File 27:  In today’s file, the team explores the benefits of vision boards and life boards.  They each talk about how they approach these tools in their own lives.  This conversation springs from a new experience Jamie is working through that took an unexpected turn, at the outset.  The team welcomes their podcast producer, Jim Ray, to participate with them in the discussion.

The Executive Coaching Experience

Jamie shares that she’s recently begun working with an executive coach at Building Champions. One way the coach has challenged her is to be more intentional about herself.  That came as a bit of a surprise.  It wasn’t exactly what Jamie was anticipating, although she knows it’s been an area she’s often overlooked, while helping others. 

Jamie asks Molley whether she uses a vision board and to explain her overall life-planning process.  When Molley’s kids were young, the family would create vision boards during the Thanksgiving break.  It was interesting to see how those young brains worked.  They’d cutout pictures and color the poster board based on where they saw themselves in a year.  As a result, it became apparent that they needed to do something more. 

While Molley sees the value in using a vision board, life-planning is bigger than that.  Assuming the average lifespan is between 70 and 80 years old, she suggests making a grid comprised of 80 squares.  Put an X in each of the boxes that represents as year, up to your current age.  The visual is typically a grid with many fewer boxes remaining, that you might have initially thought.  Is it worth being as stressed out as we probably are?  Where do we want to be in 5-10 years?  What will retirement look like?  How do we begin taking steps to make the life we want to live in retirement?

Jamie admits when she considers what the future is going to look like, she has trouble bringing that vision into focus.  Jason suggests that may be one of the reasons she elected to begin working with a coach.  Jamie comments she feels she does a nice job of talking about intentionality in the professional setting, but when that conversation is focused inward, she struggles.

Producer Jim relates to Jamie.  As a sales professional and sales manager, he knows how to craft a territory strategy for revenue growth, it becomes much more difficult on the personal level.  You realize how quickly time has passed.  The thing we used to value may no longer hold as much value in our lives.  He’s never built a vision board, so he’s looking forward to this discussion.

Creating a Vision Board and a Life Board

Molley explains how someone might view a vision board, until they finally accomplish one of those items on the board.  Then, the process, focus and meaning begins to fall into place.  Jason admits it may feel a little “woo-woo.”  But, by placing an item on your vision board, it holds you accountable.  In fact, he’s been doing vision boards for roughly 20 years. 

Jason divides his board into a work column and a personal column.  There might be 4-10 items he lists that he really wants to accomplish in the upcoming year.  The important aspect is that it’s measurable.  It may be a dollar amount, a specific number of days, or some other trackable objective.  This way, he “knows what done looks like.”

Interestingly, he also resists removing items from his board, unless there’s a major intervening factor.  He wants this board to stare him in the face.  While his primary board is a 1-year timeframe.  He also creates a 3-year, 5-year and 10-year version, enabling him to focus on long-term aspirations.

At age 50, Jason comments that understanding the limited time he has left may sound a bit morbid.  Molley recasts that perspective as, “How you’re going to feel your joy.”  These are an outline of the steps he’ll take to achieve that joy.

Jamie asks how Jason and Molley got started with their vision boards.  Jason had just left a corporate job.  He wanted to take a year off. The board was a collection of activities he wanted to experiment with, such as consulting, becoming fractional senior leader for a small company, etc.  Within 4 weeks of leaving his corporate job, he became a fractional marketing VP and had a consulting client.  He was astonished by how quickly these items became realities.  He knew it was time to take another crack at his vision board. 

Jason explains that once he added something to the board, he’d take time to work backwards to determine what would have to happen in order for that vision to become manifest.  For most motivated professionals, having an item on a vision board can be a significant source of focus and determination.

Jamie came up through her education learning about servant-leadership.  There was a focus on helping others to live the lives they wanted to live.  When she took her first step at creating a vision board, it was very emotional for her.  It was strange to begin thinking about what she wanted, as opposed to having to think about what everybody else wanted. 

Jason points out that he has to remind himself to determine whether a vision is focusing on something he wants, or rather something he thinks he should do because others in his circle are doing it.  How many times are our wants/desires constructed by other people?  He recommends you find out what’s right for you.  While you may not have a defined concept of the end state, you can at least begin to clarify what the next several steps will look like.

Molley shares that her vision boarding experience began when she got laid off.  She’d spent the previous 11 years sacrificing for her marriage and kids.  He role involved significant travel.  She admits she felt emotionally tied to the job.  It defined who she was.  When she got laid off, she was devastated.   

She took 2 weeks to sulk and drink too much wine.  After that, she committed to never letting someone else control her mind the way that job had done.  After some time, she admitted to herself that she didn’t want to work as hard has she’d been doing.  She began to understand the fallacy of the need to keep up with the Jones.  After all, they weren’t paying her mortgage. 

As she began looking at the items on her vision board, she began thinking about the things she’d need to do to empower herself to get there.  The hard part was balancing that with her husband and kids.  Looking back from 2008 onward, it’s been a gamechanger.  There’s been a realization that the people who matter the most are her husband and two kids; everyone else is a bonus. 

From a practical standpoint, Molley admits she hopes to be a caretaker in the lives of her grandchildren.  So, what does she need to do to ensure that happens?  If she wants to take her family on 1 trip a year, what needs to happen to make that possible?  How does she begin to create those experiences?

Molley suggests you create a life board and the big items used to populate your vision boards actually come from the life board. 

Striking Balance when You’re Pulled in Different Directions

Jamie discusses how whenever a successful woman is presenting or speaking to a group, the question always comes up, “How do you make time to balance all of it?”  She believes it’s also true for men who are building a career.  How do we resist setting our hair on fire, just to keep everyone else warm?  We need to establish meaningful boundaries.  It takes practice.

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