Vision casting

The closer we get to December the more I've been thinking about themes and vision casting.  Melania-Joy invites me each year to a small gathering at her house where a few close friends create art boards of our vision of what our next year will be about.

They are a mix of aspiration, dreams and desires.  Some small and practical. Others grand and audacious.  It's fun to look back at the board of the previous year and see what has happened. For 2015, my theme was CREATE and while I thought it would be about the tangible creations in art and writing, it wound up being about lessons in creating my life. I wrote aspirationally about home repairs--which actually happened, but I also made a note to finish the fiction novel I've been playing with for the past 10 years which did not. (Though I did find a serious problem with my plot structure.)

One of the advantages of creating a vision board is that it helps us shape opportunities. For example, I wrote "family connection" which resulted in some things I made happen--like our new annual summer BBQ and others that happened spontaneously, like the time I've gotten to spend with my sister and being able to connect with cousins this year. 

While vision boards are aspirational, they are not goals. There is a difference in writing out what we want and setting goals for ourselves.

Goals are about execution. 

Vision is about desire. 

While goals work fine for the things we make happen, identifying our desires makes it easier to make decisions in the moment as things spontaneously happen.  If family connection is a priority, then when we get the opportunity to act on it we do. (As long as we are clear that is what we want.)

If money is part of our vision, then we know to act when freelance opportunities come available. (If our biggest priority is freeing up time, then we would make a different decision on those same freelance opportunities.) 

Making vision boards is really fun and how you do it is only limited by your imagination.  I highly recommend starting this tradition with a few of your own close friends.  All it takes is your canvas of choice (which can be as simple as poster board), some type of paint or markers and a table to work on. (Melania also throws in a couple of bottles of Prosecco and Cheryl-the-Kindhearted brings a diffuser and essential oils which add to the experience.) 

But even if you simply do this in your own journal, it is a worthwhile exercise. Take the time to decide what you want.  It can be life-changing in your trajectory.