Why I threw out my vision board

Have you ever made a vision board? You know – thinking through how you want your life to look, and then putting images together that illustrate it.

I have to admit: I’m into them. After all, I know first-hand the power that putting your goals on paper can have, and once you do that, how quickly they can manifest.

In fact recently I wrote about how, several years ago, I was in the process of making a vision board when I got the phone call that would change my life. (That story is here.)

But this year I threw mine out. Here’s why.

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A few months ago my wife, my sister-in-law, and I got together to make our vision boards. There among magazines and scraps of paper, we each laid out our futures.

After we were done, I put mine on my office wall, a constant reminder of what I’m aiming for.

But recently, I started looking at it differently. And I was shocked at what I saw.

My vision board didn’t show my biggest, most abundant goals. It looked like what I wanted to accomplish next week. My vision was way too small.

So I started thinking about my biggest, most abundant goals. Any time I found myself thinking, “That’s not really realistic,” or, “But how would I even get there?,” I stopped and refocused. I told myself, “Don’t think about what’s feasible. Think about what you WANT.”

Then, having named my bigger, more abundant goals, I made a new vision board. And you can see the difference:

The old vision board shows a woman with a toddler.
The new vision board shows a family with three healthy, happy kids.

The old vision board has pictures of women doing some light exercise, and generally staying in shape.
The new vision board shows a woman crossing the finish line of an Ironman race (my ultimate goal).

The old vision board has a small picture of a nondescript house.
The new vision board has a picture of a brownstone in our Brooklyn neighborhood (and if you knew what those go for, you’d know what a HUGE GOAL that represents.)

And on and on.

Once I named my biggest, most abundant goals, I realized that the vision I had previously outlined wasn’t big enough.

And if I’m going to work for these goals, shouldn’t they be amazing goals?

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What about you? What’s your biggest, most abundant vision? It’s amazing how often we hold ourselves back from even thinking about it.

When I’m talking to women who have applied for my SIGNED program, I always ask them, “How much money do you want to be making?”

Usually they say something like, “I’d like to replicate my salary from corporate,” or “I’d be happy with at least…” and then some relatively low number.

Then I poke a little more: “Forget what you think is feasible. What do you REALLY want to be making?”

And after some hesitation, that’s when the real answers come out. $500k. One million. Five million.

And then I ask, “And what will that allow you to do?” And then these amazing women share their real vision: