Can you visualise your career? You should
A vision board is a collage of words, images, quotes and symbols representing a person’s goals, which is intended to serve as an inspirational tool.
It represents whatever you want to be, do or have in your life. Once created this board acts as an anchor for you to be intentional about the direction in which you’re heading in life. Serving as a constant reminder, it helps you maintain your focus, stay accountable and keep you on track in achieving your life goals.
As you can imagine, many people create vision boards for their life, wealth, relationships, but not many create vision boards for their career goals and aspirations. Perhaps it is fear that blocks them, or a lack of creativity, but when you ask people about where they see themselves in the next 10 years, they usually freeze. However, as the popular saying goes, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, you will surely get there.’
Vision boards utilise the power of creativity and the science of visualization. Studied have shown that those who visualise themselves succeeding, losing weight, playing a sport, or engaging in a hobby, not only reap the emotional benefits such as confidence from it, but also get better at the activity itself. When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, you essentially end up doing short visualisation exercises throughout the day.
How to make a vision boards for your professional life
- Include positive goals for the areas of your professional life such as financial success, skills, attributes you wish to have (better speaker, more confident presenter etc), dream job, dream colleagues, plans, aspirations, type of office space. Try to have more images than words, but in any case, they should evoke feelings of excitement, hope, optimism and contentment. Anchor your board in your own unique personal values: creating a vision board that compliments the kind of life you choose to live.
- Refrain from including negative goals on your board: (i.e. stress-free life; free of debt; avoid weight-gain; etc.). Try not to clutter your board: your vision board should not be overflowing with pictures, instead it should be easy on the eye. Avoid creating goals which are based off what society believes you should do or be in life. Don’t store it in a cupboard: it is important that you have daily access to your board in order to engage in brief acts of visualisation.
- Don’t ask how, focus on your why. As you are cutting pictures out of magazines for your created your vision board, the process of visualisation and intention setting begins. This means you have to start to experience the excitement that comes with having accomplished those dreams and goals. Many people hinder this process from happening because they say “how will I ever accomplish this” or “I am not going to cut this picture because it’s impossible to accomplish.” Instead of focusing on the why, be clear about the what and they why.
Below are some ways you can really maximise the benefits of your vision board.
There are 7 practical steps to intention setting:
1. Frame your intention in the positive (e.g. instead of saying “I don’t want to be in debt” rather say “I want to work at ABC Consultancy Firm and experience financially independent”)
2. Get into a meditative state – in order to set an intention, it will require 100 percent of your focus and the best way to become focused is to engage in meditation.
3. Engage in a full-body visualisation experience – whilst in a meditative state, visualise yourself receiving a call from ABC Consultancy Firm informing you that you got the job!
– Visualise what clothes you’re wearing at the time of receiving that call
– Imagine what your voice sounds like while you’re speaking and what you’re saying on the phone
– Envision what you feel like while you’re hearing this good news (e.g. feeling grateful, hopeful, excited, optimistic, confident, etc.)
– Visualise what your face looks like when you learn this news
– Visualise who is around you at the time that you take this call and what your geographical location looks like
4. Believe that it has already happened – if you believe it, it shall be!
5. Be grateful and give thanks for what you have intended for (e.g. “Thank you for my financial freedom and secure job at ABC Consultancy Firm”).
6. After meditating, ask yourself: “What’s the next small step I can take that will move me in the direction of working at ABC Consultancy Firm?” – remember that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ – so how can you start taking action?
Taking small steps could be simple tasks such as:
- Updating your resume
- Ensuring that your profile on LinkedIn holds you in a professional light
- Contact a recruitment agency to assist with the job application process
7. Start small and start today!
