Dare To Dream

Crafting Your Vision Board  to Birth SMARTER Goals

Hi! I hope your week going great! Mine has been very busy and very productive.

I am so excited because we get to have some fun today! I hope you’ve taken the time this past week to really dig deep and reflect on everything you accomplished last year. Because here’s the thing... looking back at our successes and failures isn’t just about feeling good or beating ourselves up—it’s about learning from our experiences so that we can create a roadmap forward that actually works!

Last week, I promised we’d talk about goal-setting. And guys, I am so excited to share this with you! We’re going to take everything you learned from your After-Action Report and transform it into a powerful Vision Board and SMARTER goals that will guide you through this new year.

Why Vision Boards Matter

Before we dive into the mechanics of goal-setting, let’s talk about why a Vision Board is such a powerful tool for creative people like us.

As a writer and artist myself, I know how easy it is to get lost in the day-to-day grind. We have our day jobs, our families, and our creative work pulling us in all different directions. A Vision Board serves as your visual reminder of why you’re doing all of this work in the first place. It’s your North Star when you feel lost in the chaos. As Michael Hyatt says in his book Living Forward, “People lose their way when they loose their why.”

Think of it this way: your After-Action Report showed you where you’ve been. Your Vision Board shows you where you’re going. And your SMARTER goals? Those are the stepping stones that bridge the gap between the two!

Building Your Vision Board

A Vision Board isn’t just a pretty collage of magazine cutouts and stickers (though it can be that too!). It’s a tangible representation of your dreams and aspirations across all areas of your life. Here’s how to create one that actually works:

Step 1: Review Your After-Action Report

Pull out that report you completed last week. Look at what you accomplished and what fell short. What patterns do you see? What areas of your life need more attention this year? What successes do you want to build on?

For me, when I reviewed my report, I realized that while I’d accomplished a lot physically and spiritually, I’d neglected fun and financial profit in my creative work. That insight became crucial for my vision this year.

Step 2: Dream Big (But Stay Grounded)

Remember Resolution Myth #1 from last week? We can’t have, do, and be it all. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dream to have, do, and be better! This is where you get to think pie-in-the-sky big while keeping your feet firmly planted in reality.

Ask yourself:

• What would my ideal life look like as a Human Being (intellectually, emotionally, physically, spiritually)?
• What would it look like as a Human Relating (with my spouse, children, family, friends, community)?
• What would it look like as a Human Doing (in my day job, creative work, finances, home environment)?

Don’t censor yourself here. Write it all down. You’ll refine it in the next step.

Step 3: Pray Big (But Stay Humble)

Now that you’ve asked yourself what your ideal life looks like in each key area, I want you do pray and ask God what His vision for you in each key area is. Okay, I can hear you say right now, “Hey, wait just a minute! Pray? This isn’t what all of the guidebooks and all of the gurus tell me to do! Why are you asking me to pray what God’s vision for me is?”

Trust me. There’s a very specific reason I’m asking you to do this. You see, our imagination is way more limited than our Creator’s and God crafted each of us very specially for a very specific purpose that only He fully knows and understands. When you and I pray, yielding to Him and asking Him what His vision for each of us is, it allows us to glimpse His bigger vision for us and see our blind spots before they cause us to fall short of our success. Seeing whether where our vision aligns with God’s and where it lacks also help us navigate our purpose and balance our life far better than if each of us do our dreaming alone. God is a good god. He longs to give us the desires of our hearts as long as those desires are healthy for us and others.

If you aren’t sure how to pray, start by finding a quiet place to sit without distraction. Take a pin, a journal, and a Bible with you, so you can read and write down anything that comes to mind. Then pray something like what Jesus advised in Matthew 6. Here is my personal version of it. I call it the FOCUSED prayer. Use it if you wish! :-)

Step 4: Gather Your Visual Elements

Now comes the fun part! Gather images, quotes, colors, textures—anything that represents your and God’s dreams for you. You can:

• Cut images from magazines
• Use stickers
• Print photos from the internet
• Use your own photography
• Include meaningful quotes or Bible verses
• Add fabric swatches, paint chips, or other textures
• Draw or paint your own images

The key is that each element should evoke an emotional response in you. When you look at it, you should feel something—excitement, peace, determination, joy.

Step 5: Organize by Life Categories

Using the same categories from your After-Action Report, organize your vision elements:

• As a Human Being: Intellectual/Emotional, Physical, Spiritual
• As a Human Relating: Spouse/Partner, Children, Family & Friends, Community
• As a Human Doing: Day Job, Creative Work, Finances, Home Environment/Play

You don’t need equal representation in each category—remember, we can’t do it all! But you should have something in each major area to maintain balance.

Step 6: Craft Your Board

Get a poster board, corkboard, canvas, or even a large piece of cardboard. Arrange your elements in a way that feels right to you. There’s no wrong way to do this! Some people organize by category, others create a more abstract, artistic composition. Do what speaks to your creative soul.

Pro tip: Don’t glue everything down right away. Play with the arrangement. Live with it for a day or two. Let it speak to you. When it feels right, then make it permanent.

Your Homework This Week

Okay, now it’s your turn! Here’s what I want you to do this week:

1. Create your Vision Board using the steps above.

2. Begin brainstorming what goals will help you realize the dreams on your board. (Don’t worry. I’ll help you refine them in the newsletter next week.)

My apologies if all of this seems overwhelming, but trust me—it’s worth the time and effort now to keep you from headache and heartache later.

The Marathon, Not the Sprint

Remember what I said at the beginning of the last newsletter? This year’s journey for me is about running a marathon, not a sprint. The same is true for you.

Your Vision Board isn’t something you create and then stick in a closet. Keep it where you can see it daily! Let it remind you of where you’re going when the day-to-day grind threatens to pull you down and off course.

I believe that this year can be the year you accomplish more than you ever thought possible. And it begins with your Vision Board and your SMARTER goals.

I’ll be back next week to help you (and me) clarify those goals and turn them into actionable steps.

Until then, may we each rewrite our world for the better!

Love,
Alycia Christine