How To Accelerate Your Future And Stop Regretting Your Past

Imagine working an unpaid summer internship.

That sounds great if you ignore the reality that:

…you graduated from college four years ago with a nearly perfect GPA;

… you have a child to take care of;

… you have rent to pay and you’re racking up credit card debt to keep food on the table; and 

… you’re battling depression because you keep thinking “I should’ve been more successful.”

That was my story. 

Today, I’m sharing what to do when you are struggling with the idea that you’re not where you want to be right now in your life. 

There are many times that you could feel like this: when you’ve lost a job, when your income is lower than you expected, or when you’re looking around at all your friends getting married and you’re still struggling to have one good date.

This happens to all of us. So let’s dive into the strategies you can use to calm your soul and guide you when you’re not where you want to be in life. 

How to Create Your Ideal Future

No matter where you are in your journey, what plans you have for your life, you can always count on change. And, you can often work with that change, in order to create the life you really want.  

Understand that these feelings are a part of the journey

Creating your perfect life is a process.

It is full of highs and lows, ups and downs. Emotional swings are all part of that.

Your feelings will change as time goes on.

Focusing on your goal and how you expect to feel when you create that life can make the journey easier.

The voice that tells you “I should’ve been further along by now” is one you can ignore because everyone has a different journey.

Your journey to the person you want to be, the future you want to have, is completely unique and will take its own time. You can't rush it. 

Visualize what your ideal future looks like

You need to know what you want your new future to look like in order to make it happen.

A vision board is a perfect tool to help you discover what your life will be like in your ideal future. It’s a reminder that even though you’re not where you want to be, you know what you want and you’ll get there. 

You won’t know if you’ve reached your goal if you don’t spend any time defining what the goal is.

Related Content: Everything You Need To Know About Creating A Vision Board

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Create a plan to turn your ideal life into your reality

Once you have your vision board, it’s time to move into planning mode.

Break down the steps that you need to take to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Refer to your vision board as often as you need to, especially if “I should be more successful…” pops into your head. 

It will pop into your head from time to time, but you’ll be able to combat it with your plan, your vision, and especially, a group of people who support you.

Find a group of people to cheer you on

Everyone needs a support system, and it’s not unusual for that group to include friends, family members, co-workers and other women making moves in their lives.

These should be people who you feel comfortable turning to when you’re excited and making progress, but they should also be people who will listen when you’re struggling

People who understand what you’re goals are and what you’re going through can help you navigate the journey. They can provide a boost of positivity when “I should’ve been further along” pops into your head. They can also share their experiences and help you avoid mistakes that they’ve made.

Take small steps, consistently, to move toward your ideal future

Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

Each time you take action based on the plan you’ve created, you’re making progress.

This is true even if you can't see it. 

If you continually take steps to create your ideal future, one day you’ll wake up and feel surprised and joyful when you realize that you’re not in the same place in life anymore. 

Let go of the outcome

A vision, a plan, and action are key to manifesting the dream life you want, but there’s another important piece to remember.

Clinging to a specific outcome or expectation of when things should happen may bring you stress, and that’s probably the opposite of what you’re looking for. 

 Along the way, you might find that your ideal life looks a little different than it did in the beginning. That’s okay! 

It’s important to keep your initial vision in mind, so that “I should’ve been further along,” is less powerful, but it’s also important to be open to what may happen.

The events that shape your ideal future just might surprise you, and bring more power to your plans. 

A vision board is a fantastic tool to guide your path and shush that inner voice that says “I should’ve been more successful.”

You have to take action to bring your ideal future into reality. These three steps can make a huge difference in how your journey progresses, especially when you have steps two and three on repeat. 

1. Create a vision board of your ideal future.

2. Write down three things you can do this week to take a tiny step towards creating it.

3. Be kind to yourself.

Your journey will not be a straight path from birth to success.

There will be roadblocks and setbacks, but the key is to know that you’ll get through it. You’ll create your own path. 

Instead of giving in to the occasional feelings of discouragement that do happen, focus on how you’ll feel in your ideal future. Act as if that future is now, and let your energy and vision board be the powerful tools that guide your journey. 

In the comments, tell us what your ideal future would look like.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

4 Ways to Inspire Your Wanderlust with a Travel Vision Board

I was ready for an exciting change. 

I’d spent the last year paying down my debt. To make that happen, I had spent most of my time at home on the couch, watching Netflix with a glass of wine. It was the cheapest way that I could “treat myself.” 

I skipped out on happy hours. When I did go, I only got one drink. I passed on expensive nights out. 

Although I was bored out of my mind, I felt proud that I was able to make massive payments on my student loans. I knew that the sacrifice was worth it. 

So, it should be no surprise that the following year, I was ready to break out of my shell and make a few changes.

I needed more excitement in my life. I slowed down my payoff journey, pushing out my debt-free date by 6 months to enjoy the journey I was on. 

By the end of that year, I traveled to Liberia, Connecticut, Atlanta, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, and Jamaica... and I did it with a travel vision board.

Related Content: Everything You Need To Know About Creating A Vision Board

In this post, I’m sharing exactly how I manifested all of my travel goals using a travel vision board so you can do it too. 

What is a travel vision board? 

A travel vision board is a collage of all the places that you’d like to travel to. Pictures, magazine clippings, quotes, city names - anything that is inspirational to your travel bucket list.

It sounds simple but there is POWER in visualizing your goals. 

Related Content: 5 Techniques To Visualize Your Goals And Dreams In Under 5 Minutes

Can I really use a vision board to travel the world? 

Yes, vision boards can help you set your intentions for your future and manifest the goals you set. Vision boards serve as your motivation and inspiration throughout the year for any goals, including travel.

Related Content: How Do Vision Boards Work

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How to bring your travel dreams to life with a vision board 

A travel vision board is a great way to remind yourself of your wishes to explore the world, but a visual reminder is just the start. Here are a few things you can do to ensure that your travel vision board works as hard for you as you do in your everyday life. 

Convince yourself first

Manifesting doesn’t start with the pictures. Instead, it starts with the belief that you can travel more. You can alter your life to align with your desires.

 Often we’ll tell ourselves that we’ll travel “at some point” even though we have big dreams to travel right now.

Thoughts of “someday” don’t always have quite the right amount of motivation behind them. So, put the energy of your voice into it.

Say it loud: This is the year that I will travel!

Now say it again.

Related Content: 5 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams Using A Vision Board

Visualize your life as a traveler

What would you do if you truly intended on traveling this year? Would you go to work every day? Would you work overtime and have no time for yourself at the end of the day?

NO.

You would do research on the places you wanted to visit, save money to travel to your favorite locations, and take time off that would allow for your travel to take place.

In short, you would take action.

Visualize yourself taking those actions.

Choose the types of images you’ll put on a travel vision board

The images you choose need to be powerful enough and personal enough to motivate you. So choose your images carefully.

Look for images that show what happens before the traveling: research, budgeting, packing. You might also want to include photos that give the feel of coordinating with friends if you plan to travel with other people.

Use photos that depict the travel you’d take.

Pictures of your ideal locations, your travel companions, activities you’d like to try.

For example, if you’d like to go to Athens, Greece, images of Greece and The Parthenon would be great if you enjoy seeing museums.  

The Louver and the Eiffel Tower would be great images for travel to Paris.

Incorporate images that showcase the feelings and emotions you will have when you travel. For example, use images that show people laughing, smiling, kissing, or star-struck.

Source photos for your travel board

When you look for images that you’d like to use, use magazines, like Conde Nast Traveler,  Sunset, or Travel are great options. 

Related Content: What Magazines Should I Use For My Vision Board? Effective List of Do’s & Don’ts

Pictures of yourself and friends are another great option because they inspire the board with the energy of your personal connections. 

Or, you can use printables, like the ones we’ve included in our Vision Board Starter Kit. 

Related Content: How To Make A Digital Vision Board

Create a collage representing your life, complete with locations you’d like to travel to

Your vision board will bring all of these things together to inspire you to travel. Really take the time to think about your goals and bucket list.

You could journal, talk to co-workers, visit a travel agent, or chat with your partner over a glass of wine to help you decide and prioritize where you want to go.

Be specific with the places you want to go and the activities you want to participate in.

Related Content: Why You Must Start Living Your Dream

Take actions that will make the travel on the vision board your reality

1. Imagine yourself as a traveler. 

2. Write down 10 things you’ll do with your days as when you reach your travel goals. 

3. Take action on one of those items, and remember how it feels.

Becoming a person who travels starts with YOU. If you believe that travel is in your future, you’ve got to act like it.

Your future depends on the actions you take every day. Take the actions that lead the way to your greatest travel dreams. 

Take the first step and announce the first location you’ll put on your travel vision board in the comments below!

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

How To Create A Vision Board Without Magazines

Since I started this journey of hosting vision board parties, I have been a huge magazine collector. Seriously, I have a stack of over 100 magazines sitting in my closet at any given time. 

However, as I talk to more people on their journey to create a vision board, I notice that one of the largest barriers to actually creating a vision board is not having magazines. (And no one really wants to buy magazines at $4.99 each from Walmart. You’d end up spending $60 on magazines!)

Today, I want to talk about how to create a vision board without magazines. 

Why is a vision board important?

Before we jump into the “how” of vision boards, I want to get really clear on the why. Just in case you’re not sure why so many adults are spending all this time on an arts and crafts project. 

A vision board is a creative outlet and a personal development tool used to help you get clear on and prioritize your goals. It gives you a point of focus for your time and energy. Your vision board is also a visual reminder of the goals you set for yourself and what you’d like to accomplish over a set amount of time. 

What can you use a vision board for? 

My first vision board helped me to get into graduate school and, ultimately, land my dream job. 

You can use a vision board to achieve your goals in all areas of your life, including finances, career/business, family, health, relationships, and spirituality (or any other goals you’d like to focus on). 

Related Content: How My First Vision Board Party Turned My Life Around

Vision Board vs. Mindmap

As a visual tool for goal setting and personal growth, vision boards can also get confused with mindmaps. A mindmap is a tool to brainstorm different ways to approach one specific goal. 

For example, if you want to sell more books you can use social media, email marketing, blogging, speaking at events or paid advertising. You can brainstorm all of these in a mindmap. However, if you’re creating a vision board, you’d focus on the goal of selling more books within the context of your life. 

Maybe you also want to spend more time with family, take an adventure and sell more books. You’d use images and quotes to show how many books you’d sell and how you’d feel when you told those books.

Related Content: What Changes When You Create A Vision Board 

How To Make A Vision Board Without Magazines

While magazines are most used for vision boards, you don’t need magazines to create one. If you don’t want to save magazines all year long or buy a million magazines from the store, you can try these alternatives. 

Related Content: Why Vision Boards Work and Why You Should Create One

Personal photos

If you have some photos of people you want to spend time with, activities you want to do more of, or feelings you want to embody, then you can use any personal photos you have of family, friends or yourself on your vision board. 

This year, I wanted to spend more time with my friends and have a little more fun with life. I put an image of all my friends at Friendsgiving. Every time I look at that image, I remember the feeling I had that I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have so many wonderful and powerful women around me. 

I know that I want to bring that feeling with me into my new year. 

Affirmations & quotes

These are always good ideas to put on your vision board, especially if you have a great affirmation in mind. And you don’t need magazines at all, you can simply type them up yourself! 

You can use quotes from books, Pinterest, Etsy, old journals or a simple google search, type it into a word document and put it up on your vision board. 

One year, I wanted to make $75K and I could not find that exact number in any of my magazines. So I took a green marker and printer paper and wrote $75,000 in large numbers and put it right in the middle of my board. 

Create a digital vision board.

Another great option to create a vision board without magazines is to build a digital vision board using whatever creation tools you’re comfortable with. 

You can use Canva, Powerpoint, Photoshop, Publisher or create a simple Pinterest board to make a digital vision board that you can save as your phone background.

Anything crafty you have at home.

If you’re a super-crafter like me, you likely have stickers, ink stamps, glittery things, card stock, and nice markers. Let’s be real, you are creating a visual for yourself. That means you can do this your way. 

If you were ever into scrapbooking, I’m sure you have some great supplies.

So take out any crafting materials you have and start creating, my friend!

Take Action! To start your vision board now: 

1. Decide what goals you want to achieve in the next few months.

2. Brainstorm the images that would embody that goal (you could even use a mindmap).

3. Use any of the tools above to start creating your vision.

If magazines aren’t giving you the right inspiration or you don’t want to pay for a bunch of magazines, then don’t use them. There are no rules to creating your inspiration. Whether it’s quotes, family pictures, stickers, affirmations or computer printouts, use whatever will motivate YOU to continue working towards your goals.

What’s the number one goal you’re going to put on your vision board?

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

Three Types of Profitable Vision Board Parties

The first time I charged money for a vision board party, I nearly fainted. There was this feeling in the pit of my stomach that said, “You’re not an expert.”

“You literally created one Vision Board… and now you’re charging people for an event!?”

“You haven’t even hosted an event before, what makes you think you’re ready!?”

Luckily, I had a friend who reminded me of my worth and that I was capable of doing this. She encouraged me not to give up on my mission. 

See, my mission was clear. 

I’d suffered a bad breakup, failure after failure, bad credit, hunger and depression - and my vision board helped inspire and motivate me through all that pain. 

I knew that this vision board thing worked, without a doubt. If I could reach a larger audience, I could change more lives. 

That’s what I intended to do. 

Related Content: How My First Vision Board Party Turned My Life Around

I paid for a larger space - with no idea whether they’d pay. 

I paid for all the decor - with no idea anyone would be there to see it.

I reached out to speakers so good, I’d be embarrassed if they had to speak to an empty room.

And I went to work.   

That first vision board party sold out, and so did the second… and four years later, I’m hosting several vision board parties a year. 

Can anyone host a profitable vision board party? 

I firmly believe that we connect to each other through stories. If you have a strong story that can help people find their own clarity and accelerate their journey, then you can help people create a vision board. 

And it might just change their life.

DO I NEED COACHING EXPERIENCE? 

Don’t get me wrong, vision board parties are a great addition to coaching services because coaches are actively helping people on their life’s journey. 

Because of this, coaches will have a deep understanding of your customer's challenges and how to serve them best.

That information is key to hosting a profitable vision board party. 

However, if you’re active in your community, helping people, teaching others to get results, and If you’ve created massive change for yourself, then you can host a Vision Board party with confidence. 

Three Profitable Vision Board Parties

There are three types of vision board parties that I’ve personally hosted and have made money from in the past. 

THE VISION BOARD WORKSHOP

This is very hands-on and tactical. A vision board workshop is similar to a college class or workshop. It’s typically 2-3 hours long where you walk people through focused activities (possibly worksheets). 

This is a deep dive into goal setting and vision clarity. You are typically the only speaker, walking people through concepts, similar to a professor or coach, guiding your guests through a journey.

This is an excellent option for people who don’t consider themselves to be “event planners” because you don’t have to plan an entire event. You’re focusing on the core content of goal setting and the activities. 

THE VISION BOARD CONFERENCE 

In a conference, you structure a full day of clarity, goal setting, and vision boards. This is different from a workshop because this can include several speakers, food and drinks, sponsors, and vendors. Vision Board conferences typically will take up a full day, and you can have a Vision Board workshop as one of the sessions. 

This type of event requires more time to prepare for but can be highly rewarding because you’ll make a connection with other speakers locally, establish yourself as an influencer in this area - and charge a higher ticket price. 

Related Content: Vision Board Party Planning: How to Set Ticket Prices For Your Event

THE VIRTUAL VISION BOARD PARTY

For people who don’t like going outside in the wintertime (like me), a virtual Vision Board party can be the way to go. It’s similar to the Vision Board workshop, but everything is done entirely online. 

There are several benefits of hosting an online event. You don’t have to worry about finding a space, ordering food, buying wine, or wearing heels. (Seriously, you can simply wear a nice shirt and no pants if you want on a virtual event 😂.)

This is great for people who have a mostly online audience and who are comfortable interacting in an online space via chat and live video. It’s harder to make that personal connection online, so you’ll have to work a little harder to create interaction between guests.

How To Get Started Right Now? 

1. Choose the type of event you want to host.

2. Choose a date, time, and location that you want to host your event at.

3. Invite your audience!

Hosting a profitable vision board party can be isn't easy, but it's totally doable if you're committed to improving lives. If you find the right type of event that works with your personality and what your audience would like to attend, you’ll find a space where you can create transformation for your audience. 

What kind of vision board party would you love to host? 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party?  

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!