“A picture is worth a thousand words…” The advertising industry makes millions by understanding just how powerful visual images are: take a striking picture, add a few carefully chosen words, and — abracadabra! — you can overcome viewers’ barriers to spending money.

What makes pictures so powerful? Visual images evoke strong feelings and influence our thoughts and behavior even when we aren’t aware of it; they work on us on a level deeper than rational thought.

That’s because images are the language of dreams.

So imagine if you knew how to use images’ power to influence your thoughts, feelings, and behavior — intentionally. You could use that power to overcome your own barriers and create everything you want in life!

Images — the language of dreams — can truly help you fulfill your dreams and live an extraordinary life.

One of the most popular ways to do this is to make a vision board (also known as a “dream collage” or “treasure map”).

A vision board (as seen on Oprah and Larry King) is a collage of pictures and words; it’s a vivid reminder of what you want for your future, and an essential tool for creating and attracting what you care about.

Many prominent people have used vision boards to fulfill their dreams, for example:

* President Barack Obama, whose online campaign manager created a vision board at the start of the Democratic Presidential nomination campaign;

* Olympic gold-medal gymnast Nastia Liukin, who even researched the actual medals to be awarded in Beijing and put photos of them prominently on her board;

* author and motivational speaker Lisa Nichols, who made a vision board showing herself as a guest on Oprah — and then showed it to Oprah and her audience when she got on Oprah’s show;

* visionary CEO Walt Disney, who made a vision board for Disneyland years before anyone had heard of theme parks (or vision boards!).

How do vision boards work?

People use vision boards to start a new business or change careers, find a soul mate, achieve their ideal weight, clarify their values, remember how they want to be, realize a dream project – to fulfill any goal that matters to them.

To illustrate, I’m going to share with you how a woman in one of my collage visioning workshops created a vision board and used it to achieve everything she wanted — in less than a year.

When Mary created this vision board, she was recently divorced after 22 years of marriage, and experiencing poverty and high stress on herself and her four kids. She used her vision board to start over and create the life of her dreams.

Her goals included going back to college to complete her undergraduate degree and getting funding for graduate school; losing a lot of weight and getting in shape; finding romance and enjoying life again; and taking care of her family and helping her kids to fulfill their dreams.

None of these seemed possible – she had no money for tuition or even necessities; she was obese and had serious health issues; and romance seemed highly unlikely for a fat, middle-aged divorcé with four stressed-out kids and no money.

Yet within year of creating this vision board, Mary had it all:

* she graduated with highest honors from a private college and won a full scholarship for graduate studies in well-paying new profession;

* she lost 68 pounds, ran a half marathon, and now is often mistaken for her 21 year-old daughter’s sister;

* she helped her kids fulfill their dreams — her oldest daughter finished college and moved cross-country to a dream job; her next oldest auditioned for and got into music school; her son won track races on a national level; and she moved her family to a great new home.

* she was courted by number of men, found lasting romance and started really enjoying life for the first time in years: she traveled, started playing the piano again, took up drawing, joined a women’s group, enjoyed plays and concerts for free (she ushered), and capped it all off by flying an airplane — an old dream — for her 40th birthday.

How did Mary’s vision board help her accomplish all this?

1. It helped her clarify her vision and values — what’s most important to her and how she wants to be:
* rooted, confident and strong (the tree)
* able to take care of herself and find comfort, satisfaction & beauty in aging (the hands)
* fit and attractive (exercise images)
* able to keep things light and enjoy life (fairies, raspberries)
* experiencing romance (the hearts)

2. The vision board helped Mary focus on what’s really important – which could get lost in all the “stuff” she was busy doing. She hung her vision board by her bed, so she saw it every morning and evening. It reminded her daily of what she was creating in her life.

3. Mary’s vision board helped her reframe her image of herself, so it’s positive and optimistic. Whenever Mary looked at her vision collage, she saw herself already fit, already confident and strong, already taking care of her family, already enjoying romance – already being the person she wants to be.

4. It kept her inspired to keep taking new actions to fulfill her vision. Every time Mary looked at her vision board, she experienced what would be like to actually achieve her vision; this gave her daily inspiration to take new actions, meet new people, and have new conversations – naturally and without effort. These new actions and conversations are what caused her vision to be fulfilled (often in ways she wasn’t expecting!).

Mary’s vision board was an extraordinarily effective tool; it helped her transform her whole life in less than a year!

You can use the same powerful visioning process Mary used before collaging her vision board: get clear about what “lights you up” with my free Seeing Your Light handbook.

I also offer a “Magic Mirror Kit,” which includes everything you need to make a vision board of your own Light — a reminder of who you are at heart, a touchstone for daily life.

A “Magic Mirror” is fun and easy to make, and will help you center yourself when you’re upset or worried, restore balance when you feel overwhelmed, and be compassionate with yourself and others.

Find out more here.

(My hand-painted, heirloom-quality Possibility Portraits do the same thing.)

Here’s to living your Light and fulfilling your dreams!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 10:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.