Vision Boarding: Creating Your Future and Your Personal Why

There is no correct time to invest in personal growth, but the beginning of each year is always a motivator for people to lay out big plans for their personal life. Here at PFD, we encourage companies to have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), 3HAG, and 1HAG, but we are also working on our personal Vision Boards (VB).

A Vision Board is your personal WHY.

That feeling of being overwhelmed or feeling like you are on a hamster wheel is taxing on your mental and physical health. A VB is a fabulous tool to keep you motivated and focused, which is enormously important as we all continue to face uncertain times.

My (Liz Kaufman’s) Vision Board - Pictures on a useable whiteboard. It has some visual elements with a focus on functionality, as I wanted the ability to regularly update it with words that are inspiring to me.

Whether you have built a VB in the past or if this is your first time, we have some advice on how to get started:

Know What You Want

Most advice with regards to building a VB includes, “if you have no time or money limitations, what do you want”. This advice is exactly what is needed, but can be overwhelming, therefore we have two activities to help:

• MY 75 – Taking the advice of no limitations due to time, money, or circumstances, list 75 things you want and want to achieve. Do not overthink this activity, just begin listing your hearts’ desires. Here are a few questions to help you get started:

  •  Where do you want to go?

  • Who do you want to meet?

  • What do you want to read and/or learn?

  • Who do you want to help?

  • What is the newest gadget that makes you excited?

  • What relationships would you like to grow?

• I AM statements – This activity is used by many personal growth coaches. When you write down “I AM” statements, it helps you actualize who you want to become. This is about your heart, mind, and soul. Words are the building blocks of your life, so ensure you are speaking positive words about yourself. Here are a few statements to help you get started:

  • I am generous with my money and time

  • I am respected within my care

  • I am part of a caring and loving family

  • I am an entrepreneur

  • I am confident

  • I am a home owner

Emmalee Harper’s Vision Board. It is made on two acrylic sheets sandwiched together, with printed pictures in between. It is highly visual and design-focused, with some added functionality of being able to write on it with a dry-erase marker. 

Build Your Vision Board

There is no right or wrong way to build your VB. There are only two qualifications; it should fit your personality/style and you should be able to see it daily. Here are a few ideas:

Materials

All you need is a blank wall, some pictures, paper, and tape, however, there are many examples of materials that can build a Vision Board that will work for your space and personality. A few ideas include:

• Corkboard 

• Whiteboard

• Acrylic Board (following this tutorial)

• Canvas

• Blank wall

• Window 

Style

Whether it be highly stylized or simple, it should be both functional and energizing. At PFD we have three examples of styles that you’ll see throughout this post:

• My (Liz’s) Vision Board - Pictures on a useable whiteboard. It has some visual elements with a focus on functionality, as I wanted the ability to regularly update it with words that are inspiring to me.

• Emmalee Harper’s Vision Board – It is made on two acrylic sheets sandwiched together, with printed pictures in between. It is highly visual and design-focused, with added some functionality of being able to write on it with a dry-erase marker. She also added some gold leaf to the pictures as an extra, fun touch.

• Ethan Martin’s Vision Board - Magazine clippings on canvas. It is highly visual, comprised of inspiring pictures and quotes.

Content

You do not need to include everything from you, MY 75 or I AM statements, but ensure your board is a mix of categories, personal growth, inspirational quotes, huge aspirations that scare you, short term wins that will energize you, and anything else that speaks to you. This board is YOU poured out into a visualization; it is not supposed to speak to someone else.

Ethan Martin’s Vision Board - Magazine clippings on canvas. It is highly visual, comprised of inspiring pictures and quotes.

Keep Your Board Fresh

As you achieve a win, first celebrate it, then replace it with a new goal (which is why you developed a My 75 and I AM statements). Adding to it often helps you to work on your future and refine the view of your life. Some areas may come into deeper clarity, while others may stay the same for a year and get moved to the next year. Your VB is always a work in progress. 

The last piece of advice is, get started. Create a grand vision for your life and speak it into existence each day. Though it may seem simple, this is a powerful tool. The PFD Team is here to help and we encourage you to share your Vision Boards, and we will be sharing ours. 

2020 Was Brutal. We Can Undoubtedly Make 2021 Better.

Admiral James Stockdale -
U.S. Navy File Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As written in the Jim Collins' book Good to Great, The Stockdale Paradox refers to Admiral James Stockdale, who was a prisoner-of-war during the Vietnam war. Being highest-in command at the Hanoi Hilton POW camp, Stockdale held the responsibility of creating conditions to increase the survival rate of his men, while also enduring horrible torture and no certainty if he would make it out alive.

It was in these conditions that Stockdale created a very simple formula (the Paradox) to triumph in the most challenging and uncertain of circumstances: 

Acknowledge and confront in every way the brutal facts of your situation and hold onto the unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end.

 As business leaders, we know that 2020 has been tough. As we reflect on the end of this year, we are fully aware that this year has brought challenges unlike anything we have ever seen before. Before this year, we had never used the term “social distancing”, nor had Zoom ever been so popular. We have heard the words uncertainty and unprecedented more times than we could count.  We celebrated birthdays and holidays virtually, we did “drive by” graduation ceremonies, and we became used to working from home or in masks. We watched with bated breath as we saw the racial turmoil unfold, and our hearts sunk as we saw the economy suffer because we knew that meant the loss of jobs and livelihoods for people who really needed it. This year has been undoubtedly difficult, and we would have good reason to perseverate on the challenges this year has brought forth. If we were to take the advice of Admiral Stockdale, we should not only the brutal facts of 2020, but also go forth into 2021 with hopeful optimism that we will prevail through these circumstances.

In short, we ask you to persevere in your vision.

We know that this is no small ask. To succeed in this time doesn’t just take the spirit of perseverance, it takes a well-founded strategy and steadfast execution. Further, it takes seeing the vast opportunities in a market that only seems to have readily visible challenges. There is reason to hope, for a better 2021, and we will need to be able to set ourselves up well to be able to capitalize on some opportunities. After the last pandemic in 1919, the United States saw the roaring 20s, with abundant wealth and a prosperous economy. Experts suggest that 2021 will see a similar economic boom, even if it will take time to get there, with the economy getting worse before it gets better.

So, what’s the secret to capitalizing on all of the opportunities that 2021 has to offer?

Creating a rock-solid annual plan with your senior leadership team.

The end of the year is this extraordinary time to be able to look towards a better future. The annual planning process is crucial to making that future a reality. This process becomes to really step back and look at the market in a meaningful way. Further, we can use this time to reengage with our customers to understand how their needs are changing and evolving. With our leadership teams, we should be asking great questions of each other, having productive and honest conversations - thoroughly hashing out our strategy. Through these conversations we can come to understand where the white space is for our businesses, and we can end up on a much better, simpler path that we can effectively execute. Our teams understand fully the brutal facts of 2020. It is our job to, with unwavering faith, create a strategy and execution plan that will allow us to prevail in 2021.

At PFD, we’ve been really blessed to have a fantastic methodology and effective virtual tools to be able to facilitate annual planning sessions. If you would like to know more about our process to scale businesses or book an annual planning session for you and your entire senior team, please fill out the form below.

New Day: The Importance of Creating Space and Routine Each Morning.

We have all heard the adage, “New Year, New me”. The idea that with the new year will bring forth prosperity and an renewed sense of self is not new – in fact, it dates back to 4000 BC in ancient Babylon, where the Babylonians would make resolutions for the year in a religious ceremony preceding the planting of crops. This tradition was present in other parts of the world throughout history – as a similar practice was used in Ancient Rome and with Early Christians. Today, the idea of New Year’s Resolutions is commonplace, especially in the United States, as it is estimated that 45% of Americans make them.  

At PFD, we believe in New Year’s resolutions. In fact, it’s our job help leaders and entrepreneurs set and reach meaningful 1-Year Highly Achievable Goals (1HAGs)  so that they can make progress on their Big Hairy Audacious Goal and scale their businesses. While New Year’s Resolutions are genuinely helpful, today, I would like to focus on a much smaller period of time: the new day. At the beginning of the New Year, those who make resolutions begin with excitement and tenacity for what they can accomplish, but these feelings tend to fade rather quickly. Rather than try to sustain these feelings for a year, what if we started out each day with a similar optimism and excitement? What if we intentionally took time out of our day each morning to create a positive mindset that sets the tone for the rest of our day?

“ “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

For anyone who knows me, they know I am a morning person, so I might sound biased when I say mornings are an incredible and magical time of day. On the best days, I will get up around 4:00 AM to pray, journal, meditate, work out, and prepare for my day. When I take the time to do these things, I find that my days are exponentially better. On these days, I have more energy, I feel more centered, I plan my day better, and I am more productive. Studies show that getting up in the morning has been linked to better stability, increased proactivity, and lower rates of depression. As we end this year of innumerable challenges, we need to give ourselves a fighting chance against the stressors in our lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a mental health crisis in America, and we need to be proactive in reintroducing a sense of normalcy and routine in the ways we have control. Our mornings are a great place to start.

Recently, I have read Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs, and it has reinforced my firm belief in the power of routine and the mornings. The author, Hal Elrod, recommends a six-step process to implement in a morning routine – captured in the acronym S.A.V.E.R.S.

This acronym stands for:

Silence – This is the first part of the morning that is dedicated to mindfulness. As business leaders, we can often find ourselves guilty of checking our texts and emails as soon as we turn off the alarm. Experts suggest that starting your day this way actually impedes your ability to focus throughout the day and makes you more prone to distraction. Instead, take some moments to be silent – use this time to meditate, pray, reflect, etc. This will set you up to be more productive and less stressed throughout the day. During this time of prolonged stress, reducing cortisol levels is going to be paramount to your health and wellness.

Affirmations – This step is critical to reshaping your mindset. As leaders, it can be extraordinarily challenging to maintain confidence and faith in yourself and your business, especially when we have been hit with so many unforeseeable circumstances in the past year. When we take the time to recite the goals we are committed to, as well as understand wholly that we can become the type of people to achieve those goals, the results are astounding.

Visualization – In this step, leaders should take the time to picture a compelling image of the future, and what it would look like to live out of this reality. This will give us clarity and motivation to reach this future in actuality. 

Exercise – Exercising in the morning is paramount to living a healthier life and setting the tone for a positive day. Even if you would rather do a larger work out later in the day, even a short work out in the morning could be beneficial. This has been linked to increased energy throughout the day, as well as improved nutrient uptake.  

Reading – As business leaders, we should be consistently learning to be able to improve ourselves and our organizations. So many problems we face have already been solved – we just need to find it. Devoting 15 – 30 minutes to reading in the morning can help us to learn faster so we can more effectively scale our businesses. Not sure what book to start with? Check out our monthly reading lists here.

Scribing – In other words, write. In this part, journal your thoughts for 5-10 minutes. It can be something that’s been on your mind or reflection on what you just learned. This will help you gain clarity that will carry throughout the day. In addition, you could try your gratefulness practice (write 5 things you are grateful for each day) to help reframe your mind to be more positive.

After this brilliant morning routine from Hal, my best days also include a workday startup routine. This helps me to refocus on the most important things I need to accomplish in a day so I can make the most out of my day.

This routine includes:

1.     Reviewing my preparation for the morning stand-up meeting. I will do my prep work at the end of the day before, so it usually takes a quick glance to remind myself of what I need to bring to the discussion.

2.     Writing down my tasks and my schedule for the day in my planner. After this, I choose my top three priorities for the day, ensuring that these priorities are critical, align with the metrics for which I am responsible, or will help me to make progress on my quarterly goals.

3.     Meeting with my team for the daily stand-up.

4.     Emptying my email box.

After this routine, I am caught up and prepared to embark on the day. While there is so much that is out of our control right now, it is vital that we have healthy, productive morning routines as it will drastically improve our lives.

The New Year is a chance to start fresh, as it is a time where we have energy and drive to make possible our aspirations. We can apply that same energy to each new day by implementing healthy routines that foster growth, self-improvement, health, and focus. 

Some Suggestions –

1.     Read Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.  He goes much more into depth about how you can optimize your morning to be productive.

2.     Write down your workplace start-up routine – no more than 10 tasks that will help you feel equipped and prepared to take on the day.

3.      Schedule your morning. You don’t have to wake up at 4:00 am like me, but understanding and committing to doing different tasks at certain times will improve your intentionality with your morning.