Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored the importance of setting goals for 2014 and a method for defining who we want to become. As I mentioned in my last post, it is all too easy to set “to do” goals, measuring our success by what we accomplish instead of by who we actually are. The higher bar is to set “to be” goals, defining who we want to be.
To be clear: there is never a “silver bullet” for setting and achieving goals! That being said, I’d like to share another technique that works for me. I love this quote by former professional football player and coach Tony Dungy:
“The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it. VISION will ignite the fire of passion that fuels our commitment to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to achieve excellence. Only VISION allows us to transform dreams of greatness into the reality of achievement through human action. VISION has no boundaries and knows no limits. Our VISION is what we become in life.”
Vision is a crucial component of your success, and one means of making your vision tangible is creating a vision board.
What is a vision board, you ask?
A vision board is a simple but powerful visualization tool to get the Law of Attraction (more on this below) working for you. A vision board consists of a foam or poster board with pictures, drawings, graphs, and/or writing on it depicting the things you want in your life or the person you want to become.
A vision board helps transform your dreams into reality by focusing your mind on the goals you want to achieve using a collection of personal, business, and “feel good” images you can look at several times each day. When you regularly and consistently focus your attention on the things most important to you, those most important things will become your reality. That is how the Law of Attraction works: whatever you focus on, you attract into your business and personal life!
How exactly can we define the Law of Attraction?
After some research, I discovered the following: the Law of Attraction states that we attract into our lives anything that we give attention to, regardless of whether it is positive or negative.
Everyone has an information filtering system in his or her brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS). Vision boards help program the RAS to tune in to external stimuli that can help us move closer to what we want in life.
I’ve listed some great analogies/examples below to demonstrate how the RAS and the Law of Attraction work:
1) Think of your RAS like a radio. You are surrounded by radio waves from various stations, and your portable radio can pick up those channels…but it can only pick up one at a time. You must tune your radio to the specific frequency of your favorite radio station in order to hear it clearly.
2) Imagine that you are in a conference room talking with several people, and from the distant corner of the room, you hear your name called. All of your focus gets diverted in the direction from which you heard your name because that bit of information is tagged by your RAS as being important to you.
3) Your RAS is responsible for your ability to sleep through the noise of traffic outside your house but your sudden waking at the smallest cry from your infant child.
4) Another example of your RAS in action occurs when you buy a brand new car—and then you suddenly notice that many people around you have the exact same car.
All successful people have developed ways of staying focused on their goals. A vision board is just that—a tool to help you stay focused on your goals. A well-designed and effective vision board is:
- Visual. Your subconscious mind works in pictures, so your vision board needs to be highly visual, with lots of images. You can also include positive words and phrases.
- Emotional. Each image on your vision board should generate a positive emotional response. Your vision board should be uplifting and should increase your passion for achieving your desires.
- Strategically placed. Your vision board should be carefully placed somewhere you will often see it so its messages regularly reach your subconscious mind.
With 2014 well under way, let’s make every attempt to create an EPIC year in both our professional and personal lives. I wish you all the best in your quest for greatness and success! Here is my vision board for 2014:
