Vision Boards are a way to maintain motivation and maintain focus on your life goals. It’s one of those new-age semi-hokey things that I’m guilty of rolling my eyes at when I’ve read or heard of them, but I’m nothing if not open minded, and when I started making goals for this year, some of them loomed a little large, so a little extra help staying focused might be a good idea.
I made a Vision Board of the things I don’t want to lose sight of.
Let’s break this thing down
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Barrelman Triathlon – My first Half-Iron distance triathlon, and the biggest goal for the year. It’ll be just after my 42nd birthday, and if you’re a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (like I am), you’ll know 42 is an auspicious number, so it feels good to commemorate that birthday with something big. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to get ready for that race, so it’s important to keep it in the forefront of my thoughts.
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187. That’s my goal weight in pounds; back in the 90’s it was passed around as a kind of gangsta symbol (let’s not go too deep into the darker meaning of it… it’s a good weight for me and it sounds badass). I’ve kissed that line, and moved back up a pound or two only to return to close to it. I need to hold to the principles of the Doctor’s Diet for the majority of the time. I think my increasing training schedule will help me even travel below that line but I need to make sure that I don’t start burning muscle by not allowing my calorie deficit to get too big on bigger training days. And those calories, of course, need to come from the right (i.e. healthy) sources.
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Monetizing the blog (or at least making it a little more professional). This is the least serious of my goals both in priority and in defining what the goal is. The truth (or at least what I tell myself) is, I just like writing and I would do this even if no-one read. Still, I do get a kick when I get engagement from readers, and I enjoy when the blog generates an opportunity to try new things, and I get a wee bit envious when I see other bloggers get opportunities that have passed me by. Because writing is the part of blogging I enjoy most, when I get time to devote to the blog, I write a post. If I want to capture more opportunities (reviews, events, sponsorship), I know things have to change a little. Self-hosting the blog (on its own domain) and re-design could potentially generate things like brand ambassadorship or other opportunities. The driver is more recognition and/or status than actual money, however, I do need to keep in mind the fact that this blog is a hobby about my hobby, and will always be prioritized as such; i.e. way down the line from some of the other items on this vision board.
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Bicycle. A half-iron is serious enough mileage that a new bike is called for. My old bike (with aero-bars I put on myself) is not going to cut it; it’s at least 14 years old and I’ll bet the frame is a bit fatigued – I can see lateral motion in the lower parts of the frame when I pedal on the trainer. The bike in the pic is a the Trek Speed Concept, and while I haven’t decided necessarily on that particular one, I do have to admit both the old steed I’m thinking of putting out to pasture and my mountain bike are by Trek, they’ve served me well, and the Speed Concept is available at price points in the kind of range I was imagining myself spending. Plus, there’s that whole ‘Trek’ name that gets a rise out of my inner geek, you’ve seen me show the Live Long and Prosper (RIP Leonard Nimoy) next to the Rock Devil Horns… I mean it ‘Live Long and Rock On”.
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Resolve. My word of the year. There are bound to be challenges to all these goals, so central to achieving them is RESOLVE. I can either find a way around an obstacle (RESOLVE the problem) or show grit and determination to power through it (using my RESOLVE).
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Reading. Shark Boy has learned to read independently (simple words, but he does get them on his own) and obviously we want him to progress. I’m reading him a few pages from The Hobbit every night too, and it’s great seeing him get engaged by longer form story-telling (and dragons and wizards etc. too). We need him to improve his printing, and I hope I can get him do to a little writing of his own. The Lightning Kid needs to work on letter recognition and some of the basic precursor skills that feed into reading; it’s early yet, but we know it will take him longer so it’s great if we can get a head start. I’m proud of how we get outside and active as a family (and looking back at the February goals, I know we rocked them), but the more academic stuff can’t get left behind either. I’m also happier myself if I can get at least a little book reading (sorry, blogs and articles on the web don’t count) done every day.
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Walk The Line. I’m proud of my kids, which means I’m proud of my family which means I’m proud of our marriage. For a marriage to withstand raising children, never mind rambunctious, dynamic ones like ours, never mind if one has special needs, never mind if you’re constantly out and about as a family, it needs resilience. Resilience is built into a marriage in a similar way to how it is built into a body: it takes a variety of factors. For the body, it’s the right mix of nutritional ingredients and varieties of exercise. A resilient marriage has a similar variety of necessary components – and I probably haven’t learned them all yet, to be honest. I know respect, time for meaningful communication, affection, quality time and actual adult date nights are in there for sure. I’m proud of how well we’ve been able to stick to those things during the past 7 years. Training for a longer distance triathlon will impact all those things, I can’t deny it. What is important is that I keep to that line as closely as I can, even if I wander off it a little. I mustn’t, as Joey Tribianni might put it, let the line become a dot to me. I was going to call it Holding the Line, but then I couldn’t make a Johnny Cash reference, and you should always make a Johnny Cash reference if you’re given the chance.
Have you ever made a Vision Board? If not, what other motivational focus tools would you recommend?
I always say I'm going to re-vamp the blog but it always gets put to the back burner. That really needs to change soon I think, especially now that I'm coaching.
I've never done a vision board – it always sounds very appealing but then I never end up doing it, ha ha. I think knowing that I'm going to talk about my training and racing in my blog, keeps me motivated to train. It's like I'm holding myself accountable by putting my goals "out there" if that makes sense…
I always say I'm going to re-vamp the blog but it always gets put to the back burner. That really needs to change soon I think, especially now that I'm coaching.
I've never done a vision board – it always sounds very appealing but then I never end up doing it, ha ha. I think knowing that I'm going to talk about my training and racing in my blog, keeps me motivated to train. It's like I'm holding myself accountable by putting my goals "out there" if that makes sense…
This is great! I love your vision board and what a great thing to have to keep you focused. I should make one now!
This is great! I love your vision board and what a great thing to have to keep you focused. I should make one now!
Great vision board!!! I love your priorities!!! I wish I could afford to get help making my blog better. Would love to be able to make money off it but right now I have to face reality & make money in the regular world. 🙂
Great vision board!!! I love your priorities!!! I wish I could afford to get help making my blog better. Would love to be able to make money off it but right now I have to face reality & make money in the regular world. 🙂
The vision board is great and I love all your explanations for each item. I am also turning 42 this year! And that Trek looks amazing. I need a bike upgrade this year too.
The vision board is great and I love all your explanations for each item. I am also turning 42 this year! And that Trek looks amazing. I need a bike upgrade this year too.