Do Vision Boards Work?

Last year I sat with a friend in my living room. Magazines littered the floor, clippings everywhere. Taylor Swift’s Reputation concert played on Netflix. I found myself doing something I never do: creating a vision board. Do these things really work?

Yes, that’s right. The girl who doesn’t like to set goals created a 2019 vision board. It felt ridiculous at the time. Random words, pictures, and phrases glued to a piece of cardboard. It’s not magic. There’s no destiny dust sprinkled on the pictures ripped, cut, and glued down. 

Can I tell you something? I’m sitting here now, officially 34 today and I’m staring at that same 2019 vision board in awe of what happened this past year. I could tell you story after story of events unfolding that I laughed at when gluing them to cardboard: Trail running, vacationing to an island, New York City with a friend, things about writing, or love. All of it, I rolled my eyes in 2019. Now, I can’t take my eyes off of 2019’s magic. 

A year later, January 1, 2020, I sat in a coffee shop in Chelsea, NYC and quickly listed off main events from the last decade in my notes app. I’m telling you, I don’t love setting goals. They shut me down. They feel restricting and suffocating. 

When I looked at the list of my life in a decade my breath caught. I realized I did not set goals; instead, each year held an intention. Each intention somehow turned into my hashtag over and over again on social media. 

A curious thing to me, how did that happen? I never planned it? I never declared “This is my word or phrase for 2016!” These intentions sporadically unfolded as life unfolded.

2015 Lead with Love

2016 My Safe Place

2017 What is my Life?

2018 Heart Out; Heart Open

2019 Just Show Up

For example, in 2018 I wore my Claddagh ring from Ireland, a gift from my sister, with the heart facing out. Tradition says when the heart in the ring is worn facing out it symbolizes singleness and openness to love. In my Irish heritage loyalty, I felt compelled to wear the ring the truest way possible: heart out. I am single after all. I didn’t feel open to love but this is the category I fit in.

I had no idea how many blind dates and direct messages from guys on social media I would sift through. How much pain it would cause. How much anger walled up my heart like a fortress. 

Slowly, over 2018, I chose to reconnect with people who helped heal that anger. Through a slow domino effect of events, I had coffee with a friend I once avoided at all costs. I could sit with her and talk calmly, peacefully, for the first time in years. 

I agreed to visit with another friend who needed support. Today, over two years of ongoing conversations I realize how much those continuous connections keep healing me. Two years! It took two years before I felt the truth of that 2018 phrase come to life: Heart out; heart open. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” 

In 2018 I never wanted to shift my heart to openness. It felt better to stay closed off. When my sister gave me that ring and I started researching the traditions with it, something shifted in my soul. I chose to wear that ring as a physical reminder of what I felt God asking me to do internally. I suppose that’s faith – believing in something you cannot see. 

I acknowledged God at some level. In Greek, acknowledge can mean various levels of acknowledgment. Recognizing someone who is famous, or a friend, or a family member. It’s understanding someone else. It’s a respect for others. It’s seeing someone else as they make themselves known. It’s an awareness at the root level. 

Perhaps when I put that ring on every day I was acknowledging I did not have an open heart and I needed God. As time went on, I began to acknowledge God’s presence in different areas of my life. That constant need for him led to an acknowledgment that intermingled in everything I did! I could not take a step without wanting to talk to him about it. 

Two years later, I firmly believe those yearly intentions or mantras or phrases or words or vision boards were not haphazardly glued together. No, those yearly intentions showed a tangible trust in the lord I did not know at the time. He delighted in me acknowledging him at every level: distant or intermingled. He delighted in lining up events and watching my eyes light up or my breath catch in my chest as I put the pieces together. I saw first hand his steadfast, faithful, loyalty over many years. 

Today, in 2020, I don’t know exactly what word, phrase, intention, mantra, or goal I will claim and probably use as a hashtag on social media. I do know I want to keep acknowledging more deeply the moves God makes in even the mundane decisions. I don’t have to make the right decisions. I don’t have to have the perfect plan. I just have to keep moving and recognizing that he is God and I am not. He is faithful to heal me. 

How are you acknowledging God in the daily areas of life? Are you acknowledging him like you would a celebrity? “Hey! I’ve heard of him before. Maybe he’ll see me.” Or are you acknowledging him like a best friend? Or a sweet trusted family member? Or an angry distant family member? 

Stop. Slow down and name the level of recognition you give him in your life today. He is a God who meets us where we are. He sees us. He delights in helping us recognize him more deeply. 

Whether you’re a vision board maker, a phrase claimer, a single word lover, or a goal-setting guru, maybe you start today with simply asking, “God, will you help me recognize you because I can’t right now?” 

Let him show himself faithful.

He is.

Two years from now you’ll see more clearly.