How do you want your future to look and feel?
Take a moment to focus your awareness on how you want to feel. Want to feel calm and peaceful? How would it feel to step away from your To-Do list without feeling guilty or afraid of falling behind?
You can but it will take some work and an important mental shift.
Instead of focusing only on what you want, focus on how you will feel when you get there.
Invert the typical process of focusing on the outcome or result we want and instead focus on the person we want to be and how our goals get us there.
For example, if your goal is to get on your yoga mat 5 times a week, focus on “how will I feel if I practice yoga five times every week?” rather than focusing on checking off “Practice Yoga” from your weekly To-Do list five times.
Your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings determine the actions you take.
And every action you take gets you closer to the person you want to become.
How do you change your thoughts, feelings, and actions?
Make a vision board!
A vision board is a physical representation of the life you want to create.
It can be a collage, a sketch, or a list of your dreams and goals. Typically they’re designed to be visually appealing to catch your eye – and more importantly to catch your attention.
When you have a physical object that represents the life you want and it’s positioned in a place where you see it regularly, it becomes easier to do the next best thing.
Doing the next best thing often enough propels you toward your goals and your better, future self.
No matter what your goals are, a vision board that you see every day keeps you focused.
It makes you accountable to yourself. And according to psychology studies, visualizing the results we want enhances our motivation, increases our self-confidence, and improves our performance. Meaning that if you see it often enough, you will start believing it’s possible and therefore work toward your dreams and goals.
Remember that your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings determine the actions you take.
Start Gathering Your Focus
To get started, collect images, words, quotes, and small objects that speak to you and represent your goals. Cut things out of magazines. Print things you find online. Gather pictures that make you feel happy, confident, and inspired.
Want to travel more? Find pictures that represent the places you want to see and the things you want to do while you’re there.
Ready to improve your relationships? Look for images of people having fun together.
Want to get healthy? Print some yoga pictures that motivate you to get on your mat. Gather some pictures or quotes about the kinds of foods you want to eat and how they will make you feel.
Ready to boost your self-esteem? Find words that represent how you want to feel: peaceful, adventurous, fun, confident, etc.
It’s amazing what you’ll find when you start looking. Give yourself a few days or a week to find images that resonate with how you want your life to look and feel.
You want your vision board to grab your attention every day so go big.
Make your vision board on posterboard, corkboard, or even a piece of cardboard covered in fabric or paper you love. Pick something that makes you feel happy when you look at it.
Once you have the supplies, ask yourself how you want your future to look and feel.
Start designing your vision board with that in mind. Avoid glue, tape, or pins at this point. Simply layout what you like. Then move things around… and around… and around. Remember it is about how you want your future to look and feel.
Group goals together. You might want a section for health goals, another for relationship goals, and one for career or financial goals. This helps give your goals a little more focus, which concentrates your mind on what you want to manifest and create.
You might notice that you’ve collected more images and words than will fit on your board. That’s great! Pick the ones that inspire you the most and work around them.
If you have the word “peaceful” cut out five times, pick the one you like the best. It doesn’t matter why you like it – maybe it’s the biggest or your favorite color or you love the font – it just matters that it makes you feel happy and motivated.
Try to leave some blank spaces. Then if a new goal or dream comes up, you have space to add it.
Stick To It
Once you’re happy with the way it looks and the way it makes you feel, stick them onto your new vision board. Remember that this is your vision board. It will not look like anyone else’s. It won’t even look like one you created in the past. This is the current representation of how you want your life to look and feel.
Once you’ve created a vision board that makes you feel motivated give it a home.
Put it somewhere you will see it every day. Give it a place of honor. It doesn’t matter if it is above your nightstand, in your home office, by your back door. It matters that you look at it every day.
Visualization Will Work For You
Studies show that visualization works. Elite athletes have been using visualization for decades to improve their games. Plus, the same brain patterns are activated when people visualize themselves doing something as are activated when the actual activity is performed.
The important part about creating your vision board is that you want it to represent how you want to feel.
It’s not about how your body or bank account will look. It’s about how your body or your bank account will make you feel. Focus on the feeling you want to create.
Let your vision board represent that. Now focus on that feeling. Let those feelings bubble up every time you look at your vision board.
This will inspire you to keep taking that next best step toward your future self.
You got this! Let your vision board represent it.