Benefits of Vision Boards and Life Boards

File 27:  In today’s file, the team explores the benefits of vision boards and life boards.  They each talk about how they approach these tools in their own lives.  This conversation springs from a new experience Jamie is working through that took an unexpected turn, at the outset.  The team welcomes their podcast producer, Jim Ray, to participate with them in the discussion.

The Executive Coaching Experience

Jamie shares that she’s recently begun working with an executive coach at Building Champions. One way the coach has challenged her is to be more intentional about herself.  That came as a bit of a surprise.  It wasn’t exactly what Jamie was anticipating, although she knows it’s been an area she’s often overlooked, while helping others. 

Jamie asks Molley whether she uses a vision board and to explain her overall life-planning process.  When Molley’s kids were young, the family would create vision boards during the Thanksgiving break.  It was interesting to see how those young brains worked.  They’d cutout pictures and color the poster board based on where they saw themselves in a year.  As a result, it became apparent that they needed to do something more. 

While Molley sees the value in using a vision board, life-planning is bigger than that.  Assuming the average lifespan is between 70 and 80 years old, she suggests making a grid comprised of 80 squares.  Put an X in each of the boxes that represents as year, up to your current age.  The visual is typically a grid with many fewer boxes remaining, that you might have initially thought.  Is it worth being as stressed out as we probably are?  Where do we want to be in 5-10 years?  What will retirement look like?  How do we begin taking steps to make the life we want to live in retirement?

Jamie admits when she considers what the future is going to look like, she has trouble bringing that vision into focus.  Jason suggests that may be one of the reasons she elected to begin working with a coach.  Jamie comments she feels she does a nice job of talking about intentionality in the professional setting, but when that conversation is focused inward, she struggles.

Producer Jim relates to Jamie.  As a sales professional and sales manager, he knows how to craft a territory strategy for revenue growth, it becomes much more difficult on the personal level.  You realize how quickly time has