Self Employed Success

About 20 years ago, I set out to make a Vision Board for myself about my perfect business and my perfect life. At the time I was working a corporate 9-5 job, plus running a photography studio in the evenings, and photographing weddings every weekend. My corporate job was safe but a little boring, and working most evenings and weekends left me no time for dating. I had been living in a two-bedroom apartment since college, but longed to have my own home and garden.

I pulled out a stack of magazines and began cutting out images and words that inspired me. Soon I made a Vision Board of my perfect small business, my perfect new home, and wrote a list of What I Want In A Husband, which I added to the Vision Board.

Fast forward six years later: I had bought my own home and created eleven garden beds, which brought me tranquility and a deeper connection to nature and beauty. I had met and married Aly (he laughed when I showed him my Perfect Husband list!). I had started my life coaching business that would eventually morph into a small business coaching enterprise.

Last year I created a new Vision Board for myself (see photos below). Already some of the things on it have come to pass.

What’s a Vision Board?

A Vision Board is a collage of things you want in life, experiences you desire, and people, situations, and feelings you want to manifest. Sometimes it’s called a treasure map.

Making a Vision Board has several purposes:

• Helps keep your goals constantly in sight and in your mind
• Surrounds you with the energy of what you desire most
• Helps you gain clarity about what are your most important goals and dreams
• Keeps your emotional energy high and your focus strong

The way to achieve your goals in life is to have a clear picture of what you actually want. Brian Tracey says, ” An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.”

The Law of Attraction says that the more you focus on the things you want, the more time you spend paying attention to your purpose, the more you draw your desired items and experiences into your life. So surrounding yourself with visual representations of what you desire helps to elevate your energy in the direction of those things.

What You’ll Need

1. Poster Board – I use 20″ x 30″ poster board, because you can find inexpensive frames of that size in any discount department store. A frame will keep the board flat and dust-free, and will allow you to hang it on your wall.
2. Old magazines – You’ve been wanting to clean up your old magazine pile, so here’s a good excuse! Also, check with friends to see if they have any old magazines, or ask your local library if they ever trash magazines. Choose magazines that have always appealed to you in the past, as they’re a treasure trove of images and words for your Vision Board.
3. Glue – Don’t use glue sticks as the glue isn’t stable (unless you’re going to frame the Vision Board between a plastic cover and a cardboard backer, which should keep all the items secure). Personally, I use paper cement. There are also double-sided sticky tabs you can buy at most photography stores. These tabs are commonly used for putting together wedding albums, but work great for a Vision Board, too.

Getting Started

While it helps to review your goals and dreams in advance, I find that just diving into the magazines and cutting out any words or images that appeals to me to be the best way to collect ideas.

Don’t judge or critique what you’re cutting out yet. Just cut out any image or word that attracts you, as these are subconscious messages from your brain, heart and soul.

Sort them into piles of themes:

• Feelings you’d like to experience
• People you’d like to attract into your life
• Travel and places to see
• Money goals
• Lifestyle goals, like health, relationships, etc.
• Professional goals, like enhancing your business, becoming famous, or writing a book

Prioritize what must go on your Vision Board. Soften your focus and allow your thoughts, feelings and intuition to guide you to the most important images and words.

Layout without gluing. This helps you to group the items in a pleasing manner and eliminate those items that don’t work for you. Don’t forget that you can write your own words and draw your own sketches for the Vision Board, too.

Glue and frame.

Put it where you’ll see it. Take a moment each day to focus on a portion of the Vision Board that calls to you.

Do you remember in The Secret, John Assaraf talks about creating a vision board that included his perfect home?  Six years, and several moves later, he was unpacking an old box and came across his old vision boards – and discovered an amazing thing: the photo of his dream house on one old vision board is the EXACT house he lives in today! (Not a house “like” the house he wanted…the exact same house he was currently living in.) John tells the story in this moving video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svkV9xoaVuI

When you create your Vision Board, take photos of it, and post it on your blog or Facebook, so we can all share in the manifesting of your dreams! (Post the link on my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/PassionForBusiness or use the Comments link below to post your link to this blog.) I can’t wait to see what you create!

Related posts:

1. Open Your Mouth and Build Your Business Next Week
2. Clean Your Desk Before It Rebels – Accountability Day
3. My New Definition of Success – Alice from The Brady Bunch