Financially Fit & Fabulous: Vision Planning for 2022 – Part 2

LAST week we introduced the topic of vision boarding and using this tool to help you set your financial and other personal growth goals for the new year.

Your vision board, done right, will help you look into the future to determine how each aspect of your life can progress, of course under the right amount of attention and some professional guidance.

The process will be informed by facts from your past, and so you already have the basis on which to make a judgment: a determination about how different you want the future to be.

All those issues you might have faced and setbacks which have occurred are rich material for this process. Examine past challenges, think about how to avoid or handle them differently for the future, as you approach life with a new outlook.

How to begin:

As said last week, you can start with a vision statement to guide your goals and provide the motivation to meet new targets, informed by values which come from your heart and seek to impact the world around you.

Be positive

Do not allow negative thoughts about the past to affect your hopes for the future.  Even though you may have failed several times before, it does not mean  you will fail again at turning around things for the better. What you really need are new strategies, because doing things in a different way will almost always affect the outcome which you are aiming for

The design

You will have to record your thoughts as you go along in the visioning process. For each change and strategy that you are considering, make a list of pros and cons. Use pen and paper, a black or white board or a computer to help you visualize this process of weighing the pros and cons of change.

The purpose

After you have made a list of all the changes you want, you will notice that you can actually pull these together as a mission statement, especially if they mean a complete change in the way you live, your family’s life and even the community around you.

Pruning

Remove anything that does not fit into the picture as you refine your vision and fine tune the new picture of what your word will become. Remember to include in your vision statement the driving strategy or how you are going to achieve your goals.

When establishing your financial and other personal growth goals for the new year, stop and think carefully.

Like any smart goal setting exercise, each goal you place on your vision board should be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time sensitive.  You will need to break out sub goals and steps you will take weekly, monthly over time to make achieving your goal a reality.

I will

At the end of the visioning process you will cease using such terms as ‘Maybe I could’, and instead declare ‘I will’. It could say something like, “I will change the world around me, by changing the way I approach problem solving, through a more positive outlook on life, by managing my finances better.”  Or make strong determined statements like “I will begin to make a clear and firmer budget monthly, I will begin investing with a salary deduction for every pay cycle; I will increase my knowledge about how finances work.

Take positive and determined actions that will impact each quadrant of your vision board daily, and by extension your world.”

Begin the process of visioning today, remember to specifically consider the changes you wish to see in all aspects of your life. Life isn’t all about finances. Consider your mental health, physical health, spiritual health, family and community relations. You will change your world when you can envision it. What are you waiting on to get started?

Karelle McKenzie is a licensed Investment Advisor from Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited.