Vision Board

At the risk of sounding like a complete dork, today I made my first vision board.

A vision board (also called a Treasure Map or a Visual Explorer or Creativity Collage) is typically a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you’ve torn out from various magazines. It’s simple.

The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

In preparing for Comrades next spring, I have found myself with a long journey and one in which I have Comrades as the ultimate goal, but other goals to hit along the way to help enhance the journey and to help me complete Comrades to the best of my ability.

Usually, I stay pretty motivated just without any visual cues. Occasionally, I will hang something up on my bulletin board to remind me of what I am shooting for. Usually a race brochure or race profile. For Ironman, I just had the mental image of me crossing the finish line to keep me going.

This goal, I decided that one image wasn't enough. So I got out my magazines, my scissors, some pictures and little rubber cement and started creating.

So, here's what I came up with:

If you didn't get it from the pictures:
To prepare for Comrades, I am running the Miami Marathon-- where I hope to pr. Additionally, I want to focus on my health: drink more water, strengthen my core, trim down, go faster, etc. I wanted to remember my friends who will be with me in Miami and Durban, Becki and Heather. Watching Heather get her BQ-- and see how close I can get to one... In February, I want to run the Moab Red Hot 50k as a distance measure, so I wanted some Moab picts. And of course, I wanted to highlight Comrades with symbols of their race and everything I can't WAIT to experience in South Africa (Durban, animals and African culture).

I hoped to capture it all and I think that I have (for me). I finished it and hung it up in my office where I will see it every day and already it has helped. I can't wait to go running in the morning. I hope this feeling stays with me and I hope the board is a constant reminder of all that I am shooting for.

Call me a dork or call me motivated. I don't care. :)