SUCCESSFUL CELEBRITIES USE VISION BOARDS

In the video below, Steve Harvey and Oprah discuss the use of vision boards.   Harvey discusses how it includes all of the things that he wants do and accomplish.   While Harvey says that he can’t share everything on his vision board because some of it is personal, he does share that his goal to provide 10,000 with scholarships to college is on his vision board.  (Interestingly, since the video below was taped, Harvey has teamed up with Coca-Cola’ Pay It Forward Scholarship Program, which provides programs to help minority students explore academic and career options where they are traditionally underrepresented.  Additionally, Harvey has also partnered with Disney Dreamers Academy, which also seeks to inspire teens to succeed.  You have to wonder if the relationship is coincidence, or a result of Harvey’s strong conviction to meet his goals of providing teens with mentoring opportunities.)

WHY VISION BOARDS CAN WORK

Personally, I agree with Harvey and Oprah; I believe that VISION BOARDS CAN HELP YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.

However, vision boards are not a panacea for all of your problems; VISION BOARDS ARE MERELY A TOOL which, If used appropriately, will ASSIST you in meeting your goals.

Vision boards are effective tools because they can be a reminder to help you STAY FOCUSED AND MOTIVATED!  They will serve as a daily reminder of what you want and hopefully inspire you to TAKE ACTION towards meeting your goals.  Visualizing your goals will remind you of your truest DESIRES and help MOTIVATE you to make it happen!

MAKING A VISION BOARD

You can make a vision board in several different ways.   Undoubtedly, most people make a physical vision board with a cork board or poster board, and paste photos, magazine cutouts, etc. in a collage type format.  (If you haven’t seen vision boards in this format, you can view these Google Images.)

If creating a physical vision board is your style, then you can purchase a cork board at almost any retail store.    And, if you lack magazines, you could ask a local medical office or hair salon if they could give you some of their old magazines.

Me, I am more of a digital person.   I find CREATING A DIGIAL VISION BOARD CAN SAVE YOU TIME.  Plus a digital vision board can be more visible; you can save it as your desktop, you can set it as your homepage, etc.   Or, if you prefer, you can print the digital vision boards and place them in strategic locations that will serve as a constant reminder of your goals.

You can use several different tools to create a digital vision board.  Some people use Pinterest.   Others simply use a free collage program like Picture2Life.  You could also use Padlet, which I wrote a blog post on in the past.

Personally, one of my favorite tools for digital vision board creation is RealTimeBoard, a white board that allows you to post pictures, texts, etc. just like you were attaching them to a real white board.   (RealTimeBoard lets you make three boards with their free version.  You can also add three collaborators for free if you want to make a collaborative vision board.  (See below for more details on collaborative vision board.)

Once you create your vision board, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE VISION BOARD TO BE SOMEWHERE YOU CAN SEE IT.    But you can’t just look at the vision board, believing that your fairy godmother will magically help you achieve your goals because YOU HAVE TO CHART YOUR COURSE; you have to choose ACTIONS THAT MOVE YOU IN THE DIRECTION OF ATTAINING YOUR GOALS.    (As a side note, one of my all time FAVORITE BOOKS is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.   It discusses the ability to reach your goals through little, everyday actions or the ability to create a life opposite of what you really want through little, everyday actions.   I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING IT, or listening to it thought Audible like I did.)

MORE ON CREATING VISION BOARDS: TIMETABLE

Before creating your vision board, you have to decide on a time table for it.   In other words, what is a realistic timetable to complete your goals?

I like to create vision boards for the next year or so.   Of course, you can choose a shorter or longer time frame, depending on your goals.  Or, you can make multiple vision boards, one for short-term goals and another for long-term goals.

MORE ON CREATING VISION BOARDS: CONTENT

Content on a vision board is significant.   Since this is a visual representation of your goals, your vision board should be reflective of your goals.

So take a look at your goals.  (If you haven’t written your goals, check my previous blog posts on Setting Goals, What Goals are Most Important to You?, Writing SMART Goals,  and Achieving Goals) to help you get started.

Then, select, the media that will best “visually speak” your goal to you, and place them on your board.  This could be:

• Pictures
• Inspirational quotes
• Words
• Etc.

Arrange the media in an aesthetically appealing way.   Remember, you want to MAKE A VISION BOARD THAT HELPS YOU TO TAKE INSPIRED ACTION TOWARDS MEETING YOUR GOALS!

SET JOINT GOALS WITH COLLABORATIVE VISION BOARDS

Vision boards don’t have to be individual.   You can also collaborate to make a vision board with your significant other and put mutual goals on it.   It could be a mutual attempt to improve your relationship by stating your desires and expectations.

Or, you can make a collaborative board with your child/children to give you both/all something to work towards.   Or, if you own a business or manage a team, you could make a vision board with your employees/colleagues to serve as a constant reminder of the collaborative goals.

IN CONCLUSION

When contemplating creating your vision board, keep these words from Oprah in mind.   

PS.  If this post inspired you to create a vision board, please consider posting a picture or comment on our Facebook Community Page.

I was fortunate to be able to take my children to Rocking Horse Ranch in Highland, New York on a mini-vacation this past week.

We did so much in the three days that we were there.  We rode horses, used paddleboats, went fishing, went mountain tubing, and ate a whole lot of food!   It was a great time!   I was able to focus on my kids and relax.

My short get-away gave me the time and space to focus on my goals, and reemphasized how important it is to align your actions to your goals.

Below, I discuss my two important take-aways.

Lesson 1: FOCUS ON THE PRESENT MOMENT

I was reminded of the importance of making time to spend uninterrupted time with those that we love.  As anyone over 35 will attest, time goes by too quickly; you blink, and somehow a year or more has passed.

In the busy time that we live in, we are easily distracted, and it is very challenging for most of us to stay FOCUSED.  Even when we take time off, we are distracted; we are on our digital devices or we are engaged in something other than our companion.   We are thinking about what is coming next instead of enjoying the present moment.

Personally, my yoga practice has helped me practice and understand the “gift” of staying in the present moment.

When you practice asana (the physical poses) in yoga, you generally have to be “in the moment” because many of the poses are challenging.   Your mind is not able to wander because you must keep attention to the detail of the poses.     For instance, when you are focusing on getting and staying in a pose that is challenging to you, you are not thinking about running errands or paying bills.

Thanks to yoga’s ability to help us to become more aware and present,  I am better able to remind myself that the I only have control over the present moment when I start to get anxious about an upcoming event or situation.   As a result of this awareness, I have found that most of the potentially anxiety causing future events aren’t as nerve wracking as I could have “worked them up” to be.

However, really being present does have other benefits.   You get to notice things that you would otherwise miss if you were distracted.  You get to see the beauty of the flowers and trees, you get to enjoy a nice breeze on a warm day, or (in my case) you get to observe the love and wonder in the eyes of your children.

This week, I was able to align my actions with one of my goals of spending truly quality time with my children and creating positive life-long memories for all of us.  It re-emphasized the importance of family in my goal categories (See my post on setting goals.) and directly aligned to my goal of always ensuring that I am as present as possible when spending time with loved ones.

Lesson 2:  STEP OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

I have never been much of a risk taker.   Instead, I tend to make the err on the caution.    However, I know that I will never be able to achieve many of my goals if don’t sometimes step out of my comfort zone.

My seven year old did make it to the top to ring the bell.

This week, at Rocking Horse Ranch, I was reminded that children are natural risk-takers. My seven year old daughter didn’t hesitate to climb to the top of the rock wall, catch a fish, or ride a horse much bigger than her.  Both of my daughters, both under ten years old, went out together on a kayak without hesitation.

Me, on the other hand, was full of hesitation for some of the week’s activities.   For instance, my fear of heights and tendency to avoid activities where I lack control almost caused me to miss out on mountain tubing with my children.   Also, when I found out that my first horse riding experience in fifteen or more years would be on one of the biggest horses at the ranch, I almost decided to “bow out.”

However, my daughters’ pleas to participate with them, along with messages from my “rational brain” that reminded be that the facility wouldn’t endorse the activities if it was likely they would be harmful, helped me to leave my comfort zone and enjoy the activities.

My decision was reinforced when I witnessed a older man, looking to be in his eighties, mountain tube.  You could tell he was hesitant, but he inevitably decided to leave his comfort zone too.

But as we get older and learn to fear failure, we start holding ourselves back and attempting fewer new things.  As a result, we end up limiting our growth.

If you end up looking at your goals, you will most likely realize that you MUST step outside of your comfort zone to achieve the goals that you set for yourself.   As leading self-development expert Brian Tracy said, “Move out of your comfort zone.  You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”

Therefore, if given the opportunity, allow yourself to experience growth and move toward achieving your goals.  In other words, ride the horse!

This horse was my second day of horse riding. This horse was an average size. 😉

I have this poster hanging in my house to serve as a daily reminder.

So I’ve convinced you that goal writing has benefits?   So you are going to take action and write them down.  But, how do you write them down?  

Make your goals SMART.   

S-specific

M-measurable

A-attainable

R-relevant

T-timely

For instance, if one of your goals is to make more money, you should not simply write “I want to make more money.”   Written that way, your goal is not specific, measurable, or timely.

If you want the universe help you, you need to clearly state your desires.   For instance, a better way to quantify “more money” from the same example above would be “By the beginning of 2017, I will be making at least $100,000.”

In this above example, you followed the SMART format.  That is:

• You have a specific goal, in that you want to make specifically make at least $100,000 by the beginning of 2017.    
• Your goal is measurable; you will be able to determine if you are actually earning $100,000 at the beginning of 2017.  
• Your goal is attainable; as if you are willing to work hard and have in demand skill or sell an in demand product, the six figure goal should be possible.   
• Your goal is relevant if you ranked financial security as important.
• You were timely when you gave the beginning of 2017 as a specific timetable.   

When I have written goals, I find that SMART goals are more valuable than non SMART goals.  

In the seminal book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill discusses the importance of being specific when trying to manifest money.    (SIDE NOTE:  If you haven’t read this book yet, READ IT!   It contains important information regarding personal finance and mindset.)   In fact, he suggests making a specific and detailed goal just as I did above.

But, Hill makes realistic and effective suggestions that go beyond writing the goal.  That is, once you determine your SMART goal, you must then devise a plan to attain it.

That is, the goal is not the end game.    While you need to specifically tell the universe what you want, you can’t realistically think that Ed McMann will show up at your door with a Publisher’s Clearinghouse check, can you?   Of course, not!

As Paula Coehlo said in The Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”    However, the keyword here is helping.  You must specifically ask for what you want, and then you must devise a strategy to get it.

Finally, you must keep the goal in the forefront of your mind.  In Think and Grow Rich, Hill said that you must read your written goal aloud twice a day, one in the morning when you wake up and once at night before you go to sleep.  The rationale for this, Hill explained, is that when you hear and see the goal, you should start to believe that it is attainable.    In other words, a lot of what we achieve is based on our mindset related to what we can achieve.  Believe you can, and it is likely that you will.   Believe that you can’t, and it is almost guaranteed that you won’t.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a strong financial goal.   This same strategy will work for any goal.

Please try writing some SMART, and comment in our Facebook group as to how it worked for you.  I would love to hear your successes, and help you work through your struggles.   

Stay tuned, our next post in this series will discuss tools to help keep you focused on your goals.   

In last week’s post, I discussed the importance of taking the time to write goals.

But do you know exactly how to go about writing goals?  If you are like most people, you are struggling to define meaningful, tangible goals for your life.  Luckily, I can share some easy-to-implement strategies and some tips and custom made resources to help you.

First, you need to determine what the most important life categories are in YOUR LIFE.  What makes you…want to get up every day?  Look toward the future with a smile?   Motivate you to do better?

In other words, WHAT MEANS THE MOST TO YOU?

I encourage you to go beyond simply thinking about what is important to you and writing down the categories that are important to you.  To help you start to think about this, I created a list of some of the more common areas of focus.   The list can be found here.

Feel free to print out the above link, and write all over your printout because the objective for the activity is meant to help you begin to reflect and prioritize.  Going through the act of writing down all the areas that are important to you, and referencing the list frequently, will help you to remember ALL of the important areas in you life instead of only focusing on the area that happens to be at the forefront of your attention at the moment.   (Let’s face it…Sometimes, we do temporarily forget some things that are truly important to us.)   This way, you will act in ways that will allow you to move closer to attaining what you want in these areas.

For instance, when I selected the most significant areas of focus in my own life I selected family, friends, career, finance, spirituality, self, and health/fitness.  They are all important to me, and I must remember to prioritize all of them, even when one category is trying to monopolize my time and energy.    In other words, when your are trying to get ahead in your career, you need not and SHOULD NOT, stop moving yourself forward spiritually or physically.   You need to find a balance!

Yet, although you need to find a balance, you do not have to balance everything equally.   You can prioritize what is most important without leaving other areas behind.    For example, in his book best selling book Living Forward, Michael Hyatt explains that, like your bank accounts, some of your life “accounts” may not have equal “balances.” Some accounts may have small balances and be a lower priority; you may only check in on their performance periodically.   On the other hand, others accounts are essential in your day-to-day life and have the “lion’s share” of your assets; they are a priority, you spend a lot of time focusing on them, and you check in on your progress in these areas frequently.

Personally, when establishing goals to help chart my course for the future, I do not place equal importance on the seven categories; some are undoubtedly more important than others.     For instance, while finance is important to me, it is not as important as my relationships with my family.   Similarly, my career does not carry the same level of importance as my health/fitness.

To help you visualize the values of your important life areas, I created a Google sheets spreadsheet with a built-in pie chart.   All you have to do is type in the category names and percentages, and you will get a visual representation of significance of each area.   (An example is shown below.)

When you complete your spreadsheet, I encourage you to print out your completed weights along with the pie chart, just as you did when brainstorming the categories themselves.   Then, be sure to look at your printout at least once EVERY DAY this week, and see if your actions actually align with the categories.  For example, if you selected family as your most important category, are the actions that you take each day aligned with keeping your family as top priority?   (If not, this is a key indicator that you need to take conscious action to align your priorities with your goals and subsequent actions. After all, if your actions don’t reflect your most important categories, you are living out of alignment.)

The best way to live a life where your actions reflect your pie chart is to create specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely (SMART) goals that relate to each of your categories.  In the next post in this series of goals, I will discuss techniques to write SMART goals and provide you with resources to help you write your goals in this format.

Memorial Day, and the unofficial start of summer in New England is this coming weekend!  To start off a this new season, I will be writing a series of posts on writing goals.   The series starts with the post, on the importance and rationale of goal writing.   Later, I will give specific tips and methods to help you achieve your goals.  (Of course, some of these tips will use technology aimed at helping you improve your life.)

Personally, I whole heartedly believe that writing goals can help you to set your course and create the life that you want.

Without goals, life is like a boat without a chartered course.  That is, while boats without a chartered course do move, they don’t necessarily have a specific destination and are much more likely to go adrift.   Without well-defined goals, you are like an unchartered boat; you will move, but you could look back and find that you traveled in a circle, back at the same place that you started.

I don’t know about you, but I WANT A SAY IN MY DESTINATION.
My first experience with formal goal writing occurred when I took a class with women’s business coach, Ali Brown.   She strongly encouraged us to write goals for different aspects of our life, and place them in a prominent place in our wallet.  These goals were written on nice paper, in our best penmanship, with our favorite pen.    We were also encouraged to purchase a brand new wallet, and make sure that it was organized.

I wasn’t sure why this exercise was necessary.  I knew what I wanted, and I generally try to achieve what I want in life.  Overall, I have always been a structured, goal oriented person.   So why did I have to specifically tell the universe what I wanted?

Well, not so long after I asked the question regarding the importance of be specific regarding what you want, I got my answer….although my answer had nothing to do with the goals that I had written.

Unrelated to anything to do with goals, I asked people at my fitness studio (Auburn Yoga & Pilates) if any of them had a MagicBullet, a fancy blender.   I basically wanted to know if it was worth buying one, or if it did the same thing as my regular blender.   The AYPC members convinced me that the MagicBullet was a great investment, and that I should buy one.    Convinced, I told the AYPC members that I would be buying the new blender on their suggestion.

Then, the very next day, out of the blue, my mother called me to ask “if I had any interest in a magic bullet”…My sister-in-law had upgraded her MagicBullet to a NutriBullet and had one to give away.

The universe works in mysterious ways!

I had never spoken to my mother, or any member of my family, about wanting a MagicBullet.  But, I told the universe, with certainty, that I wanted this new gadget…and the universe helped to get it.

Of course, it could have been a coincidence, but it is a strange coincidence.    It made me think, and it made me realize that this had happened to me before.   In the past, I have said, “I think that I think that I might like to…” and had the opportunity afforded to me at some point in the future.

Does this mean that you can have unrealistic expectations and expect them to come true?   Of course not!   I will never play professional basketball, even if I write it on pretty paper and place it in a prominent place!    Your goals have to be realistic and attainable.

This doesn’t mean that your goals are unrealistic if they are “a little bit of a stretch.”   I personally believe that they should be a little bit of a stretch.    We need to stretch ourselves.  We need to believe in our divine potential.   We need to know that it is possible to attain many of our goals with persistent, consistent effort.

Edwin Locke did seminal work on goal setting.  His research found that hard goals produce higher performance (Locke, 1968).   He also found that specific, hard goals produce a higher level of output than a generic goal of “do your best” (Locke, 1968).

In other words, YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS WHEN YOUR GOALS ARE WELL DEFINED.

I took the Ali Brown class back in 2014.   I wrote one professional goal, on relationship goal, and one financial.

I wrote that I would achieve the goals that I wrote before the spring of 2015.

I didn’t reach the three goals by the spring of 2015.

But, I am happy to report that I DID MEET ALL THREE GOALS by the beginning of 2016.

You need to say what you want, to get what you want.   You need to be reminded of your goals on a daily (or almost daily) basis so that you will be reminded to direct your actions in ways that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.

If you are interested in writing your own goals, like my Facebook page to be notified of the next post, “How to Write a Goal”

Let’s face it; life can be stressful.

We all ways to deal with stress, but some ways are most definitely more effective than others.    Some methods, like alcohol or drugs, are just a temporary escape and not a long-term solution.   Other methods, like pushing the stress to the side, are often ineffective because they are only temporary fix.

Mindfulness, and meditation, have been shown to have many benefits.   It can help physically and mentally, with anxiety, depression, and maybe even weight loss!

Experts, such as Deepak Chopra, Jon Kabot-Zinn (featured on 60 Minutes), and Louise Hay are just a few renowned experts who specialize in meditations.

Simply put, meditation helps you be MORE AWARE….MORE PRESENT.

Like anything else, being mindful, being able to meditate takes TIME and PRACTICE.

You can follow a meditation guru, like one of those mentioned above.   Or, if you want some FREE guided meditations that you can take with you, try the Insight Timer (iTunes) app.

The Insight Timer (iTunes) is the most popular free meditation timer online.   But it includes more than the meditation timer; it also includes well over 1000 FREE guided meditations.   It also includes some discussion groups, if you are into that sort of thing.

Visit JenniferFleury.com for more ways to simplify your life with technology.

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In addition to technology, I am very passionate about fitness.   Thanks to the encouragement from my high school physical education teacher, I have been a fitness instructor since I was 19 years old!   Since 2004, I have owner and operated Auburn Yoga & Pilates Center in Auburn, MA.  Today, we offer various yoga, pilates, spinning, barre, and TRX classes.

More than twenty years in the fitness industry have taught me many things.   One lesson is that participants need to find something that they enjoy if they are going to make it a life-long habit.   For instance, I LOVE yoga.   I teach several classes a week.  But, I still try to go take a class with my favorite yoga instructor whenever I can.

You may try yoga and discover that you share the same passion that I do.   Or, you may try yoga and decide that it doesn’t “ignite your fire.”   (SIDE NOTE:  Please don’t judge yoga on one class.  There are MANY different styles of yoga, and many different styles of instructors.     For instance, I do a vinyasa yoga but I dislike Bikram yoga.   We are all different; find the activity that “ignites your fire,” whether it is yoga, rock climbing, swimming, biking, dancing, etc.)

Sometimes, you drive by a fitness facility everyday and find excuses not to try it out.  (Please consider trying it out immediately after reading this post if it is something that you have been wanting to try.)    Other times, you aren’t sure where a studio is located.   Maybe you are new to the area, or maybe you are traveling?   Sometimes, there is a great place in close proximity to you, and you don’t even know that it is there, or that it is offering something that you would like to try.

Enter the MindBody Connect app…The MindBody Connect App allows you to find a class (or other somewhat related service including massage, hair styling, facials, etc.).   The MindBody Connect App allows you to search for the service of your choice by facility name, location, or service.   For instance, when I searched for Auburn Yoga & Pilates Center, my studio information showed up.   I was able to view my current schedule and, if I had wanted, I could have bought a drop-in class or membership package and registered for the class that I wanted through the app.

Android app
iOS app

Screenshots from the app