When I first started doing coaching, I used to recommend all my clients create a vision board of what they wanted to manifest. The vision board used to be the first thing we started with. You’ve probably done this yourself at some point, getting a stack of magazines, cutting out images and words of the things you want and then looking at this wondrous vision of your future self.
At first glance, this appears to be a good idea. The more we know what we want, and focus on it, the more likely we will achieve it. Vision boards affect us on a subconscious level. You don’t need to look at it consciously for it to work, just seeing it in passing, out of the corner of your eye as you enter the room impacts your subconscious mind with those images and opens you up to seeing possibilities and opportunities for you to bring those visions to life. To make sure everyone was doing it right, I used to ask everyone to send me an image of their finished vision board.
And after a while, I began to notice something quite strange going on. Most of my clients ended up creating THE SAME (or very similar) vision board. It appeared that they all wanted pretty much the same thing. The recurring images were:
Smoothies, sexy body, fruit, loads of money, tropical paradise, big house, big car, first class travel.
In short, they had created a vision board that matched what the media and Hollywood want us to buy. They had (unconsciously) re-created the images they’d been shown on TV in movies, Ads, Magazines and via Social Media. And here’s the thing, none of them ever realized it.
I may not have noticed it either if I’d not seen countless copy-cat, cookie-cutter vision boards of the same thing over and over and over again.
Now, to be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong or bad about looking good, drinking smoothies, having money, big houses or traveling first class to exotic locations. All those things can be fun. But once you’ve done all that, what’s next?
What most people quickly, realize is once they’ve achieved all these things that are meant to be the be-all-end-all, ultimate experience, they feel strangely empty. Just as I did walking on the beach, having attained everything I wanted.
Sooner or later, we have to search deeper and find out what we REALLY want and what really bring us joy.
And only then – will actually be happy and feel like we’ve come back home to ourselves again.
Go deep and create the life you truly love! And be open to whatever that is…
