Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Vision Board - My Column from Sunday's Paper

A few years ago, Jilda convinced me to start keeping vision board. A vision board is a special kind of collage. The collage is made up of words and pictures, the stuff of your dreams. 
There are pictures of your dream house, your dream job, your dream body, your dream vacation, and other things that captures the essence of what you want out of life. For example, my vision board has pictures of famous writers, guitars, trout streams, recording studios, and a Porsche 911. 
It also has a picture of a beautiful cottage with a barn. The cottage has a metal roof with big windows and a beautiful garden. In the beginning, I put together my vision board to pacify Jilda. She was really into it and I didn't want to poo poo her idea, so I did it half heartedly not expecting much. 
Then something interesting happened. The things I'd put on my vision board, began to materialize. I began to fly fish, and actually started catching fish. One of the things I had on my vision board was to retire at 59. I'm not sure why I selected 59, but that's what I had on my board. As you may recall last year I retired – I was 59. 
I've listened to self-help books for more than 25 years and many of them talk about focusing on your goals and visualizing the outcomes.
They went on to say that with determination and persistence, you would attain practically any goal you chose. A vision board fits right in with the philosophy of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich," which was written in 1937 and was a seminal work in the self-help field. 

Millions of people have read the book and a lot of successful folk say the book "turned a light on" for them.
For me, the magic of a vision board is that it helps you to clarify what you really want. When I played little league baseball, I was a hind catcher. I used to chatter up the batter, as I called it.
The idea was to get the batter rattled so they'd lose concentration and miss the ball being pitched. One of the things I'd say to the pitcher was, "he can't hit what he can't see." 

The same holds for you and your dreams. You can never reach a dream you can't see. Without a vision of what you truly want, you'll be like a ship without a rudder. You may drift close, but you won't recognize it until you've sailed passed. 
I've been updating my vision board because several things I had on there have actually materialized. Our cottage has been remodeled, with a metal roof, new siding, a new paint job, new windows, and a nice garden out back. 
I shot pictures when we finished remodeling, and the house resembles the cottage on my vision board. I've also gone trout fishing in three states now. 
Jilda and I have also played more singer/songwriter gigs this year than ever before. There are still things on my vision board that have not materialized, but the race is long. 
I fully expect to have all the things I really want in my life, in due time.

4 comments:

  1. What an interesting idea. I like the idea of using something like this to actually pinpoint exactly what it is that I do want, rather than just some vague unspecified idea; e.g. a type of house, rather than just 'I want to move'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've heard of a vision board but haven't really thought about doing one. Interesting idea.
    Love Di ♥

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay for vision boards!! And yay that you and Jilda are realising your dreams!!

    Take care
    x

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  4. Anonymous9:41 AM

    Like the vision board idea...well done!

    ReplyDelete

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