How To Create A Vision Board: Part II

I'm back with another one! In Part I of How To Create A Vision Board, I walked through 5 easy steps to putting your visions and goals down on paper. If you haven't checked it out, that's a good place to start (click HERE). In Part II, I'm going to demonstrate from personal experience, how powerful vision boards can be. Below is a representation of what my vision board for 2011 looks like, and in this post I'm going to lay out how I accomplished each and every goal on my board.

Aside from adding in the pretty frame digitally (I didn't have it in a frame this year, but it's actually a pretty chic idea for decoration), this is exactly what I looked at, day after day throughout the 2011 year. I put my visions up in my bedroom on the left side of my bed so I literally saw it when I woke up in the morning and before I went to bed at night. Like I mentioned in Part I, what worked for me was separating my visions into different categories. My three main sections were focused around Career, Health & Beauty. Here's a breakdown of my board:

In this section, I included images of women I look up to, who demonstrate the level of success I want to achieve and images that embody or represent goals I wanted to achieve in my career. Starting from the top left and going clockwise, here's how I accomplished these goals in 2011:

1) Goal: Entrepreneurship
My fave girls Ginger & Liz, who own the nail lacquer line of the same name, represented entrepreneurship for me. Hence the "I'm A Hustler Baby" phrase underneath.

Accomplished: This year, I finally applied and got myself a real business license. On top of that, I placed runner-up in a local business plan competition, which gave me the confidence I needed to know that when I do officially start my business, I'll have support.

2) Goal: Meet DVF 
Diane Von Furstenberg represented excellence for me. As a woman of distinction, she really inspires other women to be who they truly want to be. I've also always wanted to go to her show at NY Fashion Week, literally since I was 14 years old.

Accomplished: This year, I met Diane von Furstenberg three times! I was blessed to win a FREE wrap dress at her Fashion's Night Out party (see here). I was privileged to attend her Spring 2012 show at NY Fashion Week (see more here). And I was also selected to participate in her NYC Wrap Rally to launch her Diane fragrance, which garnered major press (see pic below, I'm on the right!)

3) Goal: Become a Contributor
Since I started my career in journalism, I dreamed of becoming a contributor for some of my fave magazines. I added the word "contributors" to my vision board, and also put up a picture of Essence Magazine's Editor-in-Chief at that time, Angela Burt-Murray.

Accomplished: This year was huge for me in regards to contributions. This is the first year I was featured in major national publications! I had an advertorial in Essence Magazine's October Issue:

On top of that, I was quoted as a blogger/expert in Ebony Magazine's Beauty Awards, LoveBrownSugar was declared one of Essence's Top 40 Fashion Blogs, I landed my first article on The Huffington Post and I secured contributor status in a plethora of other publications, which I'm truly proud of.

4) Goal: Travel
This year I wanted to get into worldwide travel. I placed images on my board that represented that, like the main character in Eat, Pray, Love and pictures of the Caribbean. I also put words like "Passport" on there.

Accomplished: This year I visited Ecuador for 10 days (see HERE), and just 3 weeks ago I spent a luxurious weekend on St Thomas and St John. Two unexpected places, but two amazing experiences I'll never forget. And both trips were sponsored, so I was able to do them without suffering financial strain.

1) Goal: Develop a healthy lifestyle
Another major part of my goals for 2011 was improving my health. This year, I focused less on losing weight on more on developing healthy habits like working out regularly, eating less fast food & processed food, and drinking more water.

Accomplished: This year I participated in a 6-week program called NY Lean (see here). On that program I lost 12 lbs in a 6-week period and I felt absolutely amazing. It showed me that these health goals weren't as hard as they seem. I also eat much more organic food, and I barely eat fast food. Of course, there's more work to be done, but I did manage to accomplish a few goals and for that I'm proud.

1) Goal: Stay natural & grow!
As most of you know, I've battled on & off with going natural for over 5 years (see here for my hair journey). I was natural all through college, then I broke down and relaxed my hair when I went into the corporate world. Shortly after that, I regretted it and went natural again. So this year, after doing the big chop in November of 2010, my goal was to maintain my natural tresses, learn more about them and keep my hair growing beautifully.

Accomplished: I grew my hair from teeny weeny afro to almost collar-bone length over the year. I couldn't wait to out my hair in a high bun!

I also successfully waited an entire year until I got my hair straightened or applied any heat to it, which I'm proud of (see my video at Hair Rules Salon here).

All in all, I've had an amazing year and I'm looking forward to a successful 2012. Stay tuned for Part III (update: see it here) where I highlight how others have successfully created vision boards. Have any of you created a vision board? If so, I want to chat with you!

Email luvbrownsugar@gmail.com with either a) a picture of your vision board or b) a story highlighting how it helped you in 2011.