6 Steps to Visionary Goal Setting
FOR A THRIVING YEAR
I believe that positive affirmations play a huge role in manifestation in bringing the positive vibes that we seek out. Create a list of positive affirmations that resonate and stand out to you. Trust in your vision and have faith that your aspirations will become your reality. Then do some gratitude journalling so you can reflect on your year and write everything you are grateful for. This will ensure you're in a positive state of mind before getting started and appreciate the good you have in your life before you start dreaming even bigger.
SET INTENTION FOR THE YEAR:
Pick a theme word for the year that embodies happiness and success for you. Choose a word that reflects how you want to feel and makes you confident in how you want your year to look. Examples of words:
- Gratitude
- Focus
- Balance
- Growth
- Reflection
- Purpose
- Abundance
Throughout your year, you want to reflect on the word to keep yourself on track. My word for the year is "growth". I want to make sure that every decision I make for the year links back to helping me grow. This will ensure you are not side-tracked and not overdoing what you initially intended for the year.
CREATE VISION BOARD:
The perfectionist and minimalist design aesthetic side of my personality means I like to keep my vision boards very neat and tidy. However, I encourage you to create beautiful collages full of overlapping elements without being too overly critical with how it looks. You don't want to be sitting there forever trying to make it look "perfect" when that's not the point.
Once complete, you want to place your vision board in sight so you can view it everyday, whether that be a on the wall in your room or as a desktop or phone screensaver.
I love setting goals and creating a vision board for my personal and entrepreneurial lifestyle every year and thought it would be fun to share the process I take! If you're here, you probably already know the importance and the impact vision boards can truly have on your life so I won't fluff on about that. I do want to however start by saying that yearly benchmarks for vision boards is most digestible and easiest to track progress. That's why I opt for creating a vision board once a year. However, you can create a mini-vision board for every quarter depending on how you prefer things. Now let's get straight into it!
"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."
- OPRAH WINFREY
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - CONFUCIUS
SET & PRIORITISE YOUR GOALS:
Take a moment of self-reflection and set goals based on what your values are and what is most important to you. This could be in relation to your health, family, business, spirituality, etc.
Focus on the important "needle-moving" tasks for your year that need to happen in order to get things moving and grow. What vital and important goals do you need to achieve in order to live a successful life whether that be in your business or your personal life? For example, for me, it's important to grow and scale my business so my goals and priorities will revolve around what steps I can take to make this happen. You don't want too many goals because you don't want to set yourself unrealistic expectations for the year. A good number is four - one goal per quarter that you can break up into three sub-goals to achieve the bigger picture goal.
Remember to always move towards what matters to you, rather than what matters to others. Everyone's version of success is different and you don't want your goals to reflect what other people believe is success for them. For example, you might not be a hustler, like me. It might be more important for you to be spending time with your family and travelling in order to live your best life.
CREATE A LIST OF VISIONS YOU HAVE FOR THE YEAR:
By taking into consideration your goals, priorities and what your version of success looks like, make a list of visions you have for the year. If your goals revolve around health, your vision could be to lose or gain weight. My goals revolve around my business so some of my visions include booking consistent clients, investing in education and expanding my team.
THE FUN PART - CHOOSE YOUR VISUALS:
While I love the idea of creating a physical vision board and encourage you to do the same - the tech/ digitally-savvy side of me loves creating digital vision boards on Canva. I use inspiration packed websites such as Pinterest and stock-free websites such as Unsplash to gather my visuals. If you do opt to create a physical vision board, find old magazines, books, newspapers, etc. where you can find images that resonate with your visions and goals. If you can't find an image of your vision, you can simply print one out from a Google search.
Make sure you're truly inspired by each picture and understand how it can benefit your life. Write down why you chose each picture. What does it represent in your life and how would it improve your current situation? Go deep. How does it make you feel?
REVIEW YOUR GOALS:
Don't just create a vision board and forget about it until the following year - revisit your goals and make steps towards achieving them. I like to incorporate this into my gratitude journalling practise where I sit down at the end of a work week and write what I'm grateful for and what I can do "tomorrow" to make steps closer to my vision and goals.
