I’ll never forget one of my first dreams: to be a manicurist. I was in elementary school and begged my mom to get me a salon table for Christmas so I could practice like a professional (didn’t happen). I spent my free time painting palm trees on fake nails and perfecting my art. I had a passion and a goal, and while I never did embark on a career as a manicurist, I’ve forever held onto my power of pursuit. Dream chasing is one of the most exciting things about growing up, and I hope to instill that mindset in my two children.
One way I guide my kids to dream big is by creating annual vision boards. I started this tradition one New Year’s Eve with my daughter, Genevieve, when she was 5 years old. This craft has stood the test of time and taken on a special meaning for our family.
The first New Year’s Eve that we made vision boards was at the end of 2019, which I declared my “Year of Self Care.” The previous two years were pretty rough. After my son, Luca, was born in 2017, I went through a health crisis. It took six months to get diagnosed and then cleared from having fatty liver from pregnancy. So basically, for six months while I was a new mom of two and full of postpartum hormones, I thought I was dying of an unexplained liver disease. I had so much anxiety that I lost all my baby weight. Then I developed back issues from pregnancy and resulting headaches that took almost a year to alleviate. By this point, my anxiety was at an all-time high, and I decided to speak with a therapist. As 2020 approached, I finally felt on track, and I vowed to get back to “Joelle the dreamer.”
If there’s anything I’ve learned from being a book publicist for life coaches, it’s that we must be the best version of ourselves in order to properly care for our families and also to achieve our dreams. Naturally, as I embarked on my journey of self-care, I needed a vision board to get me there! There’s something magical about creating a collage filled with images of things you love, along with inspiring words to light your way, and then hanging it up.
That year, I also drafted a children’s book called Princess Genevieve: The Hero With Girl Power, which is about writing your own life story and being the hero of it, too. It was time to have Genevieve start setting intentions. So we headed to the craft store to buy glittery paper, fancy stickers that cost a fortune, and magazines to cut up and create our vision boards.
The vision board I made in 2019 for 2020 included:
- Motivation to go to the gym and do physical therapy
- Fashion items — now that I wasn’t “dying” I needed to invest in my personal appearance
- Career goals
- Financial reminders to pay off debt, save money, and buy a bigger house
My daughter’s vision board for 2020 was filled with symbols of things she loved during 2019:
- Ballet class
- Karate class
- Art class
- Family, pets, and friends
Little did we know that 2020 would drastically change many of those things. Material things were no longer important, health became everyone’s priority, social activities disappeared, careers and finances caused stress for many, and family was front and center.
The vision boards we made in 2020 for 2021 had a completely different tone. Since we were at the height of the global health crisis, we didn’t go to a store to purchase fancy materials. We used what we had — luckily, I was stocked up on construction paper and magazine subscriptions. Consider these boards the Schitt’s Creek edition of vision boards.
These boards reflect a time in our lives with a complete shift in priority. But we made them in our new house (one goal from 2019 was met despite the health crisis — we moved to a bigger house!). They currently hang in our office, where my desk and my daughter’s little teal desk are side by side. In 2020, it’s where I worked and oversaw her virtual first grade. We had many fights, tears, and learning curves in that room during 2020. But our collages, hanging above our desks, helped us keep things in perspective and grow.
These were in fact, “big memories,” like I had glued down. But I also had to remember to “restore” and find “serenity” and “peace” amongst the chaos. My vision board literally screamed at me, “each day, no matter how busy you are, find time to be alone in silence to recharge.” My daughter’s is simply crayon-made art and a magazine cutout of the word “home” — an obvious reflection of how her life drastically changed and an empathetic jolt to my heart that she was going through this, too.
We’re gearing up to make our 2022 vision boards this New Year’s Eve. I hope to keep the routine I’ve found for sneaking in self-care during our (now busier) days. Even if the only “me time” I get is while I wait to pick up my daughter at school, I rock that hour, listening to my favorite music, reading books, and indulging in my passion for writing. I know Genevieve will paste pictures of gymnasts on her vision board, and I hope that sometime during 2022, I will feel safe sending her to the gymnastics class she has been yearning to attend. Because I don’t want to hold her back from her passions.
I’m even going to have Luca join in on the fun this year. At 4 years old, he is starting to form goals and hobbies, and I want to instill the same lessons. When we ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says an “acorn picker.” And that’s fine with me, because the important thing is that he has learned that you can make a career out of something you enjoy doing. Maybe he’ll pick me one and I’ll paint a palm tree on it.
