Thousands of people have written on the subjects of the law of attraction, vision boards and all sorts of other concepts. Given that there’s not all that much out there by way of proof, it’s hugely impressive how all these people have come to a relatively similar consensus on how it all works and why it can be beneficial. There’s not much by way of original thought out there, but that’s to be expected in processes that have allegedly been honed for thousands of years!
One of the most exciting things about vision boards is that the more you read, learn and research about the concept, the more ideas you might have. It’s a school of thought without too many rules. My experience will differ from yours. Yours will differ from the friend you introduce to vision boards. Eventually, you’ll get a feel for what works, and you’ll pull together different ideas. Hopefully, before long, you’ll find yourself trying something new.
The Instant Vision Board isn’t something I found out about somewhere else. I’ve just done a Google search for the purpose of this article, and there’s really nothing out there. The concept is hugely derivative, to say the least, but there’s nothing wrong with incremental improvements when the results can be so great.
In This Article
Combining Vision Boards and Scripting for Quick Results
The derivation in question stems from the fact that I love vision boards, and I love law of attraction scripting too. You’ll see in the linked articles that others that write for Widibi have covered both in quite some detail.
The Instant Vision Board concept combines both with a dash of personal flavour. I’m a writer by trade, and I tend to respond better to words than pictures. I appreciate and utilise the concept of metaphors when creating a visual vision board, but I tend to prefer being literal. Also, while a picture paints a thousand words, if I’m after quick results, I only need five.
Given the concept, that would indicate that I’m better off going with scripting instead. However, I tend to reserve that practice for longer-term and more significant benefits. I’m happy to write a story of how much I enjoy a specific job or being on holiday in a particular location. However, this doesn’t lend itself well to those quick vision board results I want.
So, I wanted something quick and easy that draws on both concepts, and the Instant Vision Board was born.
How to Make an Instant Vision Board
When time is of the essence, and you want results fast, the good news is that you can create a vision board in just a matter of seconds. I’ve been writing professionally for over twenty years and so, out of habit as much as anything else, I still use Microsoft Word. You might be more comfortable with Google Docs or OpenOffice, and they’re fine too. As long as your program of choice lets you set the page to landscape and increase the font size, you’ve got everything you need. Indeed, it’s so simple that you can do it on your phone with the notes app – although with Word and Docs available on most phones anyway, they might be the better bets.
I use the following steps in Word, but you’ll have no trouble translating them to your program of choice:
- Create a new document and set it to landscape orientation
- Set the font size to around 18 and make it bold
- Insert four bullet points
As far as creation is concerned, that’s it, and you’re ready to insert your instant requests!
What to Put on an Instant Vision Board
Naturally, what you put on your Instant Vision Board is entirely down to you. While I call it an Instant board, it can cover things that I’d like to happen in the next few minutes, hours or even days. If something is coming up in the next week, the Instant Vision Board is the right place for it, even if it doesn’t quite live up to its name.
Here are some of the things I’ve used the Instant Vision Board for to great success in recent times:
- When I have an upcoming meeting with a clear desirable outcome, I put that outcome on my Instant Vision Board
- If I’m entering negotiations surrounding money, such as client rates on a job or the fixed price for a written piece, I put the target amount on the Instant Vision Board
- If I have a goal for a number of words to write in a specific short time period, I’ll put that on there too
Naturally, as a writer and business owner, my super short term goals will be different from yours. However, just to reiterate, if you want to make something happen quickly, and there’s every chance of it doing so, the Instant Vision Board is the perfect solution.
What Not to Put on an Instant Vision Board
It’s important to mention that I don’t want to take anything away from the importance of more traditional vision boards. If I want a particular job, car or house, or an amount of money that is unlikely to come into my life in the next week, that goes onto the longer-term vision board.
Also, while it goes without saying, you shouldn’t put anything on an Instant Vision Board that you don’t want! The same principles and concepts that apply to regular vision boards continue to do so here. That means being positive, avoiding doubt and having a firm belief that what you’ve put on the board is on its way to you.
Why Only Four Points on an Instant Vision Board?
I’m not the kind of person that’s easy to convince about something. While I’ve been using vision boards, the law of attraction and all sorts of other tips and techniques covered at Widibi for years, it’s far from being blind faith. On a personal level, if someone asked: “is the law of attraction real?” I’d say ‘probably’. There is an element to the law of attraction to Instant Vision Boards, but you don’t need to be a believer to make these boards work for you.
The reasons why I limit an Instant Vision Board to just four points are twofold. One considers the law of attraction, while the other involves good old-fashioned productivity.
In law of attraction terms, the limitation is due to my interpretation of how it works. The universe can put things together, but it takes time. The more different scenarios it needs to influence, the more time it takes. The whole point of Instant Vision Boards is that time is of the essence, and you want results as soon as possible. If the law of attraction is to influence the outcome, you don’t want to muddy the waters. Instead, you want the focus to be on the here and now and to make the universe’s life easier.
For those without any predisposition to the law of attraction, I firmly believe that Instant Vision Boards will still work. However, they do so through focus and clarity.
Vision boards aren’t the be-all and end-all of goal setting and planning for me. I still use to-do lists (Microsoft ToDo specifically for similar reasons to still using Word), and I like to keep them short too. I find that it’s all too easy to start setting tasks and goals on the crest of a motivational wave. Then, when it comes to getting things done, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day once those motivation levels have plateaued.
I don’t plan eight-hour days. In fact, I plan four-hour days. Sometimes, I might work for twelve or sixteen hours in a day. Other days, I might not fancy it at all beyond sticking to my regular goal of at least 500 words each day. It balances out and works for me.
The link to Instant Vision Boards is that I limit the slots in the same way. If a fifth task or objective comes to mind that would be perfect for the Instant Vision Board, I need to clear a space. That can provide the motivational shot in the arm I need to get things done.
Are Instant Vision Boards and the Law of Attraction Intrinsically Linked?
I touched on this above and will do so more broadly elsewhere on the site when it comes to vision boards as a whole. However, my views on Instant Vision Boards and the law of attraction are inspired by regular vision boards. I cannot prove that the law of attraction exists and I don’t think we’ll have the means to do so anytime soon. However, it works for me, and so I’ll keep on using it.
Could it be a placebo? Sure! Could it be complete hocus pocus? Absolutely. I don’t know the meaning of life either, but I’m here and writing this, and that’s good enough for me.
The beauty of vision boards is that you don’t have to have the slightest interest in the law of attraction to make them work. Put an Instant Vision Board somewhere you can see it and let it dictate your schedule to a certain extent, and you’ll see results.
Where to Put an Instant Vision Board
I feel that Instant Vision Boards work best in the digital format. They’re so short-term that it’s a waste to use a large sheet of card and to spend time chopping up magazines. Indeed, I also stand by the fact that they work best with words better than pictures, anyway. They’re basically a vision board/law of attraction/to-do list hybrid, and they’re continually evolving.
I stick with the Word document format and always leave that document open on my second screen in the office, where I spend most of my time. While I haven’t done it, I’d consider printing it and sticking it on the wall if I didn’t have the second screen available. As a big proponent of virtual vision boards in general, I also fully endorse the idea of setting it as the wallpaper on your computer, tablet or phone.
As with any vision board, the best thing to do is to put it somewhere that you’ll see it clearly, and see it often. Nobody can judge that position better than you can, so experiment if you haven’t already got a favourite spot or check out the Widibi article on where to put your vision board.
Successes with Instant Vision Boards
I hope to write more on the concept of Instant Vision Boards in the very near future, much of which will be available here at Widibi. For now, this is the first time I’ve discussed it in detail. As a result, the only success stories I can share come from me.
Broaching the Subject and Getting a Raise
I’m naturally not someone to tackle the tough conversations head-on. It’s not an aspect of my personality I take particular pride in, but it is what it is. However, I reached a point with a client where I couldn’t justify working for the rate we had agreed several years before. I didn’t want to lose them completely, but I wanted more. Specifically, I wanted double.
Now, this website isn’t about writing specifically, so I won’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say that sticking to the same rate for several years is an awful practice. My avoidance of the tricky subjects was my undoing after the first few months and remained that way.
The time came for the conversation shortly after I’d conceptualised Instant Vision Boards. I had two things on there at the time, so there was space for a couple more. I put having the conversation and the rate I wanted on the board. Later that day, I initiated a discussion on Skype.
I wanted the conversation to go well, and it went better than I could have expected. The client told me they needed to run the numbers and check the budget to see what they could afford. Funnily enough, that number came out to exactly the figure I had in mind – bang on double the current rate. All that with no negotiation necessary!
Getting a New Client in a Vastly Competitive Field
Again, I’ll have to apologise for another mention of a writing-related success story, but this is a genuinely personal experience, and that’s what I do more of than anything else! I’m privileged as far as writing goes in that I don’t really need clients. I tend to work with those that I’ve worked with for a while but spend more time writing for my own sites, charities, projects that interest me and books than I do on client work.
On occasion, however, a job will come up during one of my haphazard scans of job sites and social networks that feel like a great fit. They don’t just interest me, but they excite me. If it’s enough to get me that interested, you can be sure that it will appeal to the hundreds of other writers that happened across the same post.
I’d say it happens twice a year at most and that’s rare enough that I’m willing to go above and beyond to get it. The first step is, of course, to put getting the job on my Instant Vision Board.
On the most recent occasion, it was a job writing about smart technology for quite honestly eye-popping money. More professional writers have an interest in tech than those that don’t in my experience, so it was never going to be a sure thing. However, the Instant Vision Board served as a constant reminder to give the application process my best. For those with interest in the law of attraction, I’d like to think the universe played a part in ensuring that my board delivered.
To cut a long story short, the client and I hit it off spectacularly, and we’re still working together to this day.
Instant Vision Boards – In Summary
I’ve thought about sharing the concept of Instant Vision Boards for a while and, full disclosure, I know several of the Widibi team quite well. I didn’t have writing this article on my instant vision board, but they reached out and asked me to write about it after mentioning it in conversation.
With so many people looking to vision boards, cosmic ordering and the law of attraction for a quick fix, I feel my concept could prove valuable to those that are in a hurry. It’s essential to remain realistic and understand that an Instant Vision Board won’t transform your life in minutes. However, if you’re the kind of person that likes to use the concepts discussed here on the site to tackle the big and small things in life, I firmly believe that these simple digital boards could be the ideal addition to your toolkit.
If you do try this out or have a similar innovation of your own from which you’ve experienced success, please let the team and I know in the comments!
