by Angela Wallace
Vision boards are often promoted as prosperity mongering, a grown-up version of rags to riches cut and paste. Googling it results in the instant onset of rolling eyes. For example, if you don’t want to drive a decaying Dodson, hang a picture of a Lamborghini on the wall and imagine a sports car will appear in the driveway. It’s nothing more than abracadabra art and yet it remains popular. Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, recently promoted vision boards as a method for her very public recovery in her most recent book, Finding Sarah. Another Oprah authorized postmodern self-help book, The Secret, reveals the not so secret law of distraction, forgive me, attraction of vision boards. It’s the gospel of something for nothing.
In spite of its irrational roots, a vision board or collage can be an interesting exercise of self-support. As the heady days of a New Year stretch into the dreary days of a cold and grey February, it is all too easy to forget the motivations for my goals. I use vision boards as reminders of who I am and who I want to be, both affirmation and aspiration. It’s an opportunity to curate my goals and values. I’m the editor-in-chief of my life story and I’m proud to put it on paper. Unlike the supposed secrets of self-help, however, I know I only get something for something; less wishful thinking, more hard work.
I pour a glass of red wine or a pot of decaf green tea (since 2012 is my year of the antioxidant and caffeine reduction) and pick a selection of my best music. It’s fun to dig out the glue stick, the crafty scissors and coloured cardboard. I cut my way through some old magazines, photos, and favourite quotes and lay out a life-affirming page.
Before I know it, I’ve completed a board that captures my motivation for my 2012 MSc dissertation on gender and climate change. When the library gets lonely and my reading list grows long, I can reflect on my inspirational board to stay grounded in my belief in women’s rights. If I’m discouraged or tired, it serves as a reminder that my graduate work is part of a global story. There are plenty of distractions to dissuade me from staying focused on my research (including red wine and pots of decaf green tea). The truth is I rarely harness my focus by bullying myself to turn on my computer through sheer self-discipline alone. I stay focused when I kindly remind myself that my research work really matters. I feel empowered by the immediacy of that fact.
I once wrote a song that said, “Everyone, everything, everybody tells me how. Tell me now. Who knows why?” That’s my reason to make a vision board. No one else can define my values better then I can or follow my dreams for me (I’ll leave out the Lamborghini, thanks). It’s still a New Year and I can reinforce my modest motivations, one piece of creative cardboard at a time.
Image courtesy of Microsoft Office.
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