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The lobster is the best part... Every vision board needs a lobster...
My husband's family has a fairly unique tradition, or at least it seemed so until I realized there's actually a recent internet phenomenon coinciding with it. After our first New Year's Day several years ago had passed by, I found him buying poster board at the local convenient store. When I asked him what it was for, he said it was to do "Vision Boards".
I blinked. "Vision boards?"
He nodded as if I should have known what on earth he was talking about. "Yes, vision boards... You've never done a vision board?"
I shook my head. "Erm... no."
On the way home, he explained the concept to me. Inspired by Habakkuk 2:2 ("Write the vision down and make it plain on tablets, that he may run that reads it."), every year instead of making New Years Resolutions, he and his family would take poster board, decorate it, and use magazine clippings, pictures, and other artistic snippets to make an abstract collage of their goals and visions for the upcoming year. For my husband, previous to this year, he would include things like pictures of Kauai to represent our honeymoon and wedding, images of MMA fighters to represent his goals in martial arts, pictures of famous chefs and food to represent his culinary pursuits...
It wasn't until this year that I really latched onto the vision board craze when I realized a unique use for this sort of technique as a writer. I happen to have far too many projects to keep track of at one time: multiple films, freelance articles, two novels, several screenplays, and a comic book series. Realizing how hard it was to focus on each and not get distracted with other things, I decided to use this technique to put all of my upcoming projects onto one board, to act as a reminder whenever I sit down at the computer.
Vision boards are not the only way to do this. For the more organization focused, you could make a single page for each project that maybe includes a list of specific steps to see that project to fruition. If you're Photoshop-savvy, you could put something together there and have it professionally printed (or just tape it together page by page yourself). If your walls are bare, make something digital that acts as your wallpaper on your computer or iPod.
The goal of this exercise is to put something in view that reminds you to turn off the television, shut off the video games, set the kids to play somewhere else in the house, and pursue your goals... In our case, to write. As with all techniques, this will work for some and not for others, but if you're the visual sort, consider giving this a whirl. If you need local magazine clippings, scavenge around local waiting rooms for unwanted back orders of 5280 Magazine or load up on brochures at the information center on 16th Street Mall.
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