It’s common practice at the beginning of each year to take a moment, take stock and set yourself new goals.   

But there’s no doubt 2020 has thrown a spanner in the works and you wouldn’t be alone if you’ve lost sight of some of your dreams.

Take back control of your year these school holidays and get out the art supplies for a fun family activity – creating a vision board!

More than just glitter and cardboard, vision boards are a collage of images and words representing your goals, intended to invite positivity, inspiration and motivation into your daily life.

University of Canberra clinical psychologist Dr Vivienne Lewis said she uses vision boards in her private practice because they help her clients clearly see what is important to them, what they are working on, where they want to be in the future and reminds them of their achievements.

“Vision boards boost their self-worth and using the sense of sight can trigger positive feelings and hope for the future,” Dr Lewis said. “Which is particularly important during COVID.”

Dr Lewis said a lot of her clients had lost sight of their goals in 2020 because it just hasn’t been what they thought.

But whether the disruption was school, university, a gap year, employment or travel, it’s important to be reminded of what we still have.

“Not everything has stopped,” Dr Lewis said. “We still have our family, our friends and our interests.”

It might feel like the problems of 2020 are “grown up problems” but people of all ages have been disrupted by COVID – including our kids.

Dr Lewis said even though youngsters don’t necessarily understand what’s happened, they can feel that something is going on.

“They can feel a sense of loss or loneliness and not understand why the avenues to see their friends have changed or why they can’t visit their interstate grandparents anymore,” she said.

“Making a vision board is a great thing to do with kids, it’s a fun activity and most kids love to draw pictures and cut them out of a magazine.

“It’s also a good opportunity to explain some of the changes in our lives.”

Steps

• Create a list of goals.
• Find pictures that represent those goals, using photographs, magazine cut-outs or print images from the web.
• Make a collage on a bulletin board, wall or in a binder and include a picture of yourself in happy times.
• Keep it neat and tidy so as not to invite chaos into your life.
• Add motivational, affirming or inspirational quotes that describe your feelings; you can write them yourself or go hunting for memes online.
• Add glitter! I lied earlier; the glitter is very important.

For more like this:

• Floral fantasy
• Spring clean and declutter
• Make a statement with accent chairs