Goals
Hello, December! This is the month to…
How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work
How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work
Creating a vision board is a fun activity and some people hold vision board parties filled with friends, fun, laughter, music, and food. Who doesn’t love a party and what’s not to like about cutting out photos of your ideal life?
However, some people are quick to dismiss vision boards as being “woo woo” or magical or as a creative puzzle that just doesn’t work. Whether your vision board will work for you or not boils down to a few simple tips; follow the tips, and you’ll likely see success. Ignore the tips and you’ll likely get distracted, frustrated, and angry that you wasted time making the board.
Less is More
Typically, people like to fill a gigantic piece of cardboard with dozens of photos of their hopes and dreams, everything from the dream mansion by the ocean to the diamonds and private yachts. But how can you focus on achieving all those big-ticket items all at once? Most people can’t focus on multiple goals at once – especially huge ones – so they get distracted and miss important opportunities. Edit the number of photos you use on your vision board and decide which of those goals you want to reach first.
Prioritize Your Goals
What is most important to you: working a 4-hour workweek or living by the ocean? The fancy sports car or the ability to travel around the world? These are just examples, of course, but you need to prioritize each photo you find and really ask yourself WHY you want this on your board. Is it truly important to you or is it a flashback from your childhood? If a photo isn’t important to you, your subconscious will know that and you will only get distracted or confused about what you should be working toward.
Take Action
Vision boards are not mystical or magical; just because you put the photos together and post it in your office doesn’t mean things will start magically appearing. Even if you want to win the lottery, you still need to take the action to buy the ticket, right? The same is true of vision boards. If you want to buy your first home, take some action: do some research or hire a realtor, talk to a mortgage broker to get pre-approved, and then increase your marketing efforts to find more clients.
Believe that You are Good Enough
Mindset is everything when it comes to making goals a reality. If you fall victim to the negative self-talk that says you’re an imposter or undeserving of reaching greatness, then you will be less likely to take action toward those goals. How many times have you talked yourself out of creating a class or program because you think, “Who wants to learn from me?” Changing your mindset and releasing the blocks that hold you back doesn’t happen overnight but when you hear those negative thoughts invading, say out loud, “Why NOT me? Why shouldn’t I be the one to reach success? If not me, then who and why do they deserve it more?”
If you’re willing to take action, you will reach your goals. If you want things to be handed to you, then you’ll remain stagnant in your business and in life. Vision boards are tools used to visualize your goals and dreams and WILL work if you use the tool correctly.
Did you know TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind?
A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!
Inside the Inspired Action Mastermind, we are an intimate group of entrepreneurs, all of which are committed to the success of one another’s businesses. It is a mastermind that provides the support and guidance you need to help you move your business forward. Because, when you’re in the right mastermind group, you can start to see your business and yourself through someone else’s eyes as you support one another and leverage each other’s experiences.
If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.
How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work
How to Know if Your Vision Board Will Work
5 Ways to Make Vision Boards Work for You
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I love vision boards. Vision boards are meant to be a tool to focus on what’s important in your life – focus on your family, business goals, or living a carefree lifestyle. Make Vision Boards Work for You
What you need to know about vision boards is that how you create your vision board or what it looks like aesthetically doesn’t have any bearing on how well it will work.
If you have the Martha Stewart crafty gene in you, make your vision board as pretty as can be. Add pieces of fabric, paint an abstract background with your favourite colours, or dig out your long lost scrapbook supplies and utilize those beautiful printed papers and fun stickers.
However, if you are ANYTHING like me, you don’t have a crafty gene nor have the desire to develop a crafty side – have no fear: you can still make a no-frills vision board that suits your style and that will work!
Cork vision board.
Buy an inexpensive corkboard and use thumbtacks to attach your photos. Using tacks makes it especially easy to move your photos around or to take some off after you’ve reached your goals.
Vision books.
If you have multiple goals for different parts of your life, then creating a vision book keeps all those goals on separate pages but still compact in the same book. A simple journal or a larger scrapbook serves the purpose. However, make a concerted effort to look at your book every day or find a unique way to keep your vision book where you can see it often instead of closed up on your bookshelf.
Digital vision boards.
For those who can whiz around the internet at the speed of light, digital vision boards are time savers. Search for a free template or use Canva’s grid template. Simply upload your photos and quotes to your chosen template and save. Save it as your wallpaper on your computer and phone. Go one step further and get it professionally printed on photo paper at your local photoshop.
Hang a single photo.
In a 60 Minutes interview, Adelle said that she hung a photo of an Academy Award near her treadmill where she saw it every day, just to keep that goal at the back of her mind. She reached that goal in 2013 when she received the Oscar for her song from the James Bond movie, Skyfall.
Write a vision statement.
For those who are born wordsmiths, forget about the pretty pictures and write out your goals instead. However, write it as a letter to yourself, 10 years into the future. Describe what you’re doing and where you’re living, among other things, as if you’ve been living that life for 10 years and are giving an update to your long lost friend. That’s exactly what Luvvie Ajayi did as a training exercise for her job. She went from being laid off from the job she loved to be a NY Times Bestselling Author! You can read Luvvie’s story here.
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So much time is spent describing traditional vision boards but as you can see, creating a non-traditional vision board or writing a vision statement is just as powerful. The most important point is voicing your goals and taking action to achieve those goals. How you package up your vision is completely arbitrary.
TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind!
A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!
Inside the Inspired Action Mastermind, we are an intimate group of entrepreneurs, all of which are committed to the success of one another’s businesses. It is a mastermind that provides the support and guidance you need to help you move your business forward. Because, when you’re in the right mastermind group, you can start to see your business and yourself through someone else’s eyes as you support one another and leverage each other’s experiences.
If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.
Make Vision Boards Work for You
make vision boards work for you
5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals
5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals
Do you set goals for yourself, either in your personal life or for your business? If not, how do you know you’re growing or making progress? When was the last time you allowed yourself to daydream about the type of life you want? What is your WHY, the reason behind all the long hours you spend on your business?
Creating a vision board has become a popular activity in recent years, especially as the New Year approaches and people think about the past year and the New Year’s resolutions they want to keep. A vision board is simply one tool that helps you visualize your dreams and your goals. How so, you ask? Let’s explore 5 ways vision boards help you reach your goals…
Vision boards make you focus on what’s important to you.
Whether you combine a personal vision board with a professional one or keep them both separate, thinking about what you want in life or in business forces you to prioritize what’s important. Do you want to buy your first house or move to a warmer climate? Putting a photo of your dream location by the beach will inspire you to work harder and not undercut your prices. If you want to move, you alone can make that happen and you’ll make better business decisions based on that desire to move.
Visualization stimulates the creative side of your brain.
Placing your vision board within sight of your desk or computer serves as a daily reminder of what you want to achieve. Some believe keeping it open by your nightstand helps stimulate your subconscious before you go to bed, which makes you motivated upon waking. With your creativity soaring, keep a notebook handy to jot down any ideas you have for a new course or coaching program you want to create.
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Focusing on goals makes you recognize new resources or opportunities.
Visualizing yourself living in a warmer climate (or whatever your primary goal is) will motivate you to work towards that goal but you’ll also notice new opportunities or resources which can lead you to reach your goal. These resources may have always been present but now that you’re focused on your goal, you will see them in a new light: as a way to help you reach that intended goal.
Break out of your comfort zone by stating a big, scary goal.
Are you stuck in a rut because you’re afraid to break out of your comfort zone? Acknowledging big goals – as scary and outrageous as they may be – will help you step out and take on new challenges, all in the name of reaching that scary goal. If your goal is to speak in front of an audience of 5,000 at your favourite conference, then you’ll start to see more opportunities for smaller speaking engagements. These smaller gigs will give you lots of practice and build your name recognition so when the organizers of your favourite conference advertise they’re looking for speakers, you’ll be well prepared to submit your name.
Seeing a big goal forces you out of the daydream and into action.
Nothing happens without some action on your part. Vision boards are not magic tricks; they are instead a tool that spurs us into action because we finally have clarity and know what we want out of life. Visualize your ideal life then approach each day with action steps that will lead you toward that ideal life.
Aside from these reasons, creating vision boards can be a very relaxing and fun family activity. So grab some glue and some old magazines and start daydreaming!
Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals
vision boards help you reach your goals.
Hello, October! This is the month to…
How to support other women in business!
Do you support other women in business? Do you know how you can, even if you are not an entrepreneur?
Supporting someone doesn’t mean you have to make a huge commitment on your end. A support group does not necessarily need to be made up of the people you know, it can also come from complete strangers.
Here are four different types of support you can provide, when think you can lend a helping hand — big or small.
Emotional Support
Starting a business is not easy, for anyone. It comes with stress, anxiety, and loneliness to name a few things. Emotional support is important, it makes a big difference in someone’s life when they know others will have her back and be her shoulder to cry on.
Instrumental Support
When you are providing instrumental support it will involve taking care of another’s urgent and immediate needs. This can be as simple as stepping out to grab her lunch, or as big as investing in her business. Both are equally important.
Informational Support
Being able to provide non-judgmental guidance, advice, or mentorship, without expecting a return. This type of support is especially needed from those who have been there and done that, and have a long-time thriving business and can impart wisdom.
Accountability support
I love having an accountability partner, an outside point of view and a person to hold me accountable for my goals. Can you be that person for someone? Providing a gentle push forward, and remind them to stay on track and are capable of moving forward and finding success?
Even if your business has nothing to do with the woman’s business you’re supporting, I am willing to bet you are able to fill the void of one of the above to support another woman in business!
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Support Other Women In Business
How to Craft Great Blog Titles
I’ll let you in on a little secret. The most important part of your blog post is your title. Here’s how to craft great blog titles.
How well you write, how well-researched your content is, or how pretty your images are means nothing if you can’t get readers to click through and start reading your post. And the single most important thing when it comes to getting readers’ attention is having a great blog post title.
It’s also the most important on-page factor when it comes to SEO. So, if you’re hoping for lots of free traffic from Google and all your favourite social media sites, you need to be good at crafting great blog post titles.
Start With Your Keyword
The key with great blog post titles is to strive for a balance between a title the search engines will like and one that your readers will find interesting and engaging enough to make them want to click on it. To get that balance just right, I like to start with a keyword or key phrase that I want to rank for in the search engines.
Open up your favourite keyword research tool – like the Google Keywords for example – and play around with it until you come up with the keywords or key phrases you want to rank for.
For the sake of illustration let’s say our keyword example is “best blog hosts” and the post will be a review of five of the best hosting companies for WordPress blogs. “best blog hosts” is the keyword we want to rank for in this example.
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Make It Interesting
Now that we have the keyword, it’s time to make it interesting for our readers. There are plenty of different ways to turn our example keyword into an interesting blog post title. Here are a few ideas:
· The Three Best Blog Hosts Reviewed – Read This Before You Sign Up
· Looking For a New Home for Your Blog? The Best Blog Hosts Reviewed
· My Top 5 Best Blog Hosts Revealed – Here’s Who I Recommend
· Wondering Who The Best Blog Hosts Are?
· Is Your Host One The Best of The Best Blog Hosts List?
Do you see how this works? Start with the keyword and then try to think about why your readers would be looking for this information. Focus on what’s in it for them by sharing content that will help them out.
Stay Authentic and Stick With Your Style
Last but not least, stay authentic and stick with your own style. This is particularly important if you’re an established blogger. Don’t just copy and paste the blog post titles above. They may not reflect the style and tone of voice of your blog posts. In other words, they may not be you. Balance the need of the search engines to easily find what you’re content is about, the need to keep things interesting for your readers, by using your own voice.
You may find it helpful to write a few different blog post titles down and then chose the one that resonates most with you (and hopefully with your readers).
Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to read 52 Blog Ideas for your business, who couldn’t use 52 blog ideas?
Hello, September!
Are you ready for sweater weather? September has arrived!
