Something I’ve always wanted to do was create a vision board. I never knew what to make this board about though. It can be about anything.
When 2019 went down the drain, I decided to make a vision board filled with ideas and goals for 2020.
I never made it through. I actually forgot about the idea.
It’s fine though because 2020 was a dumpster fire – it was worse than 2019. If I had made a vision board I would have added “traveling” and… well, that wouldn’t have worked out.
In an attempt to go into 2021 on a positive note, I decided I was finally going to create my vision board.
Vision board creation for mental health
This was one of the most therapeutic things I had done in a long time. I chose to write about it as a mental health post mainly for that reason.
Not only is art therapy a great activity, but it really made me focus on things I want and need for the better. Rather than me saying, “I wanna do this!” and then not doing it and getting upset with myself. Or doing it and it doesn’t go according to plan, thus me getting upset.
Plus, I roped my sister into doing this with me so we each made a vision board. We went to our local craft store and spend money on things we didn’t need such as washi tape and scrapbook paper and lots of cool stickers.
I already had the poster board – in fact, I had two so it was perfect – for another project I planned on working on a few years ago… that I never did.
The poster board came into use eventually!
Once we got back from the craft store, we worked on our vision boards for about six hours before they were finally completed. It was a Sunday afternoon/evening well spent.
My 2021 vision board
I divided my board into six categories with 2021 at the top with two quotes I want to keep in mind for the year.
The left quote is:
The right quote is:
The reason I did this was that I was trying to make everything as even as possible. I thought I could have more than six categories but I couldn’t make the squares even otherwise. So, I filled the top with quotes and more stickers.
Each square is a category with goals in it for the year. I tried to come up with three for each category. I cut watercolor scrapbook paper into the size of post-it notes and glued them into the board for my goals.
Then decorated each square further with a quote and stickers.
Connect
This first square is “connect” so it’s all about friends and family. Here are my goals:
Reach out and/or make plans with friends and family more often
The reason for the and/or is because we’re still in a pandemic and there are some people I don’t feel comfortable seeing in person but still want to keep in touch with. Pandemic or not, whether I can get together with them in person or not, I want to reach out to friends and family more often than I do.
Not being able to see each other for the past year has been weird. I still keep in touch with my close friends through text and such but I feel like I could be doing more. I often lose myself in my work and forget my phone exists.
This is also for my anxiety too. I don’t reach out to people often because I feel like I’m bothering them or being annoying. So, I don’t. I wait for others to reach out to me.
So, I want to be a bit more proactive with this so I can show them that I’m still thinking of them too.
Collab with friends online more often
For those of you who don’t know, my sister and I run a video game website called Double Jump. We also live stream on Twitch. We’re part of a lovely online gaming community and have friends from around the world with who we keep in touch.
We used to collab with blog posts often and play games together. That sort of fell to the wayside due to my mental health along with the pandemic (despite this being online) and then the holidays hit and such and we just never got back into the routine.
My sister and I have a few collab ideas that we’d like to pursue this year and also keep in touch with these friends more often. In other words… I need to stop forgetting to check Discord.
Meet someone new
Is this possible since we’re still in the pandemic? I don’t know. But, if given the chance, I would like to go out and try something new and maybe make a new friend or something.
I don’t even know how I would do this since I don’t like talking to people, so we’ll see what happens.
Quote for this square
I chose this quote for this square because I don’t keep in touch with friends and family as often as I should. I pretty much work, babysit, then work some more. I also hate leaving the house so I need to work on that.
Fun
The category below that is “fun.” This is piggybacking from the “connect” category. I need to do a little more than just work all the time. I need some hobbies that won’t turn into work either.
Learn/try something new
What is this new thing? I have no idea. But I’d like to broaden my horizons with something.
Improve graphic design skills
In addition to learning something new, I want to try to improve something I already do.
I chose my graphic design skills for a number of reasons. I enjoy it and I use it for work (I know, I was just talking about doing something not for work), but it’s just a generally good skill to have in the world of computers.
Try candle making, photography, resin
Now that I’m writing this, I realize these three goals are all similar to each other. I want to try or learn something new and improve a skill.
In addition, I also want to do more candle making. I’ve done this before and would love to make this into a hobby. The last time I tried, the scents burned off and my candles were pretty much scentless. So, definitely improve this.
Photography is something else I want to get better at. I have a DSLR camera and want to learn how to use it better. I also want to be more open about taking photos.
I’ve thought about bringing it to my local pond or even just walking around my block but I’ve been self-conscience about what people would think I’m doing. So, I’ve never taken photos outside my backyard.
Resin is something I’ve always wanted to learn and try to create stuff with. Except, I don’t know where to start, so… I haven’t. I’d like to fix that at some point.
Quote for this category
This is a joke from one of my live streams. I still laugh at it often and thought it was appropriate for the “fun” category.
Career
Of course, I want to set some career goals for myself, so that’s the next category.
Open Spilled Ink shop
I’ve been wanting to open my own shop with products for readers and writers alike for a few years now. It’s been in the making for a long time and nothing has come of it yet because there’s a lot to learn when opening your own small business and selling online.
It’s been a learning curve and I’m planning on having it finally come to fruition this year.
Register as an LLC
I actually put “get a business license” on the board but I meant to write, “register as an LLC.” Between my shop and the services I offer, I think it’s time to officially recognize my work as a small business. This will help me out a lot in the long run.
Grow Spilled Ink services
Registering as an LLC is certainly a step in growing Spilled Ink services but there’s a lot more I want to do with it. For one, I created a new website for it that will be opening soon.
Quote for this category
This was my horoscope from a random day in October from 2019. It always stuck with me because patience, when it comes to work, is something I don’t have much of. It also just made me feel better about my career choices too.
Mental health
Of course, I needed to add a mental health section to the board.
Try more art therapy projects
I’ve always wanted to get more into arts and crafts and art therapy is fascinating to me. In fact, someone once told me they thought I should be an art therapist. For some reason, that always stuck with me, despite the fact I can’t draw or anything like that.
I want to try more art therapy projects to express my feelings more and explore the mental health space in general. The vision board was the first one and it worked out great.
Have “me time” once per week
I’ve talked about this already. While I want to connect more with friends and family, I also need to connect more with myself.
Get in an exercise routine and eat better
Yes, I consider this to be part of mental health. It’s physical health and nutrition as well, but the amount of exercise and different foods you eat also affect your mental health.
Plus, from a non-mental health perspective, I’m sitting on the computer for most of the day and I’d like to move around a bit more.
Quote for this category
This quote has always resonated with me. I think Peter Hollens posted it on his Instagram account a while ago. I have a few quotes from him on my board because he’s just such an amazing and inspirational person.
Finances
The next category is “finances.” Do you know what I learned here? I have trouble spelling the word “finances.” I don’t know why but this is a word I need to stop and think about before spelling. Who knew.
Save money/make travel plans with friends
In 2018 and 2019, my sister and I went on a weekend getaway with our friend. We had planned for it to be a yearly thing. Except, 2020 put a stop to that.
I don’t know if we’ll have the chance to go anywhere in 2021. I also don’t know how adventurous I’ll be. The pandemic mixed with my anxiety has made me hyper-aware of germs and I will never be able to look at the world the same. I was already nervous about airplanes and I have no idea when I’ll feel safe to get back on one.
So, that’s why I said to save money and make plans. Even if we are able to get away by the end of 2021, I think I’d rather wait to be on the safe side. For this year, we can decide where to go, for how long, and save money for a much-needed trip.
Save some money for school
Yeah, I’ve been wanting to go back to school. I’m not entirely sure why but I’d love to get my Master’s degree. The reason I stopped after my Bachelor’s was because I was sick of spending the money and I also didn’t know what to get my Master’s in. Marketing? Business? Something else? I wasn’t sure.
I’m still not sure. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to school, but just in case I decide to go back in the fall or next spring, I want to keep it in the back of my mind and have some money set aside just in case.
Set up an account and save for retirement
This isn’t something you learn about in school – certainly not for people who are self-employed and go into business for themselves.
I saw something on Pinterest about a retirement plan (not sure why it popped up on my feed, but oh well) and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
So, I’m setting aside some money each month into my savings for retirement. When I feel it’s safe enough to go to the bank and open an account for retirement, I’ll transfer the money I already saved and continue to save to that account.
Quote for this category
Another quote from another friend. This is another I wrote down because saving money, dividing it up, and starting your own small business is a roller coaster of ups and downs. It’s easy to get discouraged and… it’s super expensive and hard to make a profit, especially in the beginning.
Reminding myself that I and my work have value is something I need to do often.
Goals
Finally, I made a category for overall goals I want to achieve for the year. These are things I want to work on throughout the year, things I’ve been working on for a long time but let other things get in the way or I get discouraged for some reason or second guess myself.
So, I added these big goals to my board to remind myself to keep pushing forward with them.
Be ready to buy a house
My sister and I have been saving for a long time. Everything around us is so expensive so we’ve been saving as much as we can. However, we both think it’s time we start actively looking for a house.
Once we reach a certain amount saved (by the summer, I think) we’ll start really looking for a house. In the meantime, we want to attend some open houses and such just to get a feel for the process.
We don’t know if we’ll find “our” house by the end of the year depending on the market and what’s available, so that’s why I put “be ready” to buy a house for the year.
Hire an editor for George Florence book
This needs to happen. I’ve been working on this book for so long and it’s the best it’s ever been (I think).
So, I want to be in the process of hiring an editor by the end of the year. This includes actually having one or shopping around for one. I know it’s a process to find one you click with and it also depends on their availability. If I can have a couple lined up, if not one already hired yet, that’d be great.
The blank goal
Remember earlier I said I tried to come up with three goals for each category? I added this third one but didn’t write anything down because I couldn’t think of anything.
I wanted to make sure I had room for it in case I thought of something later.
I thought about adding, “complete 10 out of the 17 goals” on the board but I think that might be adding too much pressure to myself. If I only have eight completed by November, I’d start freaking out.
So, I left it blank. Maybe I’ll fill it in tomorrow, maybe I’ll fill it in during the summer. I want to see how the year goes. Anything can happen or change between now and a few months from now. A new goal might arise, so we shall see. Only time will tell.
Quote for this category
This is another quote from my year’s horoscope. I thought it was fitting based on my goals, wants, and needs.
What about the back?
The back of the poster board is blank.
To keep me accountable and to encourage myself along the way, I decided to document my year. I’m going to take pictures of my accomplishments, especially of the ones that are listed on the board.
By the end of the year, the back of the poster board should be a collage of pictures of any art therapy projects I do, new friends, moments with my family, any crafts I try, and more.
I’m looking forward to seeing what I accomplish this year!
