We all know the power of vision boards. Many of us have experienced incredible results from our own treasure mapping. But what happens when your vision boards become stale and stop working? Why do some visions manifest but not others? How long has that million dollar check to yourself been up there?
When your vision board turns into a frustrating display of unmanifested dreams, reminding you of what’s missing in your life, it’s time to reignite your visions.
Here are 7 simple tweaks to fire up the vision board flame:
1. Take a look at the images on your board and make sure they express YOUR visions.
Often our minds don’t know (or don’t trust) what our hearts want, so it listens to what everyone else says instead. We may think we want a 10,000 square foot mansion in Malibu because it’s a symbol of success in our society, but maybe what lights you up is a small, sustainable and intimate cob home in the woods. If an image of a mansion skyrockets you into bliss, put it on your board. If it doesn’t, find another image that speaks to you, whether it’s societally esteemed or not. With each image, ask yourself, “Do I really want this?” If the answer is a “Hell YES!” then leave it on. Anything short of a “Hell YES!” gets taken off.
2. Put yourself in it.
Can you really see yourself living in that mansion? Then put a picture of yourself next to it. If you’re good with Photoshop or other photo editing software, actually edit yourself into the photo inside the mansion. If you’re not technically inclined, cut out a photo of yourself and glue it on the mansion photo. It sounds silly and may even look silly, but your subconscious mind reacts powerfully to images, and while your conscious mind may know the difference between an awkwardly glued, disproportionate cut-out and reality, your subconscious mind just sees you inside the mansion and gets to work on making that happen. Your vision board is about you and your desires, you should be prominently featured. You’re the star of your own life, treat yourself as such.
3. Put the present in it.
Add photos of what you currently appreciate in your life. By mixing in images of what we currently have with images of what we currently don’t have, we confuse the rational mind and it stops holding the visions “out there” in some distant unknown future, leaving us in an endless state of longing. Instead, it blends the present and future together in one cohesive integrated picture, helping to bridge the gap between now and later, have and don’t have, dreams and reality.
4. Remove stale images that no longer stir your heart.
If it’s been an unfulfilled desire for years and you feel a sad yearning, impatience or frustration every time you look at it, remove it. You’re not giving up on that particular dream, you’re simply letting go of a trigger that isn’t useful in order to make room for one that is. The space on your vision board is valuable real estate. It’s sacred. Use it wisely and to your full benefit. Each and every image on your board is meant to spark a fire within you and serves as a trigger to awaken your deepest desires in a joyful way, not in a I-want-this-so-bad-why-hasn’t-it-happened-yet kind of way. The golden rule: if it pulls you down, take it down.
5. Take action.
It’s motivating to look at your vision board and dream daily, but if you don’t use that motivation to take action toward any of those dreams, they often remain just that, dreams. Allow the vision of your dreams to spring you into inspired action toward them. Let your visions compel your actions. Without action, dreams become nothing more than wishful thinking. You have to put your entire body into it, invest some actual hands-on time to do the work. If your actions are motivated by the good feelings that arise from looking at your vision board, you’ll find that it’s not work at all.
6. Make your vision board accessible at all times.
Take a photo of it with your phone so you can always see it. Save it in the cloud so you can access it from any web-ready device anytime. Look at it any spare moment you have and spend a few minutes actually feeling the presence of your manifested visions in your life now. Visual imagery is incredibly powerful. When combined with positive emotions and repeated often throughout the day, every day, it’s an unstoppable, undeniable force.
7. Let go of your attachment to the outcome and let your inner state be your reward.
Use your vision board first and foremost to propel you into the FEELING of having what you want and let the external outcome go. The surest way of losing something is to hold on to it so tightly, it suffocates. Of course, the whole point of creating a vision board is to turn your visions into physical reality, but when you let your feelings be your gage of progress rather than whether it’s showing up in your life or how or when or where, you remove doubt and disbelief… and it’s sure to come quicker. Then the journey toward it becomes joyful, light and carefree.
