Vision Boards Work

Kaneisha's Love Vision Board

In The Secret, the authors advocate the use of vision boards to help attract the things you want to you. The authors assert that by having a strong visual image to focus on daily, your thoughts and energy attract what you want to you. In the book, a man creates a vision board with his perfect home–and then ends up owning that same home a few years later–even after he had completely forgotten he made the vision board. I decided to try this whole “visioning” thing out, and it works for me.

I often get ideas for books or movies and write them down in a journal my mom gave me that I carry all the time. Writing your ideas down is a great first step, but actually creating something visual to constantly remind you of your idea or goal is much more effective in actually having things happen to make the dream more of a reality. One day I got the idea for dating book based on best practices in business. For those of you who are familiar with my dating articles I write for Harvard, the book is similar to those in that it draws on business frameworks to teach career women how to date effectively. I decided to create a book cover for it without knowing how and when I would need it. I was proud of my creativity, but did not really know what would come out of it. I emailed it to my parents (yep, just like a Kindergartener with their finger-painting), and then just saved it somewhere on my computer without thinking much more about it.

A week or so later, I went to a campus presentation by Peter Olson, former CEO of Random House and now a professor at Harvard Business School, and he encouraged me to come visit during his office hours to learn about the process of getting an agent. I wasted no time in making an appointment to see him, and I pitched my book idea to him and told him I had a cover. To my suprise and delight, he asked to see it–and he liked it! That meeting was the beginning of what I am claiming as a mentor-mentee relationship (I claim my mentors and then wait for them to come around to the idea). Just one month later, I turned in a book proposal to Peter and he is passing it on to his fancy literary agent contacts to try and see if we can get me an agent and a book deal. Writing a real-live book proposal and handing it over to the most connected man in publishing who believes in me is like a dream come true. I didn’t realize how important writing a book was to me until there was a glimmer of that becoming a reality.

Shadiah's Vision Board

Last week, one of my best friends, Shadiah, and I decided to put my stacks of old Essence, InStyle, and O magazines to use and make some vision boards. She made one for the fabulous clothing boutique she wants to start, and I made one for love and dating (go figure). I cut out pictures of happy couples (of course Michelle and Barack were there) and phrases like “The Good Guys”, “The Happiness Bug,” and “Love”. Once I finished my love collage, I was quite impressed with my great composition, but I was also sure that anyone who saw it hanging in my room would think I was crazy–as if I had created some sort of shrine to love.  It turns out that no one who has seen it has thought it was crazy–and I find that my dating experiences have veered much more toward “the good guys”. This is a very good thing–and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Waking up every morning and seeing a poster with happy couples in love and positive phrases keeps me focused on what I want rather than encouraging me to focus on outlining all the things I don’t want. I think that my vision board has accelerated the process of separating out the guys who are genuinely interested in me and the ones who are just fishing for fun.

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