You Must Love Yourself More Effectively First Before You Love Somebody You Must Love Yourself More Effectively First Before You Love Somebody I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here, but you can only give what you have. I want you to wrap your mind around that central concept. A lot of people have a tough time doing so and that’s why they continue to suffer. If they feel stuck in any area of their life, it really all boils down to a lack of self-love. Too many of us think that just by being born and just by showing up at the scene, that somehow, some way, we deserve people’s love and respect. Boy, are we in for a great disappointment. You have to understand that love is already in short supply in this world. Can you imagine expecting other people to drop what they’re doing so they can give you the love and respect you think you deserve? It doesn’t work that way. It hasn’t worked that way in the past, it doesn’t work that way now, and it probably won’t ever work in the future. The truth is, you can only give what you have. And if you have a tough time loving yourself, accepting yourself, or giving yourself the proper respect, don’t expect this to come from somebody else. Don’t expect to do this for somebody else. This whole idea that you just have to wait for the right person so they can complete you and otherwise give you what you’re missing is a fantasy. In most cases, the person that comes along is the person who exploits you. That’s right, this is the person who abuses your weaknesses. And instead of making you feel whole, complete and healed, they actually take advantage of you. Either this person takes the form of a domineering mother, an emotionally absent father, or an abusive boyfriend or girlfriend, it doesn’t matter. That person will continue to come again and again and again because you refused to give something to yourself that you should have taken care of a long time ago. You have to understand that self-respect is not something that somebody gives you. Self-esteem is not something that comes outside of you. It is your own estimation of your value as a person. It is something that you yourself have to give yourself. This is why it’s always a good thing to get the idea of loving other people out of your head. Focus on what’s important first. Focus on loving yourself first. This means getting to the root of your anxiety. This means changing your mindset. This means changing your belief system about who you are, where you’re going, what you’re capable of, what your limits are – the whole nine yards. People don’t like to do this heavy lifting. Instead, they imagine themselves, whether they’re guys or female, it doesn’t matter, to be some sort of damsel in distress. There they are, locked in a high tower wearing their gown and looking out into the horizon for that knight in shining armor who will come to their emotional rescue at the last minute. I’m sorry, we don’t live in a fantasy land. You have to do the heavy lifting. You have to slay your internal demons. You have to overcome your dragons from the past, and only after that will you be free. This is the root of anxiety. And the good news is that overcoming this dragon is easier than you think. Now, a lot of people would give you grief for thinking that overcoming anxiety is easy. They think that it’s deeply rooted. A lot of people would likely believe that you are, somehow, genetically predisposed to it. And no matter how hard you try and no matter when you try, it’s just not going to happen. Well, I’m telling you, the people who tried to convince you of that are actually making money from that belief system. Because when you believe that your anxiety is somehow locked in your genes and there’s really no amount of trying or self-awareness that will free you from that mental prison, you are left with one option. That option, of course, is medication. The psycho-pharmaceutical industry in the United States and elsewhere is a multibillion-dollar industry. Year after year, pharmaceutical companies are raking in billions of dollars and their profit margins continue to grow. But this is blood money. This is money based on hopelessness. This is money squeezed out of the guilt, the pain, and the despair of millions of people. The good news is that there is a 100% chemical free way to get out of the clutches of anxiety. Click here for this all-natural, self-empowered, positive approach to anxiety. You owe it to yourself.
When You Blame Others, You Give Them Power Over Your Life
When You Blame Others, You Give Them Power Over Your Life Let’s get one thing clear. It’s very easy to blame other people or situations for the things that have gone wrong in your life. It really is. Because if you think about it, when you blame other people or situations you can’t control, it feels good. How come? Well, first of all, it means you don’t have to change. This means that there’s nothing wrong with you and there’s nothing to apologize for. It’s somebody else’s fault. When you put the blame squarely on other people, the responsibility for changing lies with them. You are the victim here. You are the one who was harmed. You were the one who has to live with the effects of the harm caused by others on you. Why should you change? Why should you sacrifice? Why should you put in the time, effort and energy to turn things around? This refusal of responsibility is very liberating to a lot of people because, hey, let’s face it, change is a very scary thing for a lot of people. First of all, it takes a lot of effort. It also takes a lot of self-awareness. Well, think about it. If you are going to be self-aware, this means that you’re probably going to discover a lot of things about yourself that you might not be all that happy with. Who knows what you will knock loose? Who knows what you would uncover? There are many psychological rocks out there that you have put on lockdown. What kind of horrors do they contain? You dispense with all of that when you put the blame for whatever is wrong is your life squarely on the shoulders of your parents, the bully in school, the friends who misunderstood you, the ex that broke your heart, and so on and so forth. In fact, if you are a typical person, chances are, the laundry list of people who somehow, some way, share the blame for whatever has gone wrong with everything in your life is actually quite long. I know that it feels good to do this, but it’s also the most damaging thing you could do to yourself. How come? Well, when you blame other people, you’re basically saying to yourself that since they caused the problems in your life, they’re the ones who can fix it, not you. In fact, the reason why you feel so good about blaming others is because of the fact that you don’t have to change. You don’t have to solve things. You don’t have to take ownership of what’s gone wrong. You dispense with all of that because the problem is the other guy. It’s his problem, not yours. But here’s where things get rough. The more you blame others beyond your control, the more you give them power over your life. It’s as if you are consigning or resigning yourself to living your life on autopilot. You’re stuck. The reason you’re reading this is because you have anxiety issues. The reason you’re reading this in the first place is because you want to get out from under the negative effects of the anxiety in your life. Unfortunately, when you blame that anxiety on other people and situations you can’t control, you’ve given them power because, ultimately, on a purely logical basis, they have the solution. They caused the problem, so they have the solution. The problem is, they are not in any compulsion or responsibility to solve your life. They’ve moved on. They’ve got problems of their own. So here you are, stuck. You’re hanging on to the cold comfort that somehow, some way, everything that’s wrong with your life is somebody else’s fault. Even if that were true, it’s still your responsibility to yourself to take ownership of your problems and take steps to solve them. I know this is a nasty news flash, but nobody’s going to take those steps for you. Nobody can be bothered. How come? Everybody’s got problems of their own as it is. You have to step up. You have to take the initiative. To figure out how to do this is a quick, effective and powerful way, click here. Regain control of your life by refusing to blame others. While the problems in your life may not have been directly caused by you, you are still responsible for how you respond to the chain reaction that other people have started in your life. That responsibility will never leave you. That is yours and yours alone.
Most People Refuse to Acknowledge Their Anxieties
Most People Refuse to Acknowledge Their Anxieties Hey, let’s face it, we all like to put up a face around people we care about or respect. At the very least, we have some sort of public face that we try to maintain. What is this public face? Well, we want people to think that we’re strong. We want to give people the impression that we have our acts together. We don’t want them to see our weaknesses. We really are often embarrassed by a public display of shortcomings or other features that we think will make us look bad. This is why we put up with appearances. We know, deep down inside that, most of the time, we can’t trust appearances. People who seem to have the perfect families, the perfect careers, or the perfect lives are actually going through a tough time. But, since we maintain this public face, most people are simply left with the surface impression that everything is going well. Here’s the thing. You can get so caught up in the public appearance that you’re putting up that you end up playing seriously damaging games with yourself. One of the worst things that you can do is to be in denial about your anxieties. Now, let’s get one thing clear. Everybody’s got anxieties. We all have fears about the past. We have regrets, guilt and other negative emotions about things that have happened in the past. We also have issues about the future. Sure, these things have not yet happened, but despite that fact, we can’t help but worry about them. We would like to gain some measure of control over our lives. And sadly, too many of us try to do this by simply trying to worry ourselves into some semblance of control. Well, just as we can’t control what happened in the past, we can’t control the things that have yet to happen. And that’s why, unfortunately, a lot of people struggle with anxiety. It can easily get out of hand. While it’s almost normal to assume that a certain level of worry is fine, it’s very easy to overstep our bounds. It’s really hard to find that thin line between “healthy worries” and obsessive anxieties that wear us down and pollute our relationships. Given this background, it is no surprise that a lot of people refuse to acknowledge their anxieties. As far as the world is concerned, they’re living perfect lives or something close to it. That’s the public appearance they want to give. And before you know it, they start believing their own press. They start believing the image that they portray to the rest of the world and that’s why they are terribly surprised when they figure out that they have these anxieties that are eating them from within. Are you one of these people? Well, the good news is that there is a solution to anxiety that doesn’t involve brain altering chemicals. There is an all-natural solution that doesn’t involve expensive psychotherapy counselling. I am, of course, talking about changing your belief system. The best part to all of this is that you yourself trigger the changes. By simply working with how you currently process reality, you can get out from under the crushing weight of anxiety. To figure out how to do this, click here.
To Achieve Greatness, You must First Overcome Yourself
To Achieve Greatness, You must First Overcome Yourself Believe it or not there is this one person out there in the universe that is your number one hurdle to success. This person almost always gets in the way. This person is not obvious but, eventually, he or she will undermine or even flat-out sabotage you if you’re not careful. No, this person is not one of your parents. This person is not the schoolyard bully. This person is not in your circle of friends, or even a known enemy of yours. Give up yet? This person spells his or her name this way: Y-O-U. You have to understand that to achieve any kind of greatness or to even change, you have to first overcome yourself. If you don’t understand this, then you have a serious problem in your hands because, you see, people are creatures of habit. When we’re used to a certain pattern, we don’t want to change. We think that we can milk that pattern for all its worth. We fear change because it means that we are going to have to confront the way that we look at things. This means that we’re going to have to put in effort. This means that we are going to change our emotional attachment to the things that we’ve already grown accustomed to. In other words, we don’t like moving around mental and emotional furniture so we’d rather stay put. This is all too understandable and that’s why a lot of people struggle. This is why a lot of people live far below their fullest potential. They’d rather stick to the devil they know than go and roll the dice with the devil they don’t know. However, here’s the thing. If you want to achieve greatness in your life and if you will really want to feel that you have done something worthwhile with your life, you must first overcome this tendency to stick to the status quo and boy, do you have this tendency! Believe it or not, most people would rather stay with the most horrific relationships, the most messed-up self-image, or the most unrewarding and so-draining jobs than go out on a limb. They’d rather stick to hell rather than take a gamble on possibly getting a piece of heaven. I know this sounds crazy. It seems counterintuitive. After all, you’re feeling stuck. You know how miserable you are. You know that you’re not really living up to your fullest potential. You know that, up to some degree, you are living in a personal hell, if not a personal purgatory. However, for the life of you, you have a tough time overcoming that and simply choosing to do things differently. At the very least, you don’t want to change the way you look at things because it might lead to scary things. This is really the crux of the matter. Overcoming yourself means discovering yourself. There might be certain things that you might find out that will sit well with you. There may be uncomfortable truths. They may reveal certain biases or mindsets that you have that you’re embarrassed about. They might even point you towards a childhood trauma or negative belief systems that you’ve simply swept under the rug for all these years. Whatever form it takes, we just don’t want to be bothered with the heavy emotional and mental lifting required. The good news is by starting out fresh, we recycle a lot of the stuck energy that has been frozen and all the guilt, remorse, and other negative coping mechanisms that we have built up over the years. This is frozen mental and emotional energy and when you destroy that mental house to start new again to build your life on assumptions and belief systems that you yourself consciously chose, you are actually unlocking a tremendous amount of power. This is how you achieve greatness. This is how you build a life worth living for yourself. To get a framework that enables you to do this in a clear-eyed and methodical way, click here.
What You Believe, You will Achieve
What You Believe, You will Achieve I know you’re reading this because you are looking for a solution to anxiety. You are reading this article in a website that deals with anxiety issues. Anxiety is a very common problem. This is not just an American or Western European phenomenon. This applies across the board. It doesn’t matter what continent you live in. It doesn’t matter how much money or how little money you have. It doesn’t matter whether you were born rich or poor. It doesn’t matter what you look like. Anxiety is a modern-day that grinds people down and it makes them feel worthless and powerless. It knows no boundaries. The good news is that anxiety is essentially a reflection of our perception. Depending on your genetic makeup or genetic predisposition, it can be mostly environmental. In other words, what you choose to believe about your reality and who you are, what you’re capable of, and where you’re going plays a big role in how anxious you are. That’s how important beliefs are. Unfortunately, a lot of people are too eager to abdicate this power. It’s too scary. It’s easier and comforting to believe that somehow, some way, we are either just born a certain way or we’re not. Either we’re born to be miserable or we’re not. If we are miserable currently, it’s just because that we were born that way and it’s really tough luck. The best we can do is to just basically deal with our symptoms and try to make ourselves as comfortable as possible but there’s nothing fundamental we can do to change our situation. The die is cast and our stars are fixed. Believe it or not that kind of thinking sets a lot of people at ease. How come? It absolves them of the responsibility of taking ownership of their lives and doing something about it. It really is that simple. If you believe that somehow, some way your life is already predestined or set in stone by people or forces beyond your control, you don’t have to do anything now. After all, it’s already done. It’s a done deal. What can you do? You’re too small. You’re too weak. You’re too powerless. I know this sounds negative and it is. However, the problem is people draw comfort from this interestingly enough. They think that since all these are preset, then I don’t have to try, much less take responsibility and full ownership of my life. That’s really what they’re running away from because it’s scary to take responsibility because when you take responsibility, you are saying to yourself, “I may not have chosen the kind of life that I have but I am responsible for changing it to the life that I do want for myself.” This requires effort. This requires planning. This requires sacrifice. At the very least, it means going against the things that you have done before. You’re going to have to change. People’s fear change. It’s hardwired into the human DNA. It’s part of the human condition and that’s why people would rather believe that things are unchangeable. Make no mistake when you choose what you believe, you end up achieving a different kind of reality. How does this work? When you change your belief system, you change how you process the things that you pick up from reality. This then leads to different decisions. For example, if you come across a beautiful Mercedes and your old thought patterns tell you, You’re too poor. You’re hopeless. You can’t afford that. There’s no way. You’re too stupid to earn that kind of money.” So, you say to yourself, “There’s no way I can afford that. The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer. This sucks! Life is unfair.” If you change your belief system and the next time you see a BMW, a Ferrari, or a Mercedes and you say to yourself, “How can I afford that?,” you give yourself a question. In fact, if you have the right belief system, you give yourself a challenge. “How can I afford that?” means I’m looking for solutions. I’m trying to put things together. I’m looking for patters and given enough focus, effort, and commitment, I can make something happen. Which do you think leads to a better place? Which do you think leads to a dead-end? Make no mistake what you believe about yourself, who you are, where you’re going, what you’re about, you will achieve; and the worst part to all of this is you’re going to have to live with the results. Take ownership today. To figure out how to do that in a quick, easy-to-understand way, click here.
Beliefs are Chosen; They are not Imposed on You
Beliefs are Chosen; They are not Imposed on You Beliefs are Chosen; They are not Imposed on You It’s very easy for a lot of people to think that since they believe certain things, reality has to somehow some way keep in line with how they choose to perceive reality. I know this sounds crazy but it’s also true. You’d be surprised if you engage in any kind of political debate with people who use this kind of reasoning. Politics aside, thinking this way really limits people’s options. If you are in any way, shape, or form are unhappy with your career, the amount of money you make, the size of the home you live in, the kind of car you drive, the relationships you have, the shape of your body, so on and so forth, a lot of this can be traced to your beliefs. Believe it or not, everything that can be observed about you, I’m talking about your looks, your educational attainment, the way you speak, and everything else are reflections of your inner belief system. It’s very easy to think that we are born this way but we’re not. These are all chosen. At some level or other and at some point in time, we were presented a choice. Even though we tend to make the same choice over and over again, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are still exercising choices. If you find yourself feeling stuck in in a relationship, in your career, or in your body, for that matter, this is one of the most empowering things you could ever wrap your mind around is the idea that beliefs are chosen. Just as you can choose to put on one set of clothes over another set, you can choose your beliefs. They are not imposed on you. Sure, your parents may have to put a lot of pressure on you to think the way they do but, at the end of the day, you choose your beliefs. The fact that you continue to live your life assuming that certain things are true and allowing yourself to be limited by this beliefs system, is a testimony that you have chosen those belief systems in the first place. Please understand that reality doesn’t revolve around your beliefs. Beliefs are simply just your take on reality. There are other interpretations out there. There are other ways to mix and match the thousands of different neutral stimuli that you perceive every single day. Don’t think for a second that just because you’ve believed certain things for a long time that this length of time somehow some way means that your beliefs are somehow written in stone. They’re not. You can easily change your belief. Here is the good news. When you change your beliefs, you change your life. Whatever it is in your life that you are unhappy or anxious about, you can change by simply switching out your belief system. This doesn’t means that the whole journey is going to be easy. Obviously, the longer you have believed certain things to be true, the harder it would be to change those belief systems. Still, regardless of the difficulty, it can be done. The question is, “Are you willing to do it?” If you want an easy-to-follow framework that would enable you to get out from under oppressive beliefs that hold you back and drag you down from your fullest potential, click here.
5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals
5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Reach Your Goals Do you set goals for yourself, either in your personal life or for your business? If not, how do you know you’re growing or making progress? When was the last time you allowed yourself to daydream about the type of life you want? What is your WHY, the reason behind all the long hours you spend on your business? Creating a vision board has become a popular activity in recent years, especially as the New Year approaches and people think about the past year and the New Year’s resolutions they want to keep. A vision board is simply one tool that helps you visualize your dreams and your goals. How so, you ask? Let’s explore the ways… 1. Vision boards make you focus on what’s important to you. Whether you combine a personal vision board with a professional one or keep them both separate, thinking about what you want in life or in business forces you to prioritize what’s important. Do you want to buy your first house or move to a warmer climate? Putting a photo of your dream location by the beach will inspire you to work harder and not undercut your prices. If you want to move, you alone can make that happen and you’ll make better business decisions based on that desire to move. 2. Visualization stimulates the creative side of your brain. Placing your vision board in sight of your desk or computer serves as a daily reminder of what you want to achieve. Some believe keeping it open by your nightstand helps stimulate your subconscious before you go to bed, which makes you motivated upon waking. With your creativity soaring, keep a notebook handy to jot down any ideas you have for a new course or coaching program you want to create. 3. Focusing on goals makes you recognize new resources or opportunities. Visualizing yourself living in a warmer climate (or whatever your primary goal is) will motivate you to work towards that goal but you’ll also notice new opportunities or resources which can lead you to reaching your goal. These resources may have always been present but now that you’re focused on your goal, you will see them in a new light: as a way to help you reach that intended goal. 4. Break out of your comfort zone by stating a big, scary goal. Are you stuck in a rut because you’re afraid to break out of your comfort zone? Acknowledging big goals – as scary and outrageous as they may be – will help you step out and take on new challenges, all in the name of reaching that scary goal. If your goal is to speak in front of an audience of 5,000 at your favorite conference, then you’ll start to see more opportunities for smaller speaking engagements. These smaller gigs will give you lots of practice and build your name recognition so when the organizers of your favorite conference advertise they’re looking for speakers, you’ll be well prepared to submit your name. 5. Seeing a big goal forces you out of the daydream and into action. Nothing happens without some action on your part. Vision boards are not magic tricks; they are instead a tool that spurs us into action because we finally know what we want out of life. Visualize your ideal life then approach each day with action steps which will lead you toward that ideal life. Aside from these reasons, creating vision boards can be very relaxing and a fun family activity. So grab some glue and some old magazines and start daydreaming!
3 Tips for Making a Digital Vision Board Online
3 Tips for Making a Digital Vision Board Online If you love the idea of creating a vision board to help focus on your goals but don’t have dozens of old magazines lying around, simply create a digital vision board using online resources. This mission is the same: Prioritize what is most important in your life and choose which goals you want to achieve this year. Then find photographs that represent those goals and dreams. The only difference is you’ll find photos online and you don’t need glue or tape. Tip #1: Choose Your Medium Digital vision boards can be made using Microsoft, PicMonkey, or Pinterest. Microsoft offers a free desktop app called “Vision Board” which makes placing your photos much easier and more visually appealing than just importing them into Word. PicMonkey is a paid platform with a free 7-day trial period and they offer very detailed advice for creating a vision board using their platform template in this blog post. Pinterest is an easy way to search for photos of your ideal lifestyle and simply pin those to a secret board. If you want to make your vision board public at any time, it’s a simple switch under Settings. Tip #2: Choose Your Photos Using digital photos for this project allows you to search from the millions of photos online, which is a vastly larger selection than a few old magazines your mother collects. In this respect, creating a digital vision board is easier and quicker than the “old fashioned” way. Unsplash.com offers completely free, high-quality photos which you simply download to your computer. Stock photo houses offer high-quality photos for which you pay a small fee to use. Google Images offers access to millions of images ONLY if you plan to keep your vision board for personal use only and NOT post it online. If at any time you think of publishing your board online in a blog post or Instagram post, rethink using the Google Images as you never want to be accused of copyright infringement. On Pinterest you don’t run any copyright risks because you’re pinning those desired photos onto Pinterest, not directly onto your website. Tip #3: Use Photos that Spark Emotion Vision boards are just as much about emotions as they are about material things. Do you REALLY want to earn the sporty BMW roadster convertible or do you just want that freedom and the carefree life the photo symbolizes? Vision boards are not solely about material things; find those photos that make you FEEL any positive emotion. Consider adding words, quotes, or affirmations that speak to you. Tip #4: Keep a Screenshot Handy No matter which tools you use to create your digital vision board, take a screenshot (or two if it’s large) and save it as your wallpaper on your laptop and phone. Make a point of looking at this every day and meditating on what steps you’ll take to get closer to those goals. Consider if you need to break these large goals into smaller goals; map out those action steps. Also reflect on your progress every night before you go to sleep; visualizing prior to sleeping helps you feel motivated to get up in the morning and start working toward those goals. In the end, achieving your goals is completely up to you and the actions you take. Your vision board – either traditional or digital – is simply a tool to help you stay on the path toward your ideal life.
7 Simple and Effective Ways to Manage Stress
7 Simple and Effective Ways to Manage Stress Dealing with stress at work and at home can be very challenging. There are some methods, like the Folkman and Lazarus five emotion focused coping strategies that might be able to work. But it all comes down to where you get the stress and also how you deal with it. The aforementioned strategy includes things like escaping avoidance, disclaiming, accepting responsibility and many others. Avoid eating or drinking too much sugar While sugar will boost our energy levels, it’s also related to messing up the insulin production in our bodies. That being said, if the blood sugar levels fluctuate, then this will lead to an increase in your stress levels. What you can do is to avoid drinking sodas or anything with a lot of sugar. Also, lower the amount of sugar you add to your diet as well. Drinking more water can help too. Create a workout routine One thing to help you manage stress comes in the form of routines. Things like taking care of your hobby at a certain time every week or working out on a strict schedule does help a lot. It gives you a great set of ideas, and results will be very impressive. Being consistent with your exercising routine can make a huge difference. Meditate Meditation is highly linked to lowering stress levels. This might seem one of the simplest ways to deal with stress, but it’s also the most efficient. Meditation allows you to eliminate negativity from your mind and it allows you to focus on what matters. From here to achieving happiness it will be one single step. Distract yourself at times Why would you do that? Because focusing too much on work will bring in a lot of stress. What you need is to try and take care of your body and mind. Distract yourself from work, take breaks and don’t hesitate to use systematic relaxation procedures. Even if they might not seem that simple at first, the results they can bring to the table are remarkable. You can also try to find ways to release pent-up emotions. That can be in the form of talking with a friend or going to a psychologist. Delegate or outsource tasks If you feel overwhelmed, it’s important to know that there are ways to share your huge workload with others. Outsourcing is one of the best methods you can use to try and delegate tasks and ensure that you don’t feel overwhelmed. You can also delegate tasks to others in your business too. Sleep properly Studies have shown that if you don’t sleep at least 7-9 hours every night you will have irritability and a lot of stress. Even if it might not seem like a lot at first, if this continues to happen for a while it can bring dire consequences. That means severe headaches, a lack of focus, constant sleepiness and so on. Not to mention you can end up with severe health problems. Manage your schedule ahead of time One of the best ways you can lower your daily stress levels is to manage your schedule properly. That means setting up tasks for the next day at the end of your shift. On top of that, it’s also a good idea to start working on the most complex tasks early on in the morning. It will help a lot and you will be very happy with the results and the experience. At the end of the day, managing stress levels and keeping them under control is never going to be a walk in the park. It’s important to understand how to manage everything properly and how to deal with any stress triggers. Once you learn that and bring things under your control, results will be a lot better!
4 Tips for Making a Digital Vision Board Online
4 Tips for Making a Digital Vision Board Online If you love the idea of creating a vision board to help focus on your goals but don’t have dozens of old magazines lying around, simply create a digital vision board using online resources. This mission is the same: Prioritize what is most important in your life and choose which goals you want to achieve this year. Then find photographs that represent those goals and dreams. The only difference is you’ll find photos online and you don’t need glue or tape. Tip #1: Choose Your Medium Digital vision boards can be made using Microsoft, PicMonkey, or Pinterest. Microsoft offers a free desktop app called “Vision Board” which makes placing your photos much easier and more visually appealing than just importing them into Word. PicMonkey is a paid platform with a free 7-day trial period and they offer very detailed advice for creating a vision board using their platform template in this blog post. Pinterest is an easy way to search for photos of your ideal lifestyle and simply pin those to a secret board. If you want to make your vision board public at any time, it’s a simple switch under Settings. Tip #2: Choose Your Photos Using digital photos for this project allows you to search from the millions of photos online, which is a vastly larger selection than a few old magazines your mother collects. In this respect, creating a digital vision board is easier and quicker than the “old fashioned” way. Unsplash.com offers completely free, high-quality photos which you simply download to your computer. Stock photo houses offer high-quality photos for which you pay a small fee to use. Google Images offers access to millions of images ONLY if you plan to keep your vision board for personal use only and NOT post it online. If at any time you think of publishing your board online in a blog post or Instagram post, rethink using the Google Images as you never want to be accused of copyright infringement. On Pinterest you don’t run any copyright risks because you’re pinning those desired photos onto Pinterest, not directly onto your website. Tip #3: Use Photos that Spark Emotion Vision boards are just as much about emotions as they are about material things. Do you REALLY want to earn the sporty BMW roadster convertible or do you just want that freedom and the carefree life the photo symbolizes? Vision boards are not solely about material things; find those photos that make you FEEL any positive emotion. Consider adding words, quotes, or affirmations that speak to you. Tip #4: Keep a Screenshot Handy No matter which tools you use to create your digital vision board, take a screenshot (or two if it’s large) and save it as your wallpaper on your laptop and phone. Make a point of looking at this every day and meditating on what steps you’ll take to get closer to those goals. Consider if you need to break these large goals into smaller goals; map out those action steps. Also reflect on your progress every night before you go to sleep; visualizing prior to sleeping helps you feel motivated to get up in the morning and start working toward those goals. In the end, achieving your goals is completely up to you and the actions you take. Your vision board – either traditional or digital – is simply a tool to help you stay on the path toward your ideal life.