While taking steps every day to improve ourselves is not limited to the turn of a new year, we mentally connect January with seeking a fresh start, creating a new habit, and reimagining a better future.
This idea of becoming our better future selves has immense power when we act on it.
It may not be obvious, but when we imagine our best selves – and working towards this – we are practicing self-love.
How can we best channel the energy within this concept of our best selves and best futures? How do we stoke the fire of action to propel us to where we wish to be? Here are a few suggestions for you.
Four Ways to Fuel Progress to Our Best Selves
- Imagining our goals. We think of the ways we wish to improve ourselves, personally and professionally. We enhance this thinking through visualization, repeatedly picturing ourselves as we wish to be.
- Writing down our goals. We capture our goals in words. We even share them with a person we trust as a way to hold ourselves accountable. We describe in detail what we want to achieve, and we create a plan of action with steps and deadlines to get us there. We script.
- Speaking our goals. We say our goals to ourselves, or we speak them aloud. Similar to writing, speaking helps ingrain ideas in our brains for greater recall. Manifesting and reciting mantras are forms of speaking our goals.
- Using images to represent our goals. We depict our goals with compelling images that inspire us. Communicating ideas through images is an effective form of visualization. We can communicate with ourselves through images, as in a vision board.
Now let’s talk about how images and visualization can aid in realizing our goals. Let’s talk specifically about vision boards.
I find the process of making a vision board to be one of the most motivating, creative exercises. It’s even got an inspiring name!
You may wish to create a vision board with words, phrases, and pictures cut from magazines or, in our electronic world, create a vision board online. Either way, you make time to be energized by imagining what your year or your future could look like, and then you bring this to life through a creative display on poster board or in an online collage.
Images can tap into both reason and emotion. They help us learn and share concepts. Images aid us in identifying patterns and remembering information.
And in a vision board, these visual cues can remind us of the path we are on, guiding our priorities, our actions, and our decisions.
I have my vision board in my home office where I see it every single day. It sparks my creativity, my imagination, and my motivation.
I visualize myself achieving all that is on this board. I feel overcome with immense peace knowing that I am working towards this every day.
The vision board exercise is inspiring and worth the small investment of time. I highly recommend it!
As you kick off your new year, I suggest trying any of the four ways mentioned above to achieve your goals – reflecting on what you wish to achieve, writing down your goals, speaking and manifesting them, and visualizing them through imagery as in a vision board.
In Part 2 of my Vision Board post series, I offer a free Vision Board Worksheet to guide you in this exercise, as well as a step-by-step guide on how to create your own vision board or host a vision board party.
If you’d like to see vision board examples, click this link to view my Pinterest board.
Let’s get to work on turning our dreams and desires into reality this year, my sisters!
