I know. At the beginning of the year, you wrote down your goals for the year. (We did, too.) You found the right pictures and created your Vision Board. (We did, too.) And now it’s all blown out of the water. (Ours is…Wait. What? That’s not true!) Right now you must be wondering what becomes of your Vision Boards in the time of Quarantine.
Yes. Some plans have been blown out of the water. I get it. I’m living it. Right now. This was the week we were supposed to be in NYC and Connecticut visiting family. It’s been 1.5 years since we left and we haven’t seen any of our family since then. We were supposed to go last September but then a hurricane Dorian blew by the state and up the coast. And now a devastating virus ruined our plans this time. (I’m beginning to think I should stop planning trips to Connecticut.)
Time to Evaluate
A lot of things have changed in the last couple of months. Even your job might have. Maybe you don’t have one to go back to. Or maybe you took a new job in order to keep working. Or you worked through this entire crisis and found that your job will no longer take place in an office, that you’ll be working from home from now on.
Right now I’m working from home. Something I thought I’d never be able to do. But turns out, it’s ok. And boy does it free up my time. I used to spend almost an hour each way on my commute. Now, I have that time back. Does this mean I’ll always be working from home? We don’t know yet, but they aren’t in any hurry to bring up back to the office, which I really appreciate.
What about you? Do your goals for your current job still fit your Vision Board goals? If not, it’s time to start thinking about what those new goals look like and write it down.
And then you should look at each section of your Vision Board. Review your health, your home, your travel, spiritual, side-hustle, work out/health goals. And any other goals that you have up there. Take into account how your workout goals might change if you decide you don’t want to go into a gym anytime soon. What else will you do? Maybe your travel goals change as well and become local trips to areas that are uncrowded.
Each time you find a goal that is going to change for you this year, then start planning out how you’ll fit in that goal this year…if at all. Maybe your/our trip to NYC becomes a goal for next year…after a vaccine has been found. It gives you/us time to plan more, save more, and look forward to it some more. Because we all know that looking forward to a trip is part of the fun and excitement.
Update Your Vision Board
Now that you’ve reviewed your goals. It’s time to update or maybe even create a new Vision Board. Look for pictures that fit your new goals. If your goals have changed because of the quarantine, what can you replace them with? Do you need a brand new Vision Board or do you just need to make some changes to some of your goals?
Start by laying out your current Vision Board and placing the new pictures over some of your old goals. Are you covering up a majority of your old Vision Board? If so, then it’s time to start over with a fresh board. If not, then either remove or cover up the goals that have changed and place the new pictures down.
And let’s really be honest here. For some people who are struggling without jobs, with a slow response to unemployment payments, the daily focus is about food. And maybe the Vision Board is just about root or basic needs. Getting food, finding enough money to pay the bills. That’s a huge reality down here in Florida where it’s possible to have both spouses dependent on the hospitality economy.
It’s ok, if that’s what your focus needs to be for now. Nothing is more important than meeting those root needs.
The Way Forward
Whether you need to make changes to your Vision Board or not, this is not the time to throw out the Vision Board or think it doesn’t matter. During this stressful time, we all need routine and satisfying things, and reminders to fall back on. Reviewing your Vision Board and picking out what makes sense for you right now is a great way to keep that routine. Or creating a new Quarantine Vision Board that helps you focus on your root needs right now is ok, too.
For my husband and me, we just focused our energy on different areas of our board. Our overall goals haven’t changed. We’ll still travel back to visit our relatives at some point but for now, we’re staying safe, focusing on our health, and even getting in more exercise than previously with our daily morning walks.
Since Chris is a hotel banquet chef, we don’t expect him to go back to work anytime soon. So he’s been studying PhotoShop, learning how to edit his photos and taking more pictures. It’s something that was on our Vision Board this year and now he’s taking advantage of his downtime to learn a new skill.
For me, I’m keeping my focus on those things that I can control right now like ensuring I exercise each day. Trying to watch what I eat…although, let’s be honest here, in times of stress…more carbs are a necessity. Yes. More carbs. And I’m sticking to!
What are you going to focus on in quarantine? How do you find that routine and keep your eye on your goal?
I have never done a vision board before, but find myself thinking both about decisions that affect future plans and my desire to get something concrete out of this time. Personally, i know that I need more time and to give it more thought, not that I want to hold up society from re-configuring itself for my sake. Part of any hoped for success is a belief that there are lessons to be learned and behaviors worth changing. Trying to stay open to the possibilities and intentional in seeking answers. Thank you for this post.
A Vision Board is just a visual reminder of your goals. If you are a visual learner or even a hands-on learner, it’s a great tool to remind you to be open to those things that might help you achieve your goal quicker. Sometimes, we keep our head down and just focus on what’s in front of us, forgetting to look at what’s going on around us and how that can also help us to achieve our goals.
I’ve actually had the same vision board for 18 months… and yes, it’s still viable. I spent time the past 2-3 weeks rethinking my vision… was it still “right” given everything. And yes, the vision is correct… it’s just some of the HOWs are changing. I still want to be active – it just will not be going to classes, which really helped my accountability, so I need to figure out a new how. It was helpful to do that thinking and to then begin to ideate on new hows. Not that I’ve gotten that part done, but at least I’m happy the vision is still “right”!
Some of our “whens” have changed but I’m happy our Vision is still on track as well! Thanks for stopping by, Pat.
Vision boards have always amazed me. I’m not much of a creative, however, I am a huge goal setter. I have several friends that create their vision boards each year and have an incredible time with it. I promised I would jump in on it next year!
Thanks for stopping by, Lucia. Why wait to create a Vision Board? You can create one for your next project. Your next goal. Your next month. Your blog. Your…
I like the idea of choosing areas from your board that are still viable and focusing more attention on them Jennifer – your husband and his photography is a great example. I don’t use a vision board, but I can certainly see how the pandemic has muddied the waters as far as future planning goes (esp in the short term) so getting back on track over the next few months will be really important.
Thanks for linking up with us at MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM ?
I am actually thinking about making another vision board ..funny you should write this.. Using your excellent book as a guide
I’m so glad you’re using my book.