an event?! (you had me at grilled cheese!)
The workshop was put on for us to make vision boards. And they even fed us, courtesy of MLTDWN. Wow. So good!
I am not a creative person. I honestly have done so many personality tests and brain tests and my creativity is almost totally stifled by my logical side of my brain.
So I never GOT what it was to do a vision board.
I have never done one prior to last week.
Sure I set goals and plan strategies and I can make things happen. But they never happened for me in what I considered to be a creative space. They were logical, researched and planned strategies.
I used to get jealous of people who could dream of things and then make them happen. Make things pretty. You know the ones!
And the ones who had big dreams for their lives, and clear targets for their business.
Many years ago I attended a Mastermind weekend with my business coach in Maine. (ah Maine, I must go back, so beautiful!)
We did an exercise – a very simple exercise – where we had to make a list of 100 things we wanted in our life. Anything, that we could work towards. Things that we could build our business to bring to us.
I watched in jealousy as mostly every other person in the room happily scribbled on their paper.
I stared down at my paper. I had maybe 10 things on it. They all had to do with very immediate things – pay off my mortgage, get a new car, save for my son’s education. We had 15 minutes to do the exercise. I was blank.
Clearly I was lousy at this exercise!
We started to read the lists out loud – people were saying they wanted a jet, a yacht, to travel here and there, and all kinds of things that were simply not on my list.
When it came to my turn, I read my measly 12 things, and my coach asked me why I didn’t have anything more on my list. I had no answers. I simply couldn’t think of anything that I wanted beyond the simple things in my life.
He actually called me out and asked me, ‘Who told you, you have to stay so SMALL?’. It was a very uncomfortable moment. If I was a crier I would have cried. Thankfully I’m not so I just kept saying, ‘No one. I don’t know.’
Gah! What a memory. I hate that memory. I felt really small then, that’s for sure! I didn’t even know what I WANTED in my life. At least I couldn’t articulate it.
We talked it through, the whole group of us (gosh, masterminds are SO valuable!). We figured out I wasn’t trying to be small. I just wasn’t trying to be any bigger. I didn’t know how.
So the whole group brainstormed with me. What do you like to do? Hockey! Golf! Food! Travel! I don’t have a lack of interests … I just didn’t know how to turn those into dreams or plans.
Here is what we came up with: hockey – I want to see an NHL hockey game in each NHL arena; golf – I want to attend the Masters, and golf at a beautiful course in Ireland and Scotland; food – I want to go to Bobby Flay’s restaurants;travel – I want to take my husband and son to Paris for the weekend … and much more!
It was easy once I got some help and saw how to dream for myself.
I don’t want a yacht, or a Ferrari, or a jet. I do want to fly first class sometime and I’d love a car that is not 8 years old!
At the vision board workshop it was much easier to get back into that frame of mind of ‘what do I deserve’ and ‘what would be amazing’ because I had put myself there once before.
My vision board still looked crappy next to most others (!) but I still did it. Actually it’s not quite done. I ran out of time (overthinking, shocker I know!) but I will get it done and I’ll share it with you – once my conference is over!
I now understand how to do one and how to use it – who knew, all I had to do was learn what they were all about!
Dreaming big is very serious stuff – and take it from me, you do not have to be creative to do it. You just need to know what you like, and what would make you happy. That’s not so hard, is it?
If I can help you with your vision and dreaming bigger, don’t hesitate to reach out!