Do you have dreams or goals that feel out of reach or too hard to accomplish?  Have you yearned for something but weren’t sure how to create it? Are you one of the 44% of people who make new years resolutions year after year without seeing any results? 

I have been there. Almost 10 years ago I was beginning my career right out of college, feeling like I wasn’t where I wanted to be.  This wasn’t matching up to the vision I formed for what I wanted my life to look like. I felt lost and started re-examining my job, my beliefs, my relationships…pretty much everything in my life. It wasn’t right, but I wasn’t sure how to get the life that I wanted.

I recognized this vision for life, but I wasn’t living it. A key in my journey came with the discover of an ancient mystery school tradition set me on a course of healing, understanding myself, and tools for manifestation. It started with the Empower Thyself Class, where energies were set in motion for greater understanding of who I am, what I want, and greater understanding of the manifestation and co-creation process to make lasting, positive changes in my life.

Even though I didn’t believe there was an artistic bone in my body, and wanted nothing to do with ‘crafting’, I forced myself to sit down with some different colored paper, glue, scissors, and magazines to start the creation process. I sat with my eyes closed and asked myself “what do I want my life to look like?” and allowed myself to dream. As these dreams came forward I journaled and wrote a bulleted list. I soon realized, I needed to provide focus to be sure I had clarity in my visions and goals…so I narrowed down the list and started to create.

While I didn’t really know what I was doing, I knew that this visual representation of my goals and dreams would help me get clear and anchor in what it was that I wanted my life to look like. If I believed, prayed, manifested, and took action towards these goals, I knew they would come to life.

Big Success

That first vision board was a BIG SUCCESS. Within a month, I saw shifts taking place. Within 6 months several of my goals were in motion, and within a year, I had achieved all three of the goals on my board. It was then and there that I decided to create one every year. So, instead of hollow new year’s resolutions, I prepare for each new year by meditating, visualizing, and creating a manifestation list to build a vision board off of. Through this process I have taken control of my life, and feel empowered to dream and actually create the life of my dreams.

Does that mean that everything is perfect all the time? No. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes the things I create I realize aren’t 100% what I wanted. That doesn’t stop me, it just means I need to take a deeper look at my goals, refine them, and keep moving forward. For me, this process has provided me with a sense of hope and empowerment that reminds me that I am in control. I am not stuck in a situation with no control and life is no longer just happening to me.

Creating with Intention

This intentional process has also helped me to tap deeper into my purpose. I not only approach this process with the mindset of ‘what do I want?’ (even though I don’t believe wants are a bad thing). I try to approach the process tapping into divine guidance through meditation and prayer so that I can create in alignment with the will of God. The more I do this, the better I have found the results to be in my life.

After I got married, my husband and I decided to do this activity together. We now create our own individual boards and a family board so that our individual and family goals are represented. We try to ensure personal goals, relationship goals, and family goals are always in focus to continue to grow together and intentionally live our dreams. We have done this activity together for 5 years and it has been amazing seeing the results.

More than a Vision Board

While the practice of Vision Boarding has been essential to help me focus on my goals for the year, the manifestation of my goals came from more than just the creation of a vision board. During this time, I have also worked hard on my personal development, healing, and growth. I took classes to help me increase my capacity to manifest, like Universal Kabbalah, which is an ancient system of study that provided me with the ability to know myself more fully, work through subconscious patterns that were holding me back, and light up my passions which helps to inspire me to create more positivity in my life.

I received healings, such as the Life Activation and the Full Spirit Activation, that helped to provide me with more light, clarity, and energy which amplified my purpose and gave me more drive to create and achieve my goals. I saw so many shifts and changes with these healings for myself that I learned how to provide them to others.

All of these things that I did provided me with the focus and tools to support me in having confidence to move forward and not just chase dreams but create my dreams. While creating vision boards every year has helped me immensely to provide me with focus and clarity on what I am working towards, the classes, healings, and tools I have received have provided me with the energy or ‘juice’ to continue to move forward and take action toward my goals with resilience and belief in myself.

Overall Results

Over the last 10 years, ~90% of what I have put on my vision board has come to life. The ~10% that hasn’t, was usually because I needed more than one year to create it (big goals sometimes take more time), or because I realized it really wasn’t what I wanted, or wasn’t truly in alignment with who I am. Seeing and reflecting on these results has been really helpful and reaffirming. It has allowed me to see that I am creating the best life that I can imagine, and that my limits or lack of success truly only come from me.

Instead of letting these things stop you, it sometimes takes the help of others to get started. If you are looking to make changes in your life or live the life you’ve been dreaming of, I highly encourage you to seek out a class or a coach that can help you. Because vision boards have been so helpful for me in the manifestation process, I have taught classes and hosted vision board parties to help those interested in learning an effective process for creating a board and manifesting their goals. The most important thing to remember when getting started is just to START! Don’t worry about doing it perfectly, and if you’re feeling stuck, reach out to someone for guidance or help. While creating a vision board may not be the magic wand you are looking for, below are some tips for how to create one as part of the larger manifestation process for creating your dreams.

Tips for Creating a Vision Board & Manifesting Your Dreams:

1. Allow yourself to DREAM! Think of the life that you want to live, what does it look like? What does it entail? See yourself in all facets of your life (relationship, family, health, education, service, home, job, etc.) and determine what you want each to look like. 
2. Journal / write down in detail what it is that you want. Be as clear and detailed as possible. This process allows you to not only bring clarity, but also bring your vision to life through words. If you are feeling stuck with this process, just start writing! You can always go back and adjust later.
   
3. Purchase supplies. To create a basic vision board, you will need a few basic supplies – poster board, markers, glue or tape, scissors, and magazines. However, get creative! I now use a large fabric covered bulletin board as I can reuse it every year and put my magazine clippings and goals on paper that I pin to it.
   
4. Set your space. Set the mood or energy of your space by making it ready. Maybe you want to sage the space and your materials first. Maybe you want to light a candle or incense. Maybe you want to diffuse essential oils (or wear them to stimulate thought). Maybe you want to use Sacred Geometry to enhance the room and its manifestation properties. Whatever you are called to do, is perfect. By intentionally setting up your space, you are creating an environment for more creativity and success.
5. Create your board. This process can take more time than you think, so make sure you set aside enough time to complete it. I give students ~2 hours in the classes I teach and many are not finished when the class is over and need to complete at home. My boards take ~6-8 hours on average each year as I like to spend extra time going through the process.
6. Continue to visualize your dreams, believe, and ask God/the Universe (whatever your belief system) to help you create them. Without this step, your vision board is just a pretty picture. By focusing your energy  (whether that be through visualization, meditation, prayer, or any other method), you are connecting to the energy of that idea/thought to attract it into your life. This may help you meet the right person to help you meet your goals, or find enough financial abundance to make them happen. This step is about putting your belief in them to allow them to come to life.
7. Create action plans to help you meet your goals. While the law of attraction will help bring the things you focus on into fruition, it is still important to create an action plan with timelines and goals so that you can be active in the process. For example, if you have a dream or goal to run a marathon, but never sign up for a race, purchase running shoes and train, you likely won’t meet that goal. My vision boards often have written or typed out action plans with date deadlines so I not only see the visual focus, but am reminded to take action in order to bring them to life.
8. Practice gratitude. This step is also important as it is humbling and allows us to realize that we are not creating our dreams alone. God/the Universe (again, aligned to whatever your belief system) and usually other people are actively helping us in the process. By practicing gratitude, we realize we are not in it alone and that we are stronger than we know. We can tap into the strength of gratitude to find our resilience to push past the obstacles we may face to create the life of our dreams.
   
9. Create Again! You may create everything on your vision board in a couple months, or have some goals that take longer. You may find some of the things you put on it no longer align with what you want. Whatever the situation, learn from your past experiences, refine where necessary, continue moving forward, and most importantly create again!

Getting Past Intimidation

If you are feeling intimidated by this task, like it’s too big, or like you want to make one but think it needs to be perfect, you are not alone. My first board was extremely uncomfortable to make. I am not artistic. I am not a crafter. I haven’t used Elmer’s Glue since grade school. What I told myself is to let go and JUST DO IT. Sometimes you just need to do it and get started. You can always adjust later, but by waiting and not doing it, you aren’t getting any closer to your goals.

Believe in yourself to fail forward

The most important part of this process, besides just doing it, is to believe in yourself and remind yourself that you are worthy of your dreams. This can be really challenging at times, especially if you have big goals or things that you have no idea how to make happen. Don’t let that stop you! Maybe you have a big multi-year item that seems impossible, put it down anyway. If it feels right or true, you owe it to yourself to go after it.

This ability to believe in yourself even when you fail or hit major bumps in the road, is part of building your resilience. Resilience is essential in the creation process, because we don’t always get it right or perfect the first time. Don’t get me wrong, I still struggle with failure and have been afraid of it most of my life. That fear of failure has stopped me for a long time from trying things I really wanted to try. While I am not completely over this fear, I have decided I’m not going to let it lead in my life. I have started doing things that scare me on a regular basis, and what I have found is that if I am confronting and facing my fears, I am usually onto something big and doing something right.

I have also learned that this process allows me to ‘fail forward’, which is necessary to reach my goals. If I continue to look at failure as a stopping point or think ‘it just wasn’t meant to be’, then I will continue to never strive for more. By believing in ourselves, and learning from each failure, we are simply giving ourselves more training, data, and resilience to be successful in the future.