Dec 31 2007
Endings and Beginnings
When I was five all I wanted to do was stay up until midnight and watch the ball drop in Times Square. I remember the struggle to stay awake but I was determined and the excitement when that moment came was immense. People celebrated and danced. It was almost as though they were all aware of the fresh start of the New Year.
Later when I was 15 it was all about having a date. Not having a date on New Years Eve was the worst fate ever. As I grew older New Years Eve became a time for ritual and we started picking Osho cards on New Years Eve with a small group. We each picked one card out of the deck and it came with a message about the coming year. It was often profound and was a wonderful way to bring in the New Year with close friends. I kept the message of that card in my heart as the year progressed.
This year most of us are focused on our entrepreneur ventures, and one thing I have learned is that the most most important aspect of becoming a successful entrepreneur is to have a clear and full vision of what you are creating. It is about seeing your business in its completion fully in your head, heart and body. I compare that with the how Michelangelo carved his masterpieces out of marble. He said he would see the completed statute in the marble and then it was only a matter of chipping amway the pieces around it.
In growing your business it is visualizing your business complete and then gradually growing it to fit that vision. So on New Years Eve a group of us will create our vision boards for 2008. As I write this I am looking at my board for 2007 that is hanging on the wall in front of my desk. It is beautiful and inspiring and I realize that almost everything on it has come to pass. I am ready to replace this with the 2008 update and am excited to see what transpires.
I encourage you to do your own vision board for 2008. You will need a piece of poster board, glue stick, scissors and a stack of old magazines. There is no right way to do this so don’t worry about getting it wrong. Playing inspiring music is nice and being with other people can be supportive. You can begin with a short meditation first to tune into to your life and what you are grateful for. See, feel or imagine your life at the end of 2008 in all its aspects. Then begin to go through the magazines and rip out any pictures or words that jump out at you until you have a large pile. Begin arranging them on your board until it feels right and then glue them on. Like magic your board will take shape. Have fun and Happy New Year!
Here is a photo of my 2007 board. Double click to see a larger image.
What are some rituals you do for the New Year?
Here is my vision board 2008. Just completed 1-6
double click to see a larger image
Awesome vision board! Courtney (my wife) is a huge fan of them, as are a number of our friends. Me too, but I have to tip my hat to yours!
Thanks for the emails and the blog entries. Many blessings for ‘08.
Dave
Haven’t been back to your blog since the beginning (the first time I ever read a blog, I might add!). Great writing Kaya. Enjoyed a complete review of your website too. WOW!
I have always been a journal writer myself. And being a single parent to two young children, student, sole income provider and 22 years old, I learned early on the joy and peace of solitude on New Years Eve. I have made it a ritual to go through my year of journals in the days around New Years, and write about those memories, celebrate the experiences and set intentions for the coming year of experiences. Not really resolutions, but intentions, ways I want to fine tune my quality of experience.
Doing a vision board is a nice compliment to my ritual. Thanks for sharing.
Kaya,
This is my vision board. I find that a Vision Board is very powerful. I am also beginning to think that it can be too general to attract to you what you really want. With my vision board, I am going to try to write a more specific vision of what I think that I want. The difficult thing about being more specific is not being so specific that you can’t get what you want in a way that you didn’t imagine before. You must simultaneously know what you want and be open enough to get it in ways beyond your initial understanding.
John
Sorry, my vision board is a Word Document and was too big to cut and paste here. The text came through but the pictures did not.
Happy New Year Kaya!
Thanks for sharing about your vision board. I am working on getting together a group to do vision boards this week here in Gisborne.
I found John Armundsen’s comment about specificity useful – thanks John.
I hope New Zealand will be on your 2008 vision board Kaya! We’d love to see you again down here.
Wishing you love, luck, good health and great joy for 2008.
Dave- thanks for sharing. It’s great to feel your support.
Kathleen- thanks to you too for sharing about your rituals and changes from being a parent of your children and appreciating the solitude on New Years. It’s is funny how we grow and change and outgrow and still change. It was wonderful bringing in the new year with you.
John- Yes- I agree with you about being specific. Very excellent point you have made. I wish we could see yours. Maybe save it smaller and re-try?
Zoe- Very cool to know that you will be in Gisborne doing the same thing. And- yes I will be back to New Zealand as it is “home.” Not sure when… Send along a photo of yours if you can. Kaya
Kaya, thanks for inspiring me to do a vision board for myself this year. I have always wanted to but never got around to it and it was tons of fun and I’m really tickled by it. Here’s a pic of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2171505984&size=o
I’ve made lists of intentions before but this was a lot more fun. I was surprised at how easy it came and also by how many words I cut out. I thought it would be mostly pictures, but I loved adding words to it.
I ended up dividing it into four quadrants which helped me organize it and make it easier to tackle:
1. contribution/creativity
2. relationship
3. self/spirituality
4. abundance/ease
[...] Kaya Singer inspired me to do a vision board for myself this year. I have always wanted to but never got around to it and it was tons of fun and I’m really tickled by it. Here’s a pic of it to the right, click to go to the Flickr-hosted larger image. [...]
Emma
Thank you, thank you for sharing your board. It is wonderful and I can really see you four quadrants. It is a really cool way to divide up the space and bring in four different energies. I love the “imagining wanting more and getting it.” My board is still not completely done – almost- so this has inspired me to finish it. I’ll have it up here by the end of the week so check back. Kaya
See my completed 2008 board above!! Kaya
I really like it! (I just remembered to come back and check this thread for comments!)
I love the woman with her arms open wide and I love the phrase “guilt-free holidays” – that sounds good to me!
Hey I thought I’d turn you on to a plugin that you might like for your blog, it lets people who comment get notified of replies to their comments, thus encouraging more dialog on your blog:
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/
It installs pretty easily, shouldn’t be hard for your programmer to add.
Emma
Thanks for your plug in suggestion. I will attempt to do that! I am just drowning in stuff to do and I love the concept of the 4 hour work week, however I think I am running on a 400 hour work week right now. I love my new vision board and thank you for spurring me forward by sharing yours.
It was great seeing you the other night and I am excited about the ebook venture. Stand by for a new posting on that subject soon! Kaya