Winter 2021 I signed up to take Floret’s online workshop. The topic for the first week of the class was “Getting Clear.” This included goal-setting and creating a vision board. This subject made me a little nervous because I only knew that I wanted to do something with flowers. At the time, my goals were to grow my own flowers so I could practice floral design. Later on, I wanted to open a florist shop and focus on weddings in the small town we’d just moved to. I loved the idea of owning my own business. And I felt a spark of energy to build a career that was busy and fast-paced.
As a kid, I had fond memories of picking Indian paintbrushes on the mountainsides. I remember going to my Great Grandpa’s house in to find his entire front yard full of daffodils instead of grass. I love flowers and nature and loved the idea of running my own shop. And I was excited to start documenting my goals and ideas and mapping out a plan for this new venture.
The very first step in the course was to create a vision board. I never really thought of myself as a visual learner. The idea that cutting out photos from old magazines could change the trajectory of my goals seemed silly and I really, really did not want to spend my time on something that seemed like such a useless task. But In the first workshop video lesson Erin and Jill urged everyone to go through with it. Even those of us who weren’t excited about it.
I carefully went through them making sure to make copies of recipes I liked to refer back to and started cutting out images and quotes that resonated with me. I went through everything I cut out and separated my favorites. There were photos of flowers, mountains, and food. Then I’d arranged everything that I could fit onto a piece of poster board and started gluing away.
Taking it all in
The task itself was enjoyable and when I was done I took a step back and looked at the photos I’d pieced together. I was overcome with a wave of calmness and patient creativity. I saw fresh air, colorful food, lush flowers and a peaceful life. All of a sudden, I was less concerned about being a business owner and hustling nonstop, and more focused on finding a way to cultivate beauty through a connection with nature that I had been missing for the past decade.
And now I love vision boards and will make one every single year! I even keep a snapshot of it on the home screen of my phone.
Part of my struggle the past few years with setting goals was that I didn’t have a medium to help be set my goals without a lot of outside influence. Looking back, I realize that I was always trying to be something different than what I was.
I wanted to give off the impression that I was more experienced in what I was doing – which kept me from jumping in to something new. I wanted everyone to see that I was a workhorse going 100 miles per hour all the time. Which made me constantly burnt out. Thinking that I wanted to do something that would impress the people around me is what really opened my eyes. I wanted all of the wrong things for the wrong reasons. And everything I got in return for it wasn’t meant for me.
I’m not saying a vision board will work for everybody. But I certainly didn’t think it would work for me and it did. It brought me clarity. It helped me decide what life I wanted to work towards instead of making me wish that every step I was taking was already the destination.
There are different ways to put one together. I prefer paper and scissors – but magazines can be expensive if you don’t have some laying around. Pinterest is wonderful! I’ve also heard that Canva has free options to create vision boards as well.
In the end, whether or not a vision board is something that is helpful to you, my only hope is that you find the things in your life that truly bring you joy and happiness. Without the imposition of the opinions of others.
