I Made A Vision Board

In this clip above, entertainer Steve Harvey is interviewed by Oprah on the subject of vision boards, goals, and success.

In the three months since my hospitalization, I've started working on getting my life going again.  I'm on new medicine that allows me to actually function again.  But I'm starting over at a really low point.  I'm unemployed.  I'm severely overweight.  My resume' at this point only includes taxi driving, which pretty much excludes me from any "normal" job.  My teeth are in really bad shape after years of being homeless and not having dental insurance.

I've read dozens of self-help books and listened to hundreds of books on tape over the years.  I had to sit down and ask myself, "What do I know from all I've learned?"  The answer was that I needed to start dreaming big dreams again, and I needed to set goals for myself to focus on.  When I started looking online for You Tube talks about goals, I saw some clips about Vision Boards.  The idea is simple.  You dream about where you want to go in life and what, specifically, you want to accomplish.  Then you take a piece of poster board and some magazines and go through and find photos and words and sayings that describe what your goals look like.  Then you tape or glue all these things onto the poster board and hang your vision board where you will see it every day.  Then you look at it, and visualize your goals.  Then you focus your efforts and start working towards your goals.  When you fail at something, like Steve and Oprah say in the clip above, you learn the lesson in that failure and you get back up, dust yourself off, and start working towards your goals again.

I couldn't even afford a piece of poster board to get started, and I couldn't afford magazines.  So I took a couple large pieces of sketch paper, and I pulled black and white photos off the internet to describe my goals.  Nothing is really exciting.  I have a financial goal that seems impossible right now.  I have a health goal that seems hard, but possible.  I have a few other material goals, and one goal to help others.

Nothing exceptional has happened yet.  But since I put my vision board on the wall next to my computer, I'm constantly reminded of them.  I've realized I need to extend those goals farther in the future and find a grand dream that's really worth working towards.  So I've been thinking about that.

If you're interested in making your own vision board, there are several clips on You Tube that describe how to make a vision board.  There are also clips from people who have used vision boards and have achieved some of their goals.  If you don't already have a sense of direction in life, I recommend making a vision board to get started.