Vision boards – what’s the case for and against?

Today I’ve come across two very different clips about vision boards. One for, one against (sort of).

It made me think of a question. Do vision boards work or not? Are they worthwhile and life-changing or just silly and pointless?  What do you think?

The case ‘for’: Clip one shows John Assaraf telling his story of how he got his dream home by using a vision board. John is very successful, well known and wealthy, and he puts much of this down to vision boards. In the clip, he shows us his home and the vision board in question. The house is, it has to be said, stunning.

The case ‘against’: Clip two shows comedian Ellen DeGeneres satirising Oprah’s well-document love of vision boards. Ellen is very successful, well known and wealthy, but it doesn’t seem like she is into vision boards. Or maybe she isn’t actually ‘against’ them – it’s just satire. Who knows. Anyway, it’s quite funny. And it sort of reminds you not to get too serious about this stuff, I think.

It made me think that having a balanced discussion about vision boards is important. Because that’s how we learn.

I’ve edited the ‘Experiment’ page to invite people to try making a vision board to see if it works for them…or not. I’d like to have honest feedback, not just positive comments. A mixture would be good and, I think, helpful. You can probably guess which camp I’m in. But we all have times when we struggle to focus on what we want and I think sharing that would be a good thing.

What is the case for and against vision boards? What are the problems we can come up against? Are there ways to overcome them?

Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

The Complete Vision Board Kit: How to Use the Power of Intention and Visualization to Manifest the Life of Your Dreams

John Assaraf, millionaire entrepreneur and one of the stars of ‘The Secret’ has published the above guide to creating a vision board which works. His story inspired me to start this blog and set up my own inspiring vision board (see last post for details).

I am definitely going to order a copy. It looks fantastic and there are also lots of free resources on his site including dream board examples. Here is a description from his website www.johnassaraf.com.

“Done correctly, a vision board will help make your dreams come true. You can create a vision board to help you achieve success in as many ways as you define the word,

* in your health
* relationships
* wealth
* careers goals
* in all aspects of your life.

“While it’s very simple, there’s more to changing your life with a vision board than just pasting pictures on a board. You must also pay close attention to your thoughts and intentions – and you’ll find out exactly how to do that, faster, easier and better, with this book.

“And it’s actually much more than a book, it comes with a 45 minute DVD entitled The Secret to Having Your Best Year Ever, and a sample vision board – everything you need to create your own life-changing vision board.

“Here’s the thing about vision boards. They really work!

“If you saw The Secret, you may recall the story of how John Assaraf learned about the incredible power of vision boards in his own life. Click on the link below for details on that story. And download your free Chapter One to find out how easy it is to harness the amazing power of your own vision board!”

You can read about the true story of how John Assaraf discovered the power of vision boards and download a free chapter from the book here http://www.thevisionboardkit.com/index.php.

“All of this is airy fairy nonsense!”

I’ve been reflecting on this phrase which I used in the last post about my dream board. This is something which comes up a lot for me and I’d be interested to know if it is also true for others. My hunch is that is probably is.

One of the main things I worry about is what people will think if they ‘find out’ that I’m interested in this sort of thing. As you can see, at the moment I’m anonymous. I’m not alone in this, I’ve been using a great forum (here’s a plug www.stevepavlina.com) and my impression is that the only people who tend to reveal their identities work in this field ie life coaches etc. This probably isn’t entirely the case but I think it’s a general trend.

Then there’s my internal ‘critic’ who says: “What are you doing wasting your time on this? It’s all ‘airy fairy’ nonsense/it’s weird/you’re just trying to escape from reality etc etc.” Or ‘blah blah blah’. It really does like the sound of its own voice, it’s just unfortunate that it has set up camp inside my head.

Of course everyone has an inner critic. I’m no expert but I assume this is the product of things we’ve been told by others during our lives, in particular during our childhoods. It’s also there to protect us against certain things, maybe from an evolutionary point of view. So if we were to suddenly feel compelled to go out into the street naked (could happen!) it would say: “Stop, don’t do that. You will look stupid and probably end up in prison, lose your job and friends etc.” That is quite useful. What isn’t useful is when it can’t get out of the habit and tries to stop us doing things which could enhance our lives if we can just push through the fear. Like getting a new job, or moving to a new place, or doing something new just because we want to and feel it will broaden our minds and experience.

I suppose if your mind has been used to thinking in a certain way for your entire life, new ideas can sometimes be threatening. This can particularly be the case, I think, with religious ideas which tend to be quite entrenched especially if you have learnt them at an early age when your character is being formed. I don’t think that religious and spiritual ideas are bad, far from it, but I think it’s good to be aware of the fact that we could be constrained by exploring different areas of spirituality by our conditioning.

Now when I notice the phrase coming up, I just laugh and take it in a light-hearted way and then focus on what I really do want. I remind myself of all the amazing people who do believe in this ‘airy fairy nonsense’ and the fact that focussing on positive, fun things, is a much better way to spend your time than focussing on the negative which just makes you feel terrible.

This is an excellent book about fear which was recommended to me by the amazing coach Kathryn Entwistle and which I have just suggested in the forum above for someone struggling with these ideas: ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway’ by Susan Jeffers. I have also suggested that they watch/re-watch ‘The Secret’. I especially like the part about John Assaraf’s vision boards but as you can see, I am slightly interested in dream boards (obsessed?). Not sure why, it just works for me!

Oh yes and something else truly amazing has happened to me this morning. I won’t post it on here as it involves a specific person who is quite well-known and very inspiring indeed but hopefully I can post something in the future.