Last year I was in the Sandler Sales Mastery programme and as part of that programme I spent a morning making myself a vision board surrounded by people who had been doing this for years and swore on the seemingly mystical powers of these boards to make your ‘dreams’ come true. Some did, some didn’t.
I won a WOBA
My number ‘3’ staff member found me
I went back to Summer camp
I visited all the places on my board, except for Barcelona and Glasgow
I feel like have defeated anxiety and fatigue – linked to spending more time on the sofa – and time management
I am not sure I meditate but I have mindful/mindless moments that I am sure count
I am more proactive in dealing with what needs dealing with – eating the frog when I need to
I certainly am more included to celebrate my successes even small ones, privately in my brain.
It’s now out of date… Without sounding too self-congratulatory, I have achieved pretty much everything on that board.
I credit the process of creating this board to the majority of what I have achieved over the last year. Don’t get me wrong, there are other things I’ve done that aren’t on that board, so some credit goes to my drive and business acumen too.
Take a few hours to think
We’re spending the afternoon as a team, creating our own individual vision boards. We have time to think for ourselves on what we’d like to achieve next year and discuss it with each other. It doesn’t have to be work related, our lives are bigger than Push Start Marketing and all things influence how we choose what we want, and how we get there.
Be SMART
Cutting out a picture of a private jet and a villa in the Spanish mountains won’t help you get those things, anymore than buying a lottery ticket. Be real, make sure your visions are achievable, but at the same time, don’t make them too simple or the exercise is pointless!
Strive to achieve
The point of hanging our vision boards where we can see them is to help us focus on moving closer to them. Have you heard of ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ ben Hunt-Davies was on the gold winning Olympic rowing team in Sydney 2000. The team suffered set-backs in training until one day, they asked themselves, ‘will it make the boat go faster? If the answer was no, they didn’t do it.
If you are reminded of your goals every day, you can’t help but ask yourself, ‘will it get me there?’ Will procrastinating over this jumper fluff help me get my next 4 staff members? Will making another cup of tea I don’t really need help me meet this deadline? Strive…
Get stuck in!
We chose a date near Christmas to make our vision boards because it’s conveniently close to the end of the year and we’ll be having our annual Christmas brunch that day too, so we’ll all be feeling happy and positive. It doesn’t have to be a New Year Resolution though, choosing to strive for your next achievement can happen any time of year, as long as your goals are smart, you’ll get there.