A few years ago I decided to change how I spent New Year’s Eve. Rather than going out, I decided to bring my focus in on my children, on my family, and on myself. So began a new tradition in our home: The Vision Board.
Each of us would create our own Vision Board that would describe our plans and dreams for the coming year. At the time my girls were five and thirteen, so I needed the project to be easy but not childish.
My girls and I went to the dollar store and bought poster board, glue sticks and as much glitter and decals and stickers as I could find. We searched through the garage for magazines only to realize that we only had two. I posted on our local “Buy Nothing Facebook page” that I needed magazines for a project and was able to pick up more magazines than I could imagine…free!
Then on New Year’s Eve my two girls and I got in our jammies, pulled out a table, got out our supplies, including a hand full of scissors, and started thumbing through magazines and cutting out words, pictures, letters, anything we saw that described what we wanted the upcoming year to bring us.
At first, my “boss everyone around” brain was trying to control how my five year old was building her vision board. This turned what I wanted to be a fun enjoyable evening into a bunch of mommy threats. So we re-grouped, I relaxed, and once I let them do what they wanted the magic started to happen.
As we were cutting, giggling, and smelling all the sample perfume packets we started talking, really talking. About silly things, about their friends, about what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was blown away with how casual and comfortable it was. How fun it was to spend New Year’s Eve with them doing a project with no rules other than to create a vision that displayed what YOU wanted.
We’ve been doing this for a few years now, and it has morphed into more than just my girls and me. My teenager invites her friends over for this event. (Can you imagine five or six teenage girls all in one place focusing on their dreams?) My youngest has a few of her friends over and I invite a handful of my “grown up” friends. Everyone brings a snack to share and we each make our own Vision Board.
My dining room fills with conversation, laughter, glitter and lots of little tiny pieces of paper flying all over. Some create a vision board on poster paper, some mount their vision on canvas and put Mod Podge over it. Under the spirit of no rules other than the vision board must show your dreams, the sky is the limit.
This has been a tradition in my family for several years now, and I keep our past vision boards. I love looking at our past dreams and how much of it we were able to make come true. How as my children mature parts of their vision shifts and parts re-surface year after year. Our Vision Boards help us focus on what matters to us and who we want to become. While building a vision of our future, we are creating treasured memories. Even when they are grown, I hope my girls and I will always take time at the New Year to capture our dreams for the coming year.
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