When taking the Mayo Clinic Wellness Coaching course, I felt surprised by how much they focused on having coaching clients create a wellness vision.
I knew businesses created visions, but the idea of a personal vision felt woo-woo to me, so I didn't expect it to be so heavily emphasized in an evidence-based course at a top-tier medical and research institution. I had previously mostly only heard of personal visions in the context of the law of attraction, an unscientific philosophy that I disagree with on a fundamental level.
But you know what? It turns out envisioning the future is evidence-based. And the power of visions to create major change is pretty cool, because envisioning is essentially just being creative and imaginative about your own life, and being creative and imaginative is so fun. Which means making lifestyle changes can be…a fun creative practice. Who would've thought?
Visions don't work for the superstitious reasons law of attraction followers often claim — you actually cannot magically manifest anything you want by imagining it and believing it possible. But they do work by providing a focus and reminder. With a vision to keep turning to, a person is more likely to change their behavior and identity in ways that help make the vision a reality.
A vision can be expressed in multiple ways. In a sense, my word of the year is a highly distilled vision. Many visions are written down as a single sentence or paragraph. I've also seen writing exercises that call for a detailed day-in-the-life vision that might span multiple pages.
For 2024, I created a vision for myself in the form of a vision board. I chose something visual because, since being diagnosed with ADHD, I've learned just how powerful visual reminders are for me. (And just how easily I forget about things when they are out of sight).
Canva has free vision board templates, so I went with one of those to keep it simple. I used images I found online. Then I paid to have it printed as a 12"x16" poster (which only cost $12 with shipping…not bad) and hung it on the wall next to my vanity mirror, so it’s in my line of sight multiple times a day.
I won't break down what every aspect of my vision board means, because that would put me over word count and maybe feel too personal. But I will share that a sloth sleeps an average of 15 hours per day, can only move about 10 feet per minute, and "falls out of a tree once a week for its entire life."
Hashtag goals. Sleeping, moving slowly, and not caring if you mess up? Just how sloths are. They don't question it or apologize for it or feel embarrassed of it or try to hide it or attempt to mimic some other type of animal that's faster and less clumsy. They just chill and look happy as hell constantly.
🎙️This week, I finished artist Lisa Congdon’s podcast. I’m not a big podcast-listener, so I think it took me nearly a year to get through all 41 episodes. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in creative living and personal growth. You don’t need to be a visual artist to enjoy it. She interviews many creative people and talks openly about therapy, relationships, social justice issues, and so much more. I’m really glad I devoted time to this podcast. :)
The final episode surprised me! Her topic was “loud quitting,” and she discussed all the things she’d removed from her life in recent years. Most of the podcast hadn’t focused much on this process, so I hadn’t seen it coming. But her process of removing things from her life in order to find ease somewhat overlapped with what I did in 2023 and wrote about here.
I love this so much! "All sloths are anatomically designed to fall and survive." HASHTAG GOALS INDEED.