A few weeks before the end of the year our sales team met to complete their Vision Boards for 2018. I walked into the Design Studio right about the time when the crafting got real. There were scraps of paper, glue sticks...there was even a paper cutter with a massive blade like the ones they used to have in elementary school before everything became too dangerous for elementary school. I mean, there is just nothing like the slicing noise of a serious paper cutter, am I right?

Anyway, I lingered over shoulders oohing and ahhing as each person narrated their board. Big dreams on paper, in living color. I felt the buzz of a strong team manifesting their personal and professional success. It was intoxicating.

I decided I wanted to make my own Vision Board. I told my coach about it and she agreed we'd each make one and hold each other accountable. Once you tell your coach, then you know it's on. Great coaches will not abide you putting it out there with no follow through. If they do, it may be time for a new coach.

I don't know why I haven't made one in the past. I'm super visual. I'm almost visual dependent. Like, I can barely listen to books on Audible and if I could figure out how to get subtitles on my TV I would turn them suckers on because I'm just a girl looking for a hard copy. A blueprint. A floorplan. A recipe. Back of a receipt - gimme something I can scribble on and the information stays in my brain. Otherwise, I'm all, huh? What was that? It sounded brilliant but I can't remember and now I have to rewind and I've missed my exit. Audible + me driving...it needs work and it might not even be safe.

So during a cross-country flight after Christmas, I decided to create my Vision for 2018 using my new Papermate Markers from Santa (aka: my oldest daughter, Amelia, who actually listened in Staples when I told her I was obsessed with those markers.) I started drawing before the plane took off and the next thing I knew...we were landing. My brain was entranced...I got lost in this meditative state like I sometimes do when I'm running. It was magical. I felt like I was casting a spell on the whole year and I knew exactly how to get where I wanted to go.

I'll admit it: I'm obsessed with my Vision Board. I made it my lock screen on my phone. Goodbye picture of me with my daughters in scenic Lake Arrowhead, hello hopes, dreams, mantras and goals for 2018.

I gotta say, 22 days into the year and it all feels inevitable. It's been a big year already. I know 11 more months will tell how it all pans out but right now, I just feel like my Vision Board really gets me.

This obsession has led me to question whether all successful creative people I know have been making Vision Boards for years? I feel like I'm 20 years late to the party. Have there been secret crafting sessions? I'm now completely fascinated with all the different ways people dream and make it happen. Do they speak it? Write it? Whisper it to a loved one? Or keep it locked up tight for a big reveal at a later date? Whatever the practice, if it gets you there, keep doing it. I hope it gets us all there.

I read a quote recently that made me cling to every word of my Vision Board. It said Hell was getting to the end of your life and meeting the person you could have been. [Wide eyes, big gulp] I took this to mean YOU as your average ordinary self meet the version of YOU as your highest and best self. The person you COULD have been?! That is some new fresh Hell right there. Who wants to MEET that person? You want to BE that person! And you can. Get some markers, vision that person out and get to it.

This ain't a rehearsal.