By Simone Larmer
It’s easy to make grand plans about the year ahead over a champagne on New Year’s Eve or when relaxing over the summer break, but it’s harder to stick to them once the work and school year pick up momentum.
So when your day-to-day life nudges you off course, try these three ways to keep your 2025 plans, goals and dreams on track.
Vision Boards
In essence, a Vision Board is when we combine our goals with manifesting our ideal life using a collage of imagery and words. Think about what you want for the year ahead (or the next 2-5 years), find some old magazines and create a montage of the life you aspire to. You can also make one online.
And while the research into Vision Boards is limited, available studies and anecdotal evidence supports their positive psychological impact.
Vision Boards better connect us to our goals and create a mindset shift of possibility and positivity to occur, motivating us forward. Vision Boards can improve our wellbeing by increasing positive feelings and life satisfaction, while reducing negative feelings (Ruth Adams, UK study 2019)
When we sit down to create our Vision Board, it provides us with the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of what goals are important for our year ahead and what an ideal picture of our ‘best life’ could look like. We then create this intentional vision of our future using imagery, words and affirmations to match the goals, dreams and desires.
5 Steps to Create Your Vision Board:
- Allocate (uninterrupted) time to this fun activity. Set the mood by playing uplifting music, lighting a candle, and making a pot of tea.
- Clarify your key goals and the areas you want to focus on for the year ahead (career, relationship/s, travel, hobbies, health etc). How would that look for you if it came true? Consider words, statements and images that depicts you achieving this goal.
- Find your images, words and affirmations. Search online or go through old magazines and cut things out and create a collage that is beautiful to you. Put key goals front and centre.
- Display your Vision Board somewhere you will see it often/daily. Consider also making it your screen saver image.
- Smile every time you see it and feel it in your heart. Review every 6-12 months and update with any new images and words.
Letter to your future YOU:
Consider writing a letter to yourself dated for 1 year ahead, in which you tell your future self all the wonderful things that made 2025 a great year. Visualise yourself achieving important goals you set yourself – from relationships, personal wellness/health, financials/career, travel and more; and through the letter share these achievements with your future self.
This fun exercise invites us to use colourful descriptive words and dream big!
3 Steps to writing your letter:
- Allow 20-60 minutes and find a quiet space to preferably pen a letter to yourself (or type).
- Sit and imagine your most ideal year and what would have come true for you and write about it as if you are recalling the achievements and how it felt. Enjoy the writing process and include positive wording to paint the picture of your past (and continued) successes.
- Date the letter for 1 year ahead and put it aside somewhere safe and read it every couple of months to re-connect to your ideal year.
Some of the benefits of this exercise include:
- Helps magnetise goals and manifest wishes
- Uses mental body (conscious mind)
- Provides purpose/clarity about your direction
- Imagine/dream/picture BIG! (no limitations)
- What is your future self like? What goals/dreams have you achieved? What outcomes are you experiencing/enjoying?
Affirmations
And finally consider writing inspiring positive affirmations around your goals, and the year ahead. Affirmations are positive statements written in present tense to support areas in your life that are important to you.
Money flows easily to me and my career goes from strength to strength.
I am worthy of a wonderful partnership and I accept it now.
I am worthy of what I desire.
Life flows easily for me and I flow easily with life
The old saying I’ll see it when I believe it gives support to using positive statements to connect you and your conscious mind to creating positive change in your life.
Affirmations and positive thinking rewires the brain and can change the way we feel about things, as our brain’s neuroplasticity adapts to new situations.
Affirmations can decrease stress. When we voice positive words, we can encourage positive behavioural changes in our mind. This will also benefit our overall well-being and relationships.
5 Steps to Creating Your Affirmations:
- Think about areas in your life where you seek encouragement to succeed. Then prepare short statements that are active (present tense) and project support and success in those areas.
- Take your time and create 3-5 Affirmations that resonate with you (for inspiration see the many examples online!)
- Write or type up your Affirmations and have them physically visible in various places in your home (bathroom mirror, on the fridge, your laptop screen).
- Say the Affirmations aloud (if possible) at least 3-5 times morning and night, or as often as you wish.
- Feel free to tweak your Affirmations as you need to.
Enjoy creating your wonderful year ahead and keeping your desires, goals, hopes and dreams alive.
Authors Bio
Simone Larmer is passionate about wellness and wellbeing and is a certified Holistic Wellness Coach, based in Manly, NSW.
Her workshops and private one on one coaching supports others to achieve greater harmony and wellbeing and positive change and outcomes in their lives (from career, relationships, financial, wellness, weight management, stress management and overall lifestyle).
In addition to wellness coaching, Simone is also a qualified yoga teacher and aqua fitness instructor and a PR/communications professional assisting wellness clients.
To find out more about Simone’s upcoming course and/or coaching please visit: https://www.youryogalifestyle.com.au/