The 20 Minute Club–Envisioning Vision Boards

Every Friday I write the 20 Minute Club Minutes–because using a timer for what I call the 20 Minute Technique can keep your creative momentum going in your busy, time-crunched life–20 minutes at a pop.

Please join in and share your 20 Minute Experiences in the Comments–good/bad, it’s all fair game, because sharing your experiences about the process is a great way to increase your creativity.

The Vision Board Thang

Last month was super challenging for me and this week I spent a lot of time recovering. No energy. And not much of a brain.

I needed to do something that would rejuvenate me and that mostly involved quiet reflection.

So I set out to finish 3 vision boards for my artwork. I made one about my dreams and goals for my digital collages, one for my weather drawings, and one for a bunch of new work I want to make–I’ve always been obsessed with flags of all kinds–and I’m finally ready to start making some of my own.

I especially liked my vision board for the flags, because I ended up cutting the paper itself into a flag shape without planning to do that ahead of time.

I attached lots of favorite flag images to my flag shaped background and then wrote out a list of words that I want my flags to embody. That’s it up there on the left. I love looking at it on my wall.

It’s so useful to hold and handle the images that inspire you, to choose where to place them and to think about what it is you want your art to be about–and then writing those words down on your vision board. It helps solidify and clarify what you’re trying to do.

Because this process makes you clearer about what you want, it subtly directs your behavior while helping the universe help you.

And that’s a good thing.

It’s a great 20 Minute exercise. It’s creative, but there’s no right or wrong. You can make it big to hang on your wall or small to fold up and keep in your purse. It can be fancy or it can be crude. Or a combination.

Here’s the one I did for my digital collages on the right–I stuck it on one of the doors of my studio.

I used a garden theme for that vision board–with my digital collages being a flourishing plant. It was fun to make my vision board pages into specific shapes.

I’m going to make a few more specific ones like these, and then make a giant mind map overview incorporating all these elements.

Appreciation

Appreciating yourself is an important part of the 20 Minute Club because it helps you keep your creative momentum going.

Carving out the time to create is important of course, but it’s not enough. Getting (and eventually staying) on your own side is a critical factor for helping you take bigger risks with your work, get yourself out of a creative rut, or just enjoy the process more.

Taking the time to remember to appreciate yourself and all your efforts (big or small) is a powerful way to make this happen.

Here’s my five self-appreciations for this week:

1. I appreciate that I’m getting genuinely gentler with myself.

2. I appreciate what I learned making these vision boards.

3. I appreciate that I let them be imperfect.

4. I appreciate how I handled what is normally a hard situation for me, and it worked out well.

5. I appreciated that I overcame a psychological barrier this week at the gym, which brought up all kinds of neat stuff about possibilities. (Blog post soon to follow.)

Your Turn!

How was your creative week this week? Did you get a chance to make anything? Did you use the 20 Minute technique? Was it up? Down? All around? Please share your experiences in the comments–I love to hear!