5 Rookie Vision Board Mistakes

Not giving your vision the respect and time it deserves. If you don't have 10 minutes to focus on appreciating or improving your life, you don't have a life. In that 10 minutes, you'll come to realize that creating the life you truly desire is not a quick fix. It's not even a 2 hour "show me how to slap a vision board together" session. The Vision: Buy the time away from your devices and distractions, a full day to settle down from your busyness and sink in to your soulfulness, because left to our own devices, we, well... get distracted.

Cut and slap! It's not about cutting out and slapping pictures on a board, hoping they'll magically appear in our lives. Sure, going through Oprah and Dwell magazines can feel empowering, but what's the deeper intention you're going for here? How much thought and meaning is behind those photos for you? The Vision: We must be mindful of what we put out there, or you could fall into a case of "be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!". Be conscious, deliberate, and aligned with your larger picture goals.

It lacks any deep consideration and compassion for who you are today. Often we kick off our vision board magazine clipping session by running for the gold, when we haven't really taken stock of our current reality. Sure, doing an Ironman race may have always been your dream, but that might be setting yourself up for failure and broken trust within yourself if your current reality is that you love watching CNN throughout the day and taking long slow star-gazing walks at night. The Vision: The strongest intention will always win, no matter what we put on our vision boards. Honor yourself and what's most meaningful.

Hiding it. After all that work and focus on crafting a powerful and meaningful vision board, we can get so protective over it that we don't want anyone to see it. That's not a bad thing, unless you do what many rookies do and hide it even from themselves, like in the back of the closet gathering dust. The Vision: We become what we are attached to, and if we don't see and get in touch with what we most want every day, we won't achieve our dreams. What we feed grows. Feed your soul daily with your vision board in clear sight. Besides, what kind of message to our soul are we sending by agreeing to hide our vision? Hang it where YOU can see it every day, and watch the manifestion unfold!

Not having an accountability partner. Again, left to our own devices, we DO our old devices. Who, besides yourself or your spouse, is holding you accountable to your highest dreams? Who's voice is it when you pick up the phone and hear "Well, did you do it yet? What's holding you back?" Who's cheerleading you? Who's calling you on your BS and subtle escape tactics when you approach your upper limit? Who's objective and challenging, loving and supportive, knows you and your patterns of wiggling out? Good intentions and meaningful visions don't hold a candle to old devices and patterns. The Vision: Enlist a BFF who's not afraid to rattle you a bit, or hire a coach who can be objective yet hold your feet to the fire. After all, we're all about starting fires in our souls, are we?