A Complete Guide to Vision Journaling
June 13, 2016
Journaling has always been my form of meditation. It’s also a huge part of my creative process. The quote “I don’t know what I think until I write it down” fits me to a T.
I’ve tried many forms of journaling including bullet journaling, dream journaling, travel journaling, daily logging, and dozens more but nothing has helped me as much as my vision journaling practice.
What is a vision journal?
Essentially, it’s a journal you create in order to clarify your vision for your brand, business, passion projects, and life. It helps you set intentions and keep track of your goals so you can break them down into daily action steps.
I’ve been vision journaling consistently for almost 3 years and throughout all of my transitions, it’s been the one thing I’ve kept as a part of my creative process. It mixes some of my favorite journaling techniques with unique prompts I create to fit each area of my life I want to gain clarity in.
I first created these prompts to help myself get closer to my dreamy vision but after sharing some of my progress on Instagram, people were so interested that I’ve decided to talk about it in more depth here.
How can a vision journal help you?
Hold you accountable to your bigger vision
Part of the magic of vision journaling is that once you’ve written something down, it stays on the page as well as on your mind. It keeps you accountable for completing each action step, much like a to-do list. It can almost act as an accountability buddy (but get a human one too because they’re wonderful!)
Assess your strengths and weaknesses
You may have been taught otherwise but your weaknesses aren’t a bad thing. They actually help you better discover your strengths and cultivate your natural gifts. Why spend mental energy on the things that don’t light you up or make you feel creative and brilliant? Vision journaling will help you focus on what you’re truly great at so you can harness your full potential.
Remember your wins, no matter how small
When is the last time you sat down and thought about all of the things you’ve accomplished this month or maybe even this year? When you’re constantly striving to hit your next goal, it can be easy to lose sight of all the progress you’ve made. Having the progress documented in a vision journal can help you remember how far you’ve come.
How can you use a vision journal?
Set your intentions
At the start of every new month, I sit down with my vision journal and set my overarching goals for the next few weeks. Some prefer to do this on a weekly or even daily basis, but monthly works best for me.
I also like to choose a word for the month to guide all of my actions, almost like how others choose a word for the year. This allows me to have periods of rest, hustle, and anything in between. It helps remind you of your commitments and the boundaries you’ve set for yourself.
When I go deeper as to why I’m choosing each goal, it helps me set an intention. What do I hope to accomplish? What does this look like in regards to my creative process? How do I want to feel? Digging deep will help you discover the ‘why’ behind every ‘what’.
Create a yes/no list
Once you’ve set your intentions, you can move onto creating a yes/no list for the timeline you’ve chosen. This is by no means a new concept, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.
Start by creating a simple two-column chart on a piece of paper in your vision journal. Label one side as ‘Yes’ and the other as ‘No’. Gradually fill in each column using bullet points. Then when a new opportunity comes along, you’ll be able to filter it through your yes/no list.
For example, if a business owner reached out to you about collaborating on a joint venture webinar but on your yes/no list you wrote that you wanted to focus your energy on creating your upcoming ebook, it may not be a good fit with your intentions. Instead, ask the potential collaborator if there’s an opportunity in the next few months to team up. The hardest part isn’t making the yes/no list, but sticking to it.
Work through something you’re struggling with
As creatives, we all battle an array of fears: doubt, failure, comparison, competition, shame, the list goes on. Rather than hiding from them, face it head on and work through it to get at its core. Once you get at the heart of the issue, you can overcome the fear.
Start by listing all of the questions that little voice in your head keeps asking you. Work through each question and decide whether it’s worth considering or if it’s irrelevant. Some questions may lead you to bigger “ah-ha” moments.
Determine your next steps
When growing your brand, have you ever felt overwhelmed with options? It can feel like there are so many paths to take but how do you know which one to take? Map them out in your vision journal!
When faced with a game-changing decision, I often make a new column for each path and write all of the elements. This means what taking that path could look like, what I like about it, what I dislike about it, and where it could potentially lead to. Seeing it all laid out can help you make a better decision that’s more aligned with your intentions and thus your vision.
