If you are dreaming of your future, it is time to get out of your head.

Make a vision board.
If you want to turn your dream into your reality you’re going to have to get out of your head.  Are you dreaming of a more vibrant future?  Of a two-story Tuscan villa in a cozy cul-de-sac?   Of growing your cupcake business to reach the savvy SF diners?  Or of feeding the hungry bellies of Tanzania’s kindergartners?   It doesn’t matter what your dreams are, if they’re personal or philanthropic, if they’re dreams they are likely to stay in your head.   But wouldn’t it be cool to get them out of your head and into your reality?

A little boy dreamed of taking his dog to Mars?  “What a ridiculous idea!” His friends touted.  But not his parents, we know this because that year Santa dropped off a very cool new shinny telescope.  The scope wasn’t powerful enough for him to see Mars, but it was able to keep his head in the stars. 

This boy dreamed of riding the sky to Mars with his dog Rover.  Actually, he did more than dream, he plastered his walls with pictures, posters, and drawings of planets, satellite dishes, robots, space cowboys, and of course, Rover, his dog.  All his favorite things ended up on the walls.  When he learned more about space travel, he’s add to the amazing design.

Everyday when he woke up, he glared with sparkling eyes at these walls, which made him wonder, “What can I do today to get to Mars?” And his curious mind would promptly go to work answering this question.  Throughout the day he’d think to himself nuggets that when he’d act on them moved him closer towards his goal.  “I could read Neil Armstrong’s biography.”  “I could get a better grade in science.”  “I could ask my adviser which college I should attend.”  “I could work out today extra hard to be fit for the trip.”  And so on.

Overtime, these little efforts became big impacts and he found himself working for NASA on the Mars exploration project.  And when they asked, what should we call this thing.  He promptly replied “Rover.”  And that’s how a boy got his out of his head and into reality.  Or in other words, he turned a dream, into a vision board, and created his dream life.

Now is the time in the story when I should tell you this boy’s name.  And I would love to do that, but this story comes from my head, in that, I made it up.  But it could totally be real.  It’s one of those things that’s very likely, isn’t it?

When we were kids we were masters at this process and at vision boards.  Some of our dreams came true and some of them we out grew.  I had posters of hot rappers on my walls, like MC Hammer in his fly flapping pants.  Now he’s on my Twitter.  That’s the power of vision boards!  Okay, even though that’s really cool… it’s not quite the power I’m talking about.  The power I’m talking about is more like this example from my life.

Our Couple Vision Board

Three years ago I created a vision board that was super uber romantic and mushy.  This vision board had pictures of a sexy girl and a handsome fella whirling her around the beach on a Maui-licous wedding.  I slapped my face over hers and voila… I started my vision board.  It had pictures of all our kids and our framily (friends and family), it had the big house I wanted to live in and pictures of me winning awards for my films and big crowds of people cheering at my speeches.   Hoooray!  (insert applause here.)

Fast forward.  Last July my hottie hubby and I celebrated our 1st anniversary with 4 of our 5 at an awesome event with Frontier Trainings, playing games and growing together.  Now, this is a bonafide big deal!  But to add to that, of course, we had a 6-day fun filled celebration on Maui for our wedding with 25 or so of our favorite framily who chose to join in the 6-day party fest!  We even had a couple of fabulous wedding crashers from San Francisco.  They heard of the 3 party-per-day plans and just had to come enhance the fun!

I could go on and on about the other amazing things in that vision board that have come and continue to come true.  But for time-sake, how about if I tell you this instead… the board became so much like a historical reference document that my hubby and I decided to replace it with our new visions.

That’s the power of vision boards!

Some key points I picked up on in this story:

• Get full-colored pictures on the board.  Cut them out of mags, take them with a digital camera, draw or paint them yourself.
• Get your face on the board; this increases the power, even if the proportions are out of whack.
• Get your real dreams on the board, that includes the secret hidden ones that you really, really want, but may have been afraid to ask for
• Check the vision board out every day
• Add to it as needed
• It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it can be.
• When the brain gives you nuggets, act on them.  Even little things make a big difference
• Make a vision board with your spouse, or your business partners, or your team – this is fun and even though there can be some tense moments while you’re co-creating, once those are worked through you may end up with one of the most powerful vision boards of your life, like I did.
• Since I know there’s more to learn about vision boards… add a comment to this story and share with the world the other great lessons, please!
• Now make your vision board.  Enjoy!