As you are transforming your years after 50 into a joyful and fulfilling time, you need tools to help you focus on your goals and dreams. Too often we think of goal setting and creating big changes in your life as requiring lists and deadlines – the kind of things we might want to leave behind as we transition from full-time structured jobs and careers to other configurations.
We look at that list of dates and to-dos and we’re instantly overwhelmed with the enormity of it all, so we file it away for “later.” And often “later” will be never. So looking for other tools is a great idea. We have dreams of how our retirement years can be, and that’s what vision boards are all about: dreaming. In fact they are sometimes called dream boards.
Rather than a bland calendar or spreadsheet with dates and impressive sounding goals on them, vision boards give you the creativity to let your dreams grow. It is a visual tool that helps you feel the achievement of your goals and dreams. That’s the real power of a vision board.
What Exactly is a Vision Board?
It’s a collection of images, quotes and symbols that have meaning to you and which represent your life as you would like it to be. Vision boards come in many different formats, both digital and physical. We’ll talk more about that later, but for now, let’s take a look at the components of vision boards.
Images. By far the most common item on vision boards are images: photos, drawings, mind maps, sketches or anything else that has some meaning for you. For example, if world travel is one of your goals, you might include photos of historic landmarks you want to visit, or airplanes or ships (imagine the feeling of freedom associated with those).
Motivational messages. Your vision board might include messages you see posted on social media, phrases you read and jot down in your journal, or even testimonials from your clients or nice things others have said about you. Anything that’s motivational to YOU.
Inspiring quotes. Inspiration is different for everyone, and the sources are endless. You probably already have favorite quotes; expand those by doing Google searches by topic or by person.
Everything else. What else inspires or motivates you? The blue ribbon your grandmother’s quilt won at the state fair? A small vial of sand from that secluded beach you’ll retire to someday? Vision boards can include these treasures as well. You just might have to be a little creative when it comes to adding them.
Transforming your 3rd Act calls for new tools like Vision Boards. See additional posts for more specifics on how to create and use them.
