I mean no limits, if you could be, do and have anything in the world, what would it be?
I’m going to go ahead and say, it’s been here and there, chipping away when you find some time.. We’re busy! We got things to do, people to see…
So why, then, do people like Oprah, Will Smith, Ellen, Jim Carrey, Steve Harvey, John Assaraf … I could go on… all swear by Vision Boards?
“Vision Boards absolutely work; you have to have a vision and a plan to execute so that every step moves you in that vision…” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Well, maybe let’s start off by exploring just what is a Vision Board anyway.
A Vision Board is a way to manifest your dream life. When you make a Vision Board, you get clear on what you want to create in your life, meaning you create your own authentic outcomes in your own ideal life.
Once you get clear, you select images and words from magazines, and paste them on a big poster board. Seeing this board each day aligns your brain with the outcomes you want to attract.
“It is now a well-known fact that we stimulate the same brain regions when we visualize something and when we actually do it ” ~ Dr. Srini Pillay
So why doesn’t everyone do one? Well, in my experience as a Wellness Coach and Mentor, most of simply never make the time. We let our busy, distracted lives keep us, well, busy and distracted. That, or we think that it is absolutely ridiculous – queue eye roll.
I get it, I used to be that way too… until some of what I had envisioned on my Vision Board came to be.
First, let me be clear on two things:
- In the words of Jim Carrey: “you can’t just have a vision and then go eat a sandwich,” you have to work at it, you have to take the right action, and you have to approach it in a certain way, which leads me to my next point:
- There is a process to make your Vision Board more powerful, and part of that is related to the BE-DO-HAVE model.
p.s. watch this video of Oprah with Jim Carrey where he shares his story.
The BE-DO-HAVE model is used by many life coaches and writers, including Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. So what is it?
Well, remember when I asked: if you could be, do and have anything in the world, what would it be? … This is what we’re talking about, only how many of us say things like: a nice car or my dream house. It’s ok, I did too, but that’s not where we should start.
Let me break it down, because it took me a while…
“Dream and give yourself permission to envision a you that you choose to be.” ~ Joy Page
You have a goal (The WHAT): It’s SMART – specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely.
You have you (The WHO): The one that’s driving the bus, taking actions and making steps to achieve said goal (the what)?
Let’s look at an example… one that comes to mind is around fitness or weight loss goals that so many of us have, yet never quite achieve. Why?
It’s about WHO we have to BE to HAVE or achieve a slim, fit body…
Perhaps it’s being willing to find ways to become someone who cooks with natural or raw ingredients rather than eating out all the time or ways to get motivated to start exercising.
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” ~ Tony Robbins
Let’s think of this another way… let’s take 3 types of people: the victim, the worker, and the winner.
The victim thinks of their life in the order of HAVE-DO-BE, or in other words: ‘Once I HAVE enough time, money and a partner, then I’ll DO all the things I want like travelling, and then I can BE happy.’ The tricky thing here is that this person doesn’t HAVE yet, they’re waiting for circumstance to change before they DO anything.
The worker thinks of their life in the order of DO-HAVE-BE, or in other words: ‘The more I DO, the more I’ll HAVE, the happier I’ll BE.’ But the doing or work never ends, does it? There’s always something more to achieve, something more to do, so happiness never happens.
The winner thinks of their life in the order of BE-DO-HAVE, or in other words: ‘It’s not what I need to HAVE, or what work I need to DO… but who do I need to BE?’ Achieving those ideal outcomes means you have to be the kind of person that can access those outcomes…. and as that kind of person, what would you be doing? After that, having takes care of itself.
One more example? Ok… let’s make it a career one.
If let’s say you set a career or business goal to make $1 million in the next 5 years – the HAVE.
In order to achieve that, you and perhaps other people in your organization, have to BE skilled, confident and knowledgeable enough to behave in a certain way and also implement what needs to be done.
In other words to BE the WHO, that can DO what it takes to reach the HAVE (the goal).
So you see, that’s why everyone should do a Vision Board, at least once in their life… it’s why I am a coach, it’s why I do Vision Boards and it’s why I teach Vision Board Workshops…
