Happy 2025! Everyone plans for a new year a little differently so I’m sharing my unofficial planning process that’s been a fun exercise over the past few years. December is usually my time to reflect on the previous year (see here) and create a vision board for the year to come. For me, a vision board is used to support goal setting and planning. It’s a reminder of the energy I want to live in throughout the upcoming year. That energy is usually necessary to achieve the visions I set. A vision board also helps me plan when and how I’ll accomplish my goals. Without a roadmap, it is easy to arrive at the end of a year having missed out on things you wanted to do but never planned for.
Planning Your Visions
To create a vision board, the first step is to get clear on and write down the things you want to accomplish during the next year. I usually do this in the Notes app of my phone. I categorize these into long term and short term goals. My long term goals usually carryover year to year. They may be adjusted based on what I’ve learned the previous year and are broken down into what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. My big goals and dreams may not be realized for many years so breaking them down into reasonable steps and slowly chipping away at them allows me to continue to move in the right direction (or at least a direction).
My short term goals are those I can accomplish within the next year. I will note ideas of things I want to try/do/accomplish as they come up and my list will build over the course of weeks or months. Not all of these ideas make my end vision board but this list serves as a good starting point. I will then have a planning session (from the comfort of my couch) to decide which ones will make it on the final list for the next year. After this exercise, I usually end up with 8 to 12 items that are a combination of long and short term goals.
On “Realistic” Goal Setting
90% of the goals on my vision board are generally realistic (note: realistic ≠ easy). My short and long term goals mentioned above fall into this category. To me, a realistic goal is one where I generally understand the actions I need to take and habits I need to adopt to achieve it. These goals can be work, personal growth, experience, travel, health, side hustle, family, relationship related, etc. Whatever will support in getting you to your current life’s vision (this vision is ever evolving for me). Once the goal is identified, I’ll plan backwards for how it can be achieved. This plan does not go on my vision board but is important to understand.
Here’s an example of something I put as a realistic goal for this year and a sample plan to achieve it.
Goal: One op-ed story published in Outside Magazine
Plan: Actions I can take that are within my control
- Look up the process for submitting pitches to Outside Magazine
- Research how to position a pitch to get accepted
- Brainstorm story ideas
- Submit
- Keep going through rejection
- If accepted, write the piece
What I put on my vision board: A picture of Outside Magazine with an understanding of the meaning I assigned to it
With this goal, and most, there are unknowns and things outside our control. The plan helps me understand the steps I can take to increase my odds of accomplishing it regardless of if it results in success or not. The journey to the goal is the fun part anyways!
On Wild Dreaming
The other 10% of the items on my vision board are probably my favorite which I call wild dreams. My view on dreaming is, if you’re going to dream, have some dreams that are huge. Have some dreams that seem unrealistic or completely impossible. Some dreams that make you think you’re crazy for dreaming them but the possibility of achieving them lights a fire in you. I think these dreams set you on a path that even if you don’t hit the wild dream, you’ll probably get farther than you would have with a small dream.
For me, these dreams usually start with a “what if”. What if this is possible or this happened or I could do this or my life could look like this. Once the seed of a wild dream is planted, doubt may set in. Wild dreams can feel so impossible and out of reach it’s easy to disregard them. To water a wild dream, I think of the habits and traits someone who has accomplished or could accomplish it would have. Doing those things to become the person who could accomplish that dream is the only reasonable next step I can think of and eventually, the wild dream may come to be.
Wild dreams live encrypted on my vision board. They’re the ones I don’t share and won’t share. They’re the dreams I’m not sure how to achieve but I know there’s a possibility in this lifetime that I achieve them so I hold them anyways.
Building Your Vision Board
Once I have my 8-12 realistic goals and 1-2 wild dreams identified, I make a digital vision board. I use an app called Canva and I build the vision board to the size that will fit on my phone as a screensaver. They have great free templates for this. Here’s the template I used this year. I’ve used this template in the past. I like this template too! I’ll add pictures, words and poems that represent my visions/goals/energy for the year. The end result is an inspiring collage guiding the year ahead. Historically, I have put my vision board as my phone’s home screensaver. This year I decided to move it to my lock screensaver so apps aren’t covering it.
Once I build my vision board, I’m usually feeling quite energized and excited for the upcoming year. I change my screensaver on January 1st and it serves as a reminder every time I pick up my phone of what I want to accomplish this year and in this life. Most importantly, it reminds me of the energy I want to live in for the year to come.
Happy 2025! And happy wild dreaming.
Until the next tale… Happy trails.
-Hannah
Tales of My Trails 