Using a Vision Board to Improve Your Communication Skills
Communication skills are something we can all use help with at one time or another. Human interaction is complex and what is appropriate behavior for one situation can be completely wrong for another. Lessons on human interaction are hard to come by and most of us learn good communication skills through a lot of trial and embarrassing error.
One tool, however, that can help you stay on the right track with your communication skills is a vision board.
What is a vision board? It depends on who you ask. At a basic level, a vision board is just a visual collage of quotes, art, photos and whatever you want, basically, relating to a certain goal. It can be as simple as notes tacked to a bulletin board or can become more of a craft project with glue and posterboard.
Some believe that if you create a vision board you will experience a tremendous life change where you will eventually realize the goal depicted in the vision board. Others see it less dramatically as a motivational tool and a source of inspiration.
In junior high, my “vision board” consisted of pictures of models from various catalogs and fashion magazines wearing outfits I wished I had the money to purchase. I taped them all around the mirror in my bedroom and I looked at them every morning when I got dressed. At first, I could only think, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could wear that today?” After a few weeks of scrutinizing all these pictures, I learned to look at them and determine exactly why I liked them. Sometimes it was the color combination; sometimes it was a hairstyle; sometimes the length of a skirt, a shoe or a detail like a ruffle or lace. Suddenly, I found myself looking at my closet differently and figuring out new looks based on my existing wardrobe that kind of looked like the pictures. I found that I had in essence achieved my goal (and without spending any money)!
One of the motivational tools I discovered by accident this year was that a vision board can help with communication skills too. Last January when I was discussing goals, one of the difficult goals I set for myself was to get better about writing thank you notes.
When our family received a thank you note for something early this year, I just happened to stick it on our fridge with a magnet. This simple act ended up helping me remember my goal every time I opened the fridge. When more thank you notes arrived, I added them to the fridge. I am starting to accumulate quite a collection! The notes aren’t all necessarily museum-worthy but they are all handwritten and they show kindness and good manners. Some are even from children! Every time I open the fridge, I glance at these notes and I think about them a little more. I remember that they don’t take a huge amount of time, that they don’t have to be perfect and that they mean a lot to the people receiving them. There is also the peer pressure aspect . . . if these people can do it, so can you! It has been very motivating to me.
At some point, the notes need to come off of my fridge. I am thinking of cutting them up and doing some sort of collage/decoupage project with them. I might make them into some sort of thank you note stationery kit inspired by this project by Kelly Wilkinson at Make, Grow Gather. Or I might just paste them to a shoebox. Once I figure that part out I will post a project tutorial.
One other vision board project I am considering creating relates to awesome things my friends have done on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites. Yes, there are a million bad things to say about communicating on Facebook but some people really get it right. I am hoping that if I create a vision board surrounding myself with good examples of social networking communications, some of it will rub off on me.
Some of my favorite examples this past week were a friend who posted a cute photo of herself with two girlfriends toasting the camera with a caption that simply read, “Come join us!” Of course, most of us reading the post on Facebook couldn’t actually join her but it was very flattering to think “Hey I could be there if I really wanted to!” and more importantly, “I am welcome to join.” This was such a refreshing change from the after-the fact party pics.
Another cool communication came from my sister and brother-in-law who gave a shout-out to a friend who brought them dinner when they were in the middle of their move. It was nice to know that there are incredibly kind people in the world that still do things like this and bringing dinner is a good favor to remember the next time you know someone who is moving. But this shout out also did a lot for their generous friend too. It was Dale Carnegie’s “Always make people feel important” maxim in action. Anyone reading that post couldn’t help but think, “Wow! _____ seems like a really cool person! Wish she was my friend!”
I encourage you to think about how you might use a vision board to achieve your own communication skills or other goals. It really doesn’t have to take a lot of time and can be gradually built up over time. It can make such a difference in your thinking!
Have you ever used a vision board to achieve a goal? Please share in the comments.