This Time Next Year?

It's the time of year to start thinking about changes and improvements and goals. I'm in the process of making my list for 2010. I'm really thinking about it and hope to have something tangible to go by in the next week or so. Something that has helped focus me was a little "vision board" activity I did with my mom's group...

For our December meeting we were to bring a stack of magazines, scissors and a glue stick. The instructions were to visualize your life in a year, and then just start cutting: words, images, phrases. At first, I was a bit skeptical. Although I was so looking forward to getting together with these women, I wasn't real sure how this would help me. I totally underestimated it. When I finished with my little board, it was oh-so-clear where my priorities and focus were, even if it wasn't so obvious to me before. Take a look at what I created:

Notice the lack of white space? Yeah, I've got a lot I want to do! (You might also notice that everything is aligned horizonally... That might just hint at an underlying issue that we won't be tackling in 2010.) Half of my board focuses on family time. Something I found interesting was the amount of mom & daughter pictures that I cut out. This is definitely an area that I would like to nurture, as my almost seven-year-old is already feeling way too cool. And you definitely can't miss the beaches/paradise/getaway places. And the kitchen: THIS is the year. (Maybe. Hopefully. Ha!)

It was an excellent exercise to focus in on what's really important when setting immediate goals. I highly recommend it. Not only was it focussing, it was almost therapeutic to just sit and cut and paste. I would like to do this every year. I could see it being done on my own or as a family, but it was so nice to sit with a group of women and see the similarities and differences among our visions. Take a look at a couple others:

{And check out some more vision boards from the group.}

What are your goals in 2010?

Do you think this would be a good activity for you?

I would love to hear/see what you come up with.