#41: in defense of vision boards 🔮
they're Good, Actually — and here's how you make the best one
Happy Holidays, my dear friends! I am still here in Brooklyn, and will be for the rest of the year — no going home for the holidays for me. I’m sad to miss my friends and family on a holiday, but thankful that some of my loved ones up here are also sticking around. What are you doing for the holidays?
The other day, I was talking to my friend about how fun it is to actually make a vision board, outside of the ~visualizing your goals and dreams~ aspect of it all. Why did we ever stop doing them? Upon further investigation, I discovered that some folks on the internet think they’re a waste of time:
Okay. Tell us how you really feel.
This one made me laugh the hardest:
Positive mental attitudes are harmful? Don’t project your misery onto us, babe!
My defense of vision boards goes far beyond the more woo-woo characteristics (manifestation et al., still very important) and is more so a representation of something adults should be doing a hell of a lot more of: playing.
Within the various criticisms of vision boards, one theme reigned supreme: vision boards don’t create enough action. Cue my enormous fucking eye roll.
When was the last time you made something for the pure sake of creating something beautiful with your hands and nothing else? Why does every project or hobby need to directly translate into a specific action or task to be completed? Too many aspects of society suck the creative joy out of things and turn it into a boring, droning job. If you’re not working, you’re not doing enough. Right?
Creating something for the simple joy of it and being inspired by all the most beautiful desires and hopes you have for your life — whether that’s in the near future or years away — is pretty fucking lovely, if you ask me. Simply naming and claiming it is more than enough action.
And the secret to making a really good one? Gathering your besties or settling in alone, putting on fun music, getting all of the most colorful scraps of paper, magazine cutouts, stickers, ribbons, the most vibrant markers in your collection, jewels, whatever you have, really — and letting your inner child take the wheel.
If you end up making one for the New Year, I’d love to see it.
Before we sign off, here’s some bonus content: my in/out list for 2024 🫡
Love you. See you next week!