A lot of people have visions of what they’d love to do if only they had enough money. They make a list of things they want to buy, then save up enough money to buy those items.
Then, after buying the stuff, they find out they’re broke again. So they go back to the drawing table and start thinking about how they can get more money.
And so on and so forth until they’ve accumulated an entire mountain of money. Then they spend it on something else.
Vision board are steeped in the laws of attraction, the secret, and the principles of creative visualization. These have all swung into and out of fadedness.
Oprah endorsing vision board bring a recent wave of popularity. The idea is that if u focus positively on what u want, so u will receive positive outcomes back again.
You need to devote some amount of regular, consistent attention to your vision board. Positive affirmational thoughts can help by affirming aloud that you will achieve your goals.
Positive affirmatives and visualization techniques are supported by a lot of research.
Many sports coaches and trainers use them. A recent study showed that the brain activity associated with lifting heavy weights is similar to the brain activity associated with imagining doing so.
However, it is not realistic to expect them to be a fail-proof solution. What if you had 10 athletes all training and visualizing winning that gold medal?
Factors apart from their own actions would have to enter into it, including others’ actions, chance on the day, maybe even the number of hours practiced.
The next problem is how much effort you put into visualization. How perfect do you imagine yourself being able to conjure up the right feelings?
Do you think you can train without any rest, and still get the same effects? Of course not. So why would anyone expect themselves to achieve great things if they’re not willing to work hard enough?
If all that is ever required is a quick visualization, then we give ourselves an excuse not to look at why things succeed or fail.
We don’t want to take any blame, so we just tell ourselves that it was the universe’s fault or that we were too shortsighted to see the problem. We won’t learn anything because we’re avoiding taking action.
You’re further advised that if you spend too much time thinking about what could go wrong, then you’ve already attracted any lack of successes yourself. There’s no room for improvement.
As far as I know, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t use a visual reminder system.
It’s important to note that I did use one when I was going though a major transition in my personal and professional lives. Using an affirmation journal helped me figure out what resonated with me and what didn’t.
If you say “I want to exercise more often” aloud, you quickly discover whether you really mean it or just thinking you should.
A visual reminder system (VRS) is your dream board on smart goal steroid pills.
Basically, you add in the details needed to reach your vision, which makes it more achievable and set specific deadlines for each step.
I used to lay out a detailed roadmap on one page so that everybody in the team could see it, with an overall big picture goal at the top and smaller goals beneath each department, so everyone could understand where they’re headed and why.
It was a useful tool. I don’t think I nor anyone else has ever spent any time in a visualization over it, or certainly never once the novelty had worn off.
It might have been helpful to have the goals up where everyone could see them but calling it a “visualization” with its benefits in visualization would be a bit of a stretch.
There are a hundred different ways to go about achieving any given goal. And if someone else is already doing it, then they’re probably not going to be interested in helping you achieve yours.
So, unless you’ve got something truly unique to offer them, why would they want to help you?
Dreams aren’t bad.
It’s not wrong to have an action plan for achieving your dreams. However, some people believe that if they keep dreaming about their goals without taking any concrete steps toward them, then they’re actually doing themselves harm by setting unrealistic expectations.
While these types of techniques might be popular, there has been a massive increase in the popularity of meditation and its offshoots.
They teach us that for good mental health we need to focus on the present and enjoy the experience rather than worry about the future or dwell on the past.
Most of us don’t achieve our goals when we set out to do so. If we’ve been struggling, striving, and stressing to get there, then that might be a recipe for a stressful and unhappy existence.
Perhaps you shouldn’t hold onto your old visions any longer; instead, enjoy the moment now.
