Dreaming up a vision board

It’s a new year, and we have new dreams. Lots of them. We’re all about dreaming these days, and in part, we need to thank Sheri Salata and Nancy Hala. We’ve even joined their DreamTribe on Facebook. We’ve become avid fans of these two powerful, inspiring women. We heard Sheri (former producer of the Oprah Show) speak at an Indianapolis women’s conference last fall. We also loved her book, "The Beautiful No.” Next, we started listening to The Sheri + Nancy Show podcast. We’re a little obsessed.

A big shout out goes to our friend Ruthie Hamburg Furman for connecting us to Sheri. This is how we started dreaming more. So when our friend Jen suggested we do vision boards this year, we were ALL in. We’re all about manifesting our dreams.

If you’ve done a vision boards, we’d love to hear your stories! If you’ve never done a vision board, it’s not too late. You can do this solo or do as we did and get together with friends and dream away! There really are no rules. We loved that we spent a couple of hours just talking about dreams. Nothing was off limits. We didn’t second guess whether a dream was realistic, or how much money it would cost. We just focused on our dreams. The great thing is, we spent a couple of hours thinking and talking about our dreams for ourselves. We also learned a lot. Like we don’t all dream the same way – who knew? That’s the beauty of it. It just doesn’t matter how you think, what you find beautiful and inspiring or whether you’re left brained or right brained. We loved our experience so much, we wanted to share some of our insights, so we put together a little Q&A.

When we decided to do a Vision Board, what were your first thoughts? 

Mindy: This is something Sheri and Nancy would say is a good idea, so we should do it. What are the rules? What do I need to bring? Will there be snacks?

Laura: This is going to be like when my sister and I used to cut out photos from the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, only we can drink wine. I’m in.

How did you prepare for our Vision Board afternoon?

Mindy: Were we supposed to prepare? 

Laura: I’m a dreamer. I made a list of the big dreams I had not only this year, but the next few years. Then, I found photos that represented some of those dreams from Pinterest, printed them out. I didn’t come fully prepared, though. For example, I hadn’t decided how my board would look, exactly.

How did you decide what images to include on your vision board?

Mindy: Before I could even think about images, I had to figure out how to arrange the vision board. I didn’t know whether I wanted each section to represent a specific part of my life, like one quadrant for my career, one for family, one for health.

Laura: I dove right in, looked through the piles of magazines we had, and tore out anything that looked like something that was on my list of top five dreams, like traveling to new places, getting healthier, making more money. If I loved the photo, I claimed it. I had my dream list on my phone so I could keep focused, because I can get distracted easily.

What did the boards look like when you were done?

Mindy: My board was filled with inspirational quotes or words that help motivate or inspire me, like “let it go,” “be well,” “sleep.” I do dream of great sleep. I cut out all these sayings from magazines. I didn’t intentionally not use actual photos, but for some reason, the words seemed more appropriate for me. They also represented goals, like unclutter my mind and home and grow our PJ business. We just used white poster board, so to add some pizazz, I colored the white background bright pink and green. And “coloring” is one of my favorite things to do to relax.

Laura: I used almost all photos, and I pasted them wherever they fit on the poster board. It may look chaotic to some (Mindy), but I don’t thrive in a black and white or neat and orderly world. I may wear black all the time, but I love color, really, I do.

What did you do with the boards after you finished them?

Mindy: I taped mine to my home PJ office wall, so I see it every day. It does help me focus.

Laura: I have mine on my desk. I knew in advance where I was going to place it, so I did my board small enough to fit in a specific place. Now, it’s front and center. It makes me happy. It makes me want to get to Greece or Prague or the Amalfi Coast sooner rather than later.

The big question is, will you do a vision board in 2021?

Mindy: Yes! It was great to take an afternoon to focus on what I want to achieve in 2020 and also focus on what I want personally and professionally without regard to what everyone around me might want. I loved that we challenged ourselves to dream more, and then were brave enough to put it out there for our friends to see. Sometimes you have a dream in your head, but you are afraid to say it out loud, because you aren’t sure what the reaction would be. This gave us the nudge to just put it out there, and let’s see what happens. When we were done, I felt re-energized and excited about the future.

Laura: Probably. If it helps manifest some of my dreams, I’m all in. Ask me in 11 months, if I visited Greece. Truthfully, I’m sure I would, because this exercise has really helped me not just focus on my to-list, but to dream about what I want in life.

Thanks, Jen for the invite. Now, who wants to share their experiences?