My dear friends:

As we look to 2014 we find ourselves making new goals and charting our way into making changes in our lives that will fill a promise of forwarding our progression on a course charted for us because of an unfortunate event – the loss of a loved one. In doing so, we must look back at 2013 to see the lessons we were meant to learn and maybe even some lessons we still have to finish. But don’t look back too long. Just long enough to see it for what it was and learn from what did or did not happen. Make a new goal and move forward.

I find using a vision board helps me stay focused on the now in my life. I completed my first vision board about a year after my daughter’s death and it helped me to discover what I wanted out of life. It gave me some hope that life could be realized in a way that I could live out my days feeling like I could still make a difference. Being a mother for 17 years was what I knew and knew well. But I also had a successful career and needed to keep that going. Vision boards can help focus your journey, give life to new things, and give honor to those things that are now gone.

My vision board helped me understand that some things also change after time. And that it is ok. As I completed my first vision board – meaning things I had so lovely placed on it had either come to pass or no longer had meaning. As weeks and months wore on I realized I was losing my vision of what I wanted to achieve and began to slip back into a sense of unknown, a kind of listlessness and it had to stop. It was time for a new vision board.

As I began to form this new board I noticed some of the things I had on my first board still had meaning but appeared in a different light. So I allowed it back on the new board. Some things no longer held that same level of desire and I found new passions I wanted to achieve. The one trend I noticed was that I wanted more color back into my life. It has taken 7 long years to understand that living in a black and white world could only take me so far. It was a safe place. If I wanted to live with purpose – I had to let color back in. Some days I like the safety of my old black and white world, but I also understand that all places of the past can only serve but a limited purpose. And that is this…. To show you how far you have come and gives you fuel to find a renewed passion for life.

Like all things that put our life in perspective whether it be journaling or vision boards, one thing I know is true and that is goals propel us into living a life with meaning. Find your passion and write about it. Cut out pictures of examples that remind you of what happiness means to you. What makes you smile? Don’t take it too seriously. Don’t think about it – just do it. The results will be amazing. Your life will have more meaning and you will see that life can again be colorful.

Until next time

m