Jack Canfield gave an excellent example of the use of a Focus vision board in his book, The Success Principles. John Assaraf created a vision board and put it up on the wall of his home office. Whenever he saw something he wanted or an experience he wanted to have, he would get a photo of it and add it to the board. Then he would see himself already enjoying the object of his desire. Five years later, he was moving into his new home when his son noticed a stack of boxes and asked him what was inside of them. Assaraf told his son that the boxes contained his vision boards. When he took out the first vision board, he saw pictures of things that he had already acquired such as a Mercedes and a nice watch. When he took out the second board, he started crying. Why? Because on the board were photos of his dream house and it was the very same house in which he was standing. He had added the pictures to the vision board only four years before he moved into it. Assaraf had a clear vision of the things he wanted. By adding images of those things to the board, his mind started thinking of ways to acquire to those things and in the end, that’s exactly what he did.
The Clarity vision boards are for clients who are not sure what they want but they do know that they want to make changes in their life. To create this board, they simply cut out or create images that intrigue them in some way. There does not have to be a particular theme or goal associated with the Idea vision board. If an image brings a smile to the client’s face, they do not have know why it does so in order to add it to the board. The purpose of this vision board is to provide the client a guide to what is important to them. They may not know how the images relate to their goal or dreams. However, after repeatedly seeing those images that triggered something in their brain, a pattern will emerge that will clarify their values. Gaining clarity on their values will allow them to gain clarity on their dreams and thereafter on their goals. Once they have gained clarity of their goals they can move forward and create a Focus vision board.
For instance, a client may say that they do not know what they want but they know they need to make a change. They then create a vision board that has pictures of beaches, a car filled with women, the Eiffel Tower, people bungee jumping and white water rapids. Those things may seem unrelated but by asking the client what each picture means, it would be possible for the client to recognize their need for adventure and travel. Once they’ve gained that clarity, they can move on to what kind of adventure they would like to have and where they would like to go. If they found the vision board useful, they could then make a Focus vision board based on those goals.
Written Visualization
Written visualization is another method of visualization. Written visualization does not have to entail writing in one’s diary. It involves in any visualization that is done by writing what one sees when they see their ideal life or dreams. Written visualization is primarily for those clients who learn best by reading and/or writing. It is not enough to simply give a general vision such as “I want to live in a big house.” In order for written visualization to work to its fullest extent, the client must be as detailed about their vision as possible and use the present tense. So, “I want to live in a big house” becomes “I live in a five bedroom, five and half bath house. It is on 100 acres and has a regulation size pool and tennis court.”
Writing down one’s dreams is helpful in many contexts. For instance, it is a good idea to have clients who would like to start a business to write down how they envision their future business. In their book, Sixteen Weeks to Your Dream Business, Nada Jones and Michelle Briody have readers write about their dream businesses in the first week of exercises. The idea is to get a big view of what the business is and how it will fit into your life. They recommend that readers identify what their company will offer, where they plan to conduct business and why the reader is the right person for the job. Those questions are the “hard” business questions, meaning things that clients may put into a business plan. It is their next set of questions that address the “soft” questions that require more visualization. The authors ask readers to describe what their ideal place of business looks and feels like and what the reader’s ideal work life looks like. By answering these “softer” questions, the readers begin to imagine their dream as a fully realized accomplishment. Their goal is to open a business. Answering the hard and soft questions allows them to start thinking about their dream in concrete terms. By writing down the answers to these questions, the reader has presented their minds with a problem to solve and the mind naturally sets about working on ways to solve the problem. As Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert comic has said, when someone writes down a goal, they will
observe things happening that will make that objective more likely to materialize.