Hello 2015: Vision Board

Hey Y'all & Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone, and it is time for me to make my New Year's resolutions. In the past, I would create this elaborate list in my head, but by the end of the month, completely forget about it. However in 2013, I found a solution to my problem: Create a Vision Board. The inspiration came from my older cousin Shannon. She wrote a facebook post about how she created a vision board and was slowly accomplishing her goals. After reading, I grabbed my art supplies and some magazines, and after about an hour, I made my first Vision Board. Since then, every New Year's day I pull out all of my magazines, art supplies, and previous Vision Board  and start to plan for the new year. This year, I thought I would share this activity with you all and hope it inspires you to have an AMAZING year!

What You Need:
1. Cardstock Paper and/or Poster Board
2. Ribbon
3. Magazines
4. Planner (OPTIONAL)**
5. Decorating Tools: glue (or tape), scissors, markers, glitter, stickers and scrapbooking cut outs
6. Pictures (OPTIONAL)**

The Process
 1. I like to start out by searching through all of the magazines and find pictures, phrases, and quotes that I would think are inspiring and will motivate me to achieve my goals. The more stuff you rip and cut out, the more creative you allow yourself to be when you start to plan everything out.

2. The next step is to decide what goals you want to include on your board. If you have a board from previous boards, evaluate what goals you accomplished and those you didn't. From here, form your list of goals. They can be anything that you want to achieve this year or start working to achieve; the goals have to be important to YOU!

3. Now this is the creative part. Taking all the magazine cut out and any other decorations you have, start laying out where you want to place things. You can always Google to brainstorm for more ideas of how to set it up. The key to the vision board is making it personalized and something that YOU would be proud of. Don't be in a rush to glue everything down, make sure you have included everything you want and have arranged it perfectly; create a balance within the pictures and decorations. Also, any magazine clippings that you don't use can be bagged up and stored away for next year.

4. The final step is to step and admire your masterpiece! For best results, I have found that if you place your vision board somewhere that you will see it often, it keeps your focused on actually achieving the goals. It's cool to list the goals and make the board, but you have to make and actual effort to accomplish everything.

** I made the Planner and Pictures optional because these are items that depend on the individual. A picture can be used to tie into the focus of your vision board. If it is about your career include a picture of your office space; if it is about you family, use your favorite family photo. This helps you keep your eye on the prize and remember your purpose. The planner can be used to set time stamps. If their are certain things you have (or want) to get done by a certain date, use your planner to help remind you. By doing this, the date doesn't sneak up on you!

I can't wait to get started on my board and show you guys my results! If you get so inspired and decide to create a board of your own, you are more than welcomed to email me OR post on instagram with the hashtag #LALVisionBoard2015.

- Lindsay J

For more Inspiration and Tips, here are some of my favorite post.
- Christine Kane
- Happy Black Women
- Huffington Post
- Simplifying 101