Have you ever crafted a vision board - i.e. a visual representation of your goals - yet, not manifested it? Whether you have created it or not, in today’s post you are going to learn the missing piece nobody speaks about, the one you must add to your vision board to stop wasting time and manifest what you want to achieve in life.
Vision boards have become a famous tool in recent years thanks to personal development gurus, but above all, after the release of the book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
It explains how the Law of Attraction works.
Yet, I believe it doesn’t give you the whole picture.
In brief, the book says that you attract into your life what you think about the most.
Thus, if you think about what you want out of your life, you will achieve it.
But, is this enough?
If it was so simple the world would be full of achievers.
Yet, there are more dreamers waiting for the Universe to grant their wishes than go-getters.
Many people think that by investing time visualizing the beautiful things they have on their vision boards, it’s like sending out a request to the Universe.
At some point and somehow the Universe will give them what they dream about.
Thus, most people passively wait for their life to change without doing anything - apart from visualizing the ultimate goal - to make it happen.
WHY HAVING A VISION BOARD WITH YOUR ULTIMATE GOALS IS LACKING IN EFFECTIVENESS
Having big dreams pictured on your vision board and visualizing them - a supercar in your garage, a mansion on the beach, an athletic-looking body, an amazing partner, etc - can be helpful to outline exactly what your goals are.
Yet, something is missing.
That’s why so many people do not manifest what their vision boards show.
Apart from waiting for the Universe to give them what they want, they emphasize the ultimate goal too much, without taking into consideration their current situation.
They sit on the couch in their rented apartment - with a job that barely enables them to make ends meet, with their empty fridge - staring at the mansion or the brand new supercar pictured on their vision board.
How does this make them feel?
Probably failures! The gap between where they are and where they want to be looks unbridgeable.
So, even if they start taking action towards what they are trying to achieve in their life - when the challenges come around - realizing they are still far away from the ultimate goal they give up.
THE MISSING PIECE TO ADD TO YOUR VISION BOARD
To make your vision board and visualization effective you need to add the “bridge” between where you are and where you want to be.
You should focus on and visualize the tough stuff you must do to get the life you want.
Let me give you two examples.
1) You want to run a marathon. You shouldn’t merely focus on crossing the finish line.
You should picture and visualize what it is like having to train five times a week, even in freezing weather, when it’s raining or when you feel damn tired. Yet, you do it anyway.
Visualizing the “bridge” is the way you train your nervous system, mind, and body to be ready for the hard work and challenges that are inevitable during the pursuit of any goal.
So, it’s fine to have on your vision board an athlete crossing the finish line smiling and celebrating, but, don’t forget to add someone running in the rain, an alarm clock that shows 5 am - time to get up and do the run.
In a nutshell, don’t overlook the tough stuff.
2) You want to start your own business and make money online.
If you do like most people you visualize yourself living the digital lifestyle you dream about.
You see yourself traveling the world, moving from Caribbean islands to New York or wherever else while you make money on your laptop.
But what is the “bridge” you need to focus on?
Visualizing yourself working in a day job, coming back home late at night, and instead of watching Netflix or going out with some friends, you sit at your desk and put in the work to build the successful business you want.
You visualize yourself at the weekend attending webinars, online courses, or Youtube videos to learn the skills you need to run your business, instead of spending time with the people you love.
You see yourself turning down one party invitation after another because you are damn committed to building your online business and living the digital lifestyle.
These must be the sort of things you focus on - the tough stuff - so you’ll be ready when the time to face them comes.
Every goal implies challenges to overcome, so you’d better get ready.
It will still be hard, but at least, through visualizing the challenges you will have already had a taste of what it might be like.
Thus, you will be less likely to give up and more likely to follow through.
In other words, by visualizing yourself taking the necessary steps to succeed you equip yourself to go out there - in the real world - and get what you want.
Guess what, the more you visualize yourself going through the challenging times, the less the physical and mental resistance stopping many people from making their dreams come true will hold you back.
Bottom line: having big dreams pictured on your vision board is fine, it is a great reminder of what you want, but, remember to add the stuff that you don’t feel like doing - the “bridge” - that is what’s really necessary to achieve your ultimate goal.
STILL DOUBTFUL THAT THE MISSING PIECE REALLY WORKS? HERE’S EVIDENCE FROM SCIENCE
If you still have any iota of doubt, maybe some scientific evidence can help you resolve it.
In a study, researchers at the University of California asked one group of students to visualize themselves getting a great grade in an exam.
They asked another group to visualize themselves putting in the work and studying for the exam.
The students who visualized themselves successful scored lower in the test than the students who visualized themselves studying.
Students who visualized themselves studying when it was time to put in the work, devoted more time and effort to prepare for the test and ultimately scored much better.
Dr. Neil Farber lists other interesting studies in Psychology Today, for instance:
Similar results to the ones mentioned above were found for golfers and tennis players.
They were more successful if they imagined themselves training rather than winning.
Moreover, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that fantasizing about an idealized future decrease the likelihood of success because it does not generate enough energy to pursue the desired future.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Your vision board, as well as visualization, can be an extraordinary tool to help you achieve your goals, provided you don’t focus only on the ultimate goal, but, above all, on the process.
Otherwise, it backfires.
When you envision yourself taking all the steps to move from where you are to where you want to be you prepare yourself to take the action needed to succeed.
If you repeat images of you going through the process, you will be more likely to overcome one challenge after another, and without even realizing it the success you are looking for will be yours.
Whether you want to complete a marathon, or become a digital nomad, visualizing the “bridge” will train your brain for success and give you a feeling of certainty.
You will start believing you can make it and you will.
What are the steps you need to take to bridge your gap?
The sooner you discover them and start focusing on them, the earlier you’ll bridge the gap.
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