I’ve been feeling off lately. I don’t know if it is a mixture of the baby coming and me being on the other side of the country, if it is Tim’s constant talk of moving home and being homesick, if it is the whole “not going home for Christmas” thing, or maybe just the season change, but my body has been sending me mixed signals as of late. I’ll be anxious, or tearful, or just feeling kind of old and settled.
I was visiting a wonderful Aunt recently, and upon my telling her of my “old-ness,” she laughed right in my face (as she should have). She has a way of saying ‘you are so young still, you have the whole world in front of you’ without actually saying those cliched words, and so began an inspiring conversation. “What do you want to see in your future?”, she asked. Travel? I have lived on both sides of our country, traveled Europe for a summer with all the girls in our family and lived in Costa Rica for a summer. Volunteer? Those six weeks in Costa Rica were spent volunteering. Fall in love? I have a wonderful man in my life who I love so very much. My “old-ness” was making me resistant, wanting my settled life to start before I am really done living my young life.
I hesitated. “I guess I’ve always wanted to spend more time in France, and I’ve never been to New Zealand.” As she saw my mind starting to open up to these ideas again, she encouraged me to make a vision board.
I really had no idea what a vision board was, but after she told me, I thought that was exactly something I needed to do.
So, that is my goal for the next little while. I guess I should set a date, right? By the New Year, I will have a vision board completed and it will be a concrete way of starting my life goals and keeping myself accountable.
Immediately, I saw a beautiful and quaint home, kind of like this vision board.
But of course I want beauty in my life. I need to push myself more, and think in terms of the scary future of my career.
I need to focus on money, and where my money is going. How am I providing for my family?
What am I doing to make this world a better place?
I am hoping that this activity will encourage myself to stop feeling settled, and to feel as though my life is more of a path, to remind myself that with effort, drive and determination, I can create that path to be whatever I want it to be.
If there were any related posts we'd list 'em here...but this one is pretty unique!
Awesome post leah!! Really. Got me thinking!
I completely understand what you’re saying. I sometimes suffer from those feelings as well. I think a lot of it is being so far from home. The vision board is a great idea. I can’t wait to see it!
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..We did it! =-.
Can you recap what exactly a vision board is? I think I get the jist but yeah, what is it?
Come to New Zealand! We’ll show you a good time down here!
I know exactly how you feel!! The vision board sounds like a great idea!
Yes! Awesome idea. I made TWO smaller (more manageable!) vision boards – one for my office and one for home. I found that using more pictures and less words worked the best for me. I’m also going to try to ‘change the landscape’ of the boards from time-to-time to keep them fresh.
For extra inspiration I went for some good-looking cork boards with custom frames on them. FWIW, I picked them out online at http://www.wholesalecustomframe.com/ . I’m sure there are other places as well, but this place was pretty cheap.