This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of ICON/REFINED. 

We’re about to ask you to do something that we absolutely don’t mean to throw shade at. Go find the vision board or list of resolutions you made as the year began. Here comes the hard part: How thick is the layer of dust covering it? 

Don’t get us wrong, we’re fans of vision boards. They give you space to reflect and craft a future iteration of yourself based on your experiences and dreams. They encourage you to dream big, take risks, and build what you deem to be your best life. But the gap between dreaming and doing is a large one, when it comes to vision boards. While we can visually see our goals, we may not always put into practice how to take the steps to get there. 

And that’s totally okay. You are human. Sometimes, we lose sight of our vision because we need a more tangible and actionable focus. Which is where the following three-step refresh below comes in. This year, close the gap on dreaming and doing so your visions can be well on their way to becoming reality.

Step 1. Reflect

Reflective learning holds space for what no one, except you, can teach you. No one else has seen, interpreted, and felt the exact same experiences as you. Your mind’s eye is yours alone, which positions it as your unique teacher. Grab a notebook and prepare to transparently see your shining pearls and pitfalls with the questions below.

Take 15 minutes to journal your answers to the following prompts: 

1. What was a big moment so far for me this year?

2. When was I really proud?

3. Whose help am I most grateful for?

4. What have I already excelled at?

5. What would I change if I could?

Step 2. Talk It Out

Friends or family members can help us see perspectives we may have missed. If you don’t have anyone to talk to, try recording yourself, re-playing a day later, and listening for gaps and opportunities. If you feel brave, video record yourself and watch what the body language is trying to tell you. 

Start with the following discussion prompts: 

1. How would I describe this year in three words?
2. What has made me happy?
3. What has made me feel frustrated?
4. When was I doing my best?
5. Are there things I believe that might not be true?
6. Who or what is my biggest source of inspiration? 

Step 3: Plan

After thinking and talking, it’s time to plan your way forward. What do you want, and how will that look? 

This could be an individual activity, or it could be done as a work or family group activity. Grab two different color hi-lighters. Look at the notes you just journaled. Use one color to hi-light all of your shining strong moments. Use the other color to hi-light missed opportunities that you want to act on this year. 

Now, use the following prompts to pave your pathway forward:

1. Which of your top 3 strengths do you want to continue showing up? 
2. In which future situations will you allow these strengths to shine?  

3. What do you commit to start doing in the next 7 days to redirect one of your missed opportunities? 

• What do you need to learn? 
• Who will help you? 
• Who will hold you accountable? 

4. Which actions need to be done differently to lead to your envisioned result? 

• How will you modify these actions?

5. What do you need to stop doing in order to move forward? 

• What is triggering the behaviors that you want to stop? 
• What alternative action will you take every time the trigger shows up? 
• Who will hold you accountable for the boundaries you set with yourself? 

6. If the actions you have named are not daily actions, how will you break them into simple one-step daily actions? 

• Where will these daily actions reside in your daily time blocks? 

7. On a scale of 0-10, how committed are you to taking the actions you have named? 

• If your commitment is less than a 6/10, cross it off your list. Too many half-committed actions will become distractions from your vision achievement. 

8. How will you reward yourself for achieving at least 80 percent of your small daily actions each week? 

9. If you work with a team, how can you celebrate your daily and weekly wins?

Next Steps

First of all, pat on the back for you. Taking the time to answer these questions might have been challenging, but we’d bet you understand yourself and your motivations a whole lot better than when you first started. 

If your notes look a bit messy, tidy them up to replace or add to your vision board with the components of your new action board. Don’t hide it. Put it somewhere where you will see it every day. It’s like looking at a map as you take a trip. The action board reminds us where we’ve been and helps us decide the path to where we want to go.