Clear the Way

In January, Lindsey C. Holmes, owner of Newark, New Jersey-based brokerage firm LCH Real Estate (with an additional office in New York City), was frustrated by a slowdown in business. She knew she needed to raise her visibility, but it was difficult for her to remain optimistic with all of the negative news about the economy. So she was intrigued when a speaker at a conference brought up the topic of vision boards——graphical representations of what one wants to achieve in life. According to the speaker, a vision board would add clarity to her goals and serve as a constant reminder and motivation to keep working toward them. Recognizing that her mindset was the first thing she needed to change, Holmes gave it a try.

“I wanted to focus my thoughts,” Holmes says, so the 26-year-old took a 13-by-17-inch sheet of construction paper and looked for pictures that symbolize career success. To represent her desire for more clients and increased revenue coming from multiple sources, she cut out pictures of hundred-dollar bills and had them raining down across the page. Then, “I took the word ‘Flash’ and put pictures of cameras around it, because I wanted to increase my exposure,” she says, keeping the dream-inspired collage on her wall where she could see it every day. In the six months before Holmes created her vision board, she had 10 promising business leads; in the six months afterward, she’s counted 40. “That’s massive for a small firm during a ‘recession,’” she says.

What Holmes experienced was not magic, but she believes it was the result of using a vision board to prioritize her intentions for her business. That, in turn, inspired her to take steps to realize her vision, says Dee Marshall, business coach and president of Raise The Bar L.L.C., a coach

ing firm in Newark, New Jersey. “With a vision  board, you’ve got these positive images in front of you,” says Marshall. “The images help you envision what you  want in your  career, business, and how you want to live.”

The monetary bills on the board inspired Holmes to stay positive and make those extra connections that led to referrals. The cameras reminded her of her quest to raise her profile and prompted her to say ‘yes’ to some invitations she might otherwise have turned down. As a result, “I started getting invites to a lot of exclusive events that helped jump-start my career,” Holmes recalls.Vision boards aren’t a new concept, but they became the subject of renewed interest when they were mentioned in 2006’s The Secret–a film and book by Rhonda Byrne (Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group; $23.95), which explores the law of attraction–the belief that people’s thoughts, both conscious and unconscious, dictate the reality of their lives. Even media mogul Oprah Winfrey admitted that prior to the 2008 presidential election she created a vision board and put on it a picture of the dress she would wear to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s inauguration.

While you can put images and words symbolizing your goals on a poster board, a vision book (which offers more privacy) with pages devoted to different areas of your life is also an option. Marshall adds that no matter what you create, the images should be readily accessible to look at on a daily basis. “The purpose is to have this front and center so that you’re focusing on this from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed,” she says.

To a certain degree, vision boards ignite the law of attraction by forcing you to think about your dreams, says Nicole Cutts, chief executive officer of Washington, D.C.-based success coaching firm Cutts Consulting L.L.C. “The process of gathering your thoughts to create a vision board helps you clarify your vision,” she says. “Once

you’ve created the board, whenever you look at it you’ll have even more thoughts about your goals.” Why is that important? It’s harder to ignore your goals or put them on the back burner when you’re constantly thinking about and reviewing them, she explains.

Regardless of why they work, experts agree that a vision board can be a great motivational tool as long as one is willing to follow up with actions toward his or her goals. For example, Winfrey didn’t rely solely on her vision board; she actively campaigned for President Obama, as well. Thus, you also have to take the necessary steps to bring the image–your dream–to fruition.

“Vision boards allow people to move with intention closer to what it is that they are yearning to have in their life,” says Marshall. “They remind you why you get up in the morning.”

This article originally appeared in the August 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.