I recently bought some frames in order to protect and display some wall art that's been kicking around my condo recently. Somehow, despite making lists of my required frames, I managed to buy one frame too many. So I decided that I could use it for the vision board I've been planning to make.
Just on a whim, I decided to look up tips for how to make a good vision board. I was expecting some unhelpful advice, like what kind of glue to use, but I figured someone on the internet might be able to suggest what kinds of priorities to set and how to turn them into plans.
It turns out I was right, but not the way I expected. In fact, the entire concept of a vision board has nothing to do with setting priories in order to make plans; rather, they are steeped in the new age magic concept of "The Law of Attraction". That is, just by creating a collage of things you want and wishing for them all the time, they're supposed to just magically come true. Huh.
Fortunately enough, Psychology Today has an article about vision boards and the scientific investigation into whether or not they actually work. In short, no. It turns out that imagining success can make you less motivated to make the efforts necessary to succeed. On the other hand, many of the same studies show that imagining the actions needed to achieve success does improve outcomes. For example, if you want a good score on a test, don't think about having a good score; think about studying.
I still want to spend some time thinking about success anyway, mainly because you can't think about studying if you don't even know that you want to take a class. In my case, I'm not trying to magically wish things into existence, I'm trying to set goals and priorities. From there, I'll be figuring out the actions required to accomplish them, where the real success comes from.
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