Maybe I Can with Debbie Weiss

Ep. 109: Design Your Dream Life: Vision Boards for 2025

• Debbie Weiss

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What if you could transform your life with a simple vision board? Join me, Debbie Weiss, as I share my personal journey through the mixed emotions of New Year's Eve, a day filled with both joy and heartache. Reflecting on the birth of my son Ben on December 31, 2002, a miracle after years of infertility, and the poignant memory of losing my husband Gary on December 30, 2022, I navigate the balance between celebrating life and mourning loss. This episode focuses on harnessing these emotions to create hope and positivity by setting intentions for the year ahead, especially as we step into 2025.

Discover how visualization can be a game-changer in pursuing your dreams and goals. Just like athletes who visualize their wins, I discuss the power of envisioning success in both personal and professional realms. By assessing the past year's achievements, we identify areas for growth without self-criticism. I candidly share my experience of opening up to new love after two years of widowhood, emphasizing the significance of writing a detailed description of your dream life. This is a practical guide to channel intentions, making your aspirations feel tangible and achievable.

As we design the year 2025, I leave you with a message of resilience and possibility. Life's unexpected challenges are stepping stones to your dreams, and every change begins with a simple ‘maybe.’ Let’s turn those 'maybes' into reality with a vibrant mindset. You’re invited to take the first step by downloading my free guide to kickstart these changes. Prepare to be inspired as we embrace this journey together. Join me next Tuesday for more insights, and let’s make 2025 an extraordinary year.

Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet! | Get 50% Off on 'Maybe I Can Begin to Change My Life' | Use Code: FRESHSTART50 | Enroll Today

Debbie Weiss
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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities, one sprinkle at a time. If you've ever found yourself asking is this all there is to life, then you're in the right place. I'm Debbie author, speaker, entrepreneur and coach, and every Tuesday, I'm here to share a sprinkle of hope and inspiration. Together, we'll uncover the more More joy, more fulfillment, more prosperity, more fun. We'll share stories of transformation, actionable tips and that little nudge you need to take the next step. So let's embark on this journey of discovery and say maybe I can to a life filled with more, ready to find out. Let's get started. The Maybe I Can Show starts now. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Maybe I Can podcast. I'm your host, debbie Weiss, and welcome to the last episode of 2024. This is it, boy.

Speaker 1:

This year flew by. I don't know about you. It just honestly seemed like it just was New Year's Eve, 2023, 2024. I hate to admit it, but what my mother and my grandparents said was right. As you get older, time definitely, definitely goes faster, and for me, I really have had a mixed relationship with December 31st.

Speaker 1:

As a kid, you know, I remember my parents used to go out, but they used to buy us decorations and snacks so that my brother and I, with a babysitter, if we were to stay up until 12 o'clock which we were allowed to do on New Year's Eve and sometimes we made it and sometimes we didn't we blew the horns and ate all the snacks until we were sick to our stomachs and it was fun. And then when I became a teenager and into young adulthood, there was always this pressure of New Year's Eve you have to do something really special, really extra fun, extra, extra everything. And it never lived up to the expectation. And I remember when I was single in my 20s and at you know, at that point, you know, some of my friends had boyfriends and they were doing something with them, and then some of us single girls were like, what are we supposed to do? And we would go to parties and we would never have a good time and we'd buy fancy outfits. It was like it was a stressor, or at least that's what I made it into. It was stress of this night had to live up to some amazing expectation.

Speaker 1:

And then in 2002, I changed my relationship with December 31st, because the morning of December 31st 2020, 2002, not 2022, 2002, I gave birth to my youngest son, ben, on New Year's Eve and if you've listened to previous episodes, you know that I had many struggles with infertility and actually, in total, had gone through six in vitro fertilizations and he was my miracle baby, because this was my last chance and I only had one embryo transferred back in, which doesn't usually give you such great odds, especially because I was 39, I think, at that point and I had prematurely aged eggs to begin with. But it worked and he came into the world at 8.20 AM and I can remember not really feeling very well and laying there and kind of dozing in and out of sleep with the TV on, listening to I don't remember if it was Sylta Clark in the early 2000s, but listening to that show, physically not feeling well, and when you're in that fog wondering where did I have a baby? Where is that new baby? But he's here and today he turns 22. Now, a couple of years ago, the association with December 31st took a different turn because on December 30th of 2022, my husband, gary, passed away. And so you know, even though it's not the same day, it's very close and I I just I'm so sad that it will always be associated, kind of, with Ben's birthday. But I think that we're able to separate them. And so yesterday was a very tough day, and this time of year, for anybody who has lost someone, you know that it's extra hard, but I try and leave that behind. That was yesterday, and today it's celebrating Ben for me, and it's celebrating the new year, which I am very, very excited about. You know how some years, you just have a feeling, and for me, I just have this great feeling about 2025. And I hope that you feel the same way Now, several years ago, when my husband was still alive, but he had been ill with both physical and mental illness for many years before he passed away, and so that used to depress me too.

Speaker 1:

Not that he and I ever did anything so special, but I didn't even really have his company that night. And so several years ago, I decided, instead of being down in the dumps about it, I'm going to do something proactive, and I decided that I was going to make a vision board on New Year's Eve at night. That's what I was going to do, and I had never done one before and I didn't know what to do, and I just went to Michael's craft store and I bought stickers and poster board and crayons and markers and like all kinds of just fun things that I hadn't bought since I was a kid, because I don't do scrapbooking or crafting or anything like that. So I didn't have any of these supplies and I hadn't purchased them. So that in itself was fun.

Speaker 1:

I really wasn't sure in the beginning how to what to do and I think that, yeah, there could be everyone has a different way, but I think it doesn't matter. It's whatever works for you. And so over the last several years, my process has evolved with a little more forethought. Before I turned to the vision board, but I plan tonight to make a vision board for 2025. And I really would love it if you would join me, and if you're not listening to this on December 31st, that's okay, you can make a vision board at any point in time. It's just that, as we know, this time is kind of a marker. So when you start to think about the vision board, what is even the purpose of it? Even the purpose of it?

Speaker 1:

And back in episode 78, I talked about a sprinkle of vision I don't know what chapter number that was from my book, the Sprinkle Effect, but a sprinkle of vision and I talked about the importance of visioning your goals and how athletes and performers, before they actually go out on the field, they visualize every move they're going to make, every play, every catch, every throw, whatever that sport may be, every goal, and they see it happening. They see their body making the movements. Not just seeing it, but they feel it. They feel it with all of their senses. The crowd, they hear the crowd, they smell the grass. You know they try and envision everything that they're feeling, and what happens is is that your mind doesn't know the difference between the vision and the reality, and so it's almost like you're practicing it over and over again in your mind until it actually does become reality. It's very powerful, but we have to start with well, what are we visioning, what are we envisioning? And for each of us it's going to be something different, and how you decide that? Each of us can decide our own ways. But I'm just going to give you a little bit of an idea that you can possibly use. I think it was actually episode 77, where I talked about a sprinkle of direction, which was all about, well, figuring out what is your direction, what are your dreams, what are your goals, and there's something about the word goals that I think are I don't know. I think almost now it has a negative, heavy connotation to it. It feels like it's something that you have to achieve, or it seems just strict and not fluid, and that's not really the purpose. I think at this time of year it's nice to kind of sit down and reflect back. If you had specific goals, dreams, hopes, whatever for this last year. Reflect back on well, what went well and what didn't, and that doesn't mean that the things that didn't go well or that you didn't achieve, you're going to berate yourself for. Here's my own list of what went well.

Speaker 1:

I published my second book, the Sprinkle Effect. I was interviewed by an Arizona good morning show actually twice. I spoke at three different events. I've done countless podcast episodes. I created a course, which, by the way, is on sale until the end of tonight for $25, the. Maybe I can begin to change my life course. So I created that course. Here's some things that I didn't get done. I said I was going to complete the first draft of my third book. I haven't even started it. I said I would set up a book signing at Barnes Noble. You know what I called, and someone was supposed to call me back and they never did and I never followed through. I said that I would land a TEDx talk and I have not yet done that. But that's okay. Now I can look at that and I can reassess Is that still a goal of mine? If so great it goes on my list for 2025. So great it goes on my list for 2025.

Speaker 1:

I also like to sit down and take a look at the different areas of my life and kind of rate myself. So you know and let me actually open up the book to I have to find it to the page. It was under the chapter A Sprinkle of Direction. I'm just looking for the different categories so I can tell you what I have. And these don't have to be your categories, these are just suggestions to each of us. We can make our own. So career, us, you know, we can make our own so career, finances, spirituality, health, my physical environment, significant other, friends and family, fun and personal growth.

Speaker 1:

So I sit down and, on a scale of one to 10, I rate myself where am I now? And then I say, well, where do I want to be? And I put another number and it's not all 10. It doesn't mean. I mean, I'm a little bit realistic. For I don't know career, I guess it could be a 10. Of course, I could put 10s for everything and, let's face it, most of them are going to be 9s and 10s and then I can look at, well, where's the gap? Or even just look at your current rating. You don't even really need the dream number. Look at the current rating and see, okay, what's the lowest?

Speaker 1:

Well, for me it's significant other. Like I said, I've been a widow for two years. I have not been interested in dating. It's a scary, scary idea and that's a different topic for a whole other podcast. But I can say and I'm sharing it with you and I can't believe I'm saying it out loud and putting it out there into the universe but at this point, now that I'm two years in, for the first time I'm open. I'm open to the idea because I'm 61 and I plan on living a heck of a lot longer and it would be nice to have a significant other, a partner to share things with, to travel with, to go out and go to dinner, go to shows, concerts, whatever it is, a movie, it would be nice. Absolutely terrifies me. I am now thinking, hmm, maybe it is something that I would be open to, where the last two years I was not at all in a place to say that. So right now, my current number for significant other is a two. I don't even know why I wrote a two. It's really a zero, and I have to decide. Is that going to be my top priority for the year? Is that going to be one of my priorities for the year?

Speaker 1:

Another tool that I like to use is sitting down and writing out what my dream life looks like, and I've also done another episode on that, where I read to you the first attempt that I had ever made to describe my dream life, and I'm not going to read it to you again, but the idea is to try and get really specific. You get up in the morning and what do you see? And so if I'm thinking about my dream life and having a partner, there is a significant other, there's somebody who has a great sense of humor and fun and easy to be with and enjoys some of the same things that I do, and maybe we go for a walk together, first thing on the beach, because we live right by the beach, because that's my favorite thing, and then maybe we go, or I go and I go to an exercise class or I play pickleball or just some kind of athletic activity, and you know, and on and on with specifics, and then what do I have for breakfast? Well, in my mind, part of my dream life is I have someone who cooks for me, because I don't cook and you go through the whole day really really thinking about it and writing it out and visualizing it, and I think those two, and I think those two, when you do those two exercises, you can kind of come to some kind of consensus of, okay, what do I want this vision board to be? Is it only what I want to happen this year? Is it what I want to happen at? You know, if I'm looking at you know, do I expect to be living on a beach by the end of this year with my dream partner? Quite frankly, I don't. If it happened, fantastic, but that's okay, I still am going to put that on my vision board. So it doesn't just have to be something that you want to happen this year. It's completely up to you. We all have goals or visions. What do I want my life to look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now.

Speaker 1:

I also, a few years ago, was introduced to the idea of choosing a word of the year and I got to tell you, like so many of the other things that I have embraced. I thought it was kind of silly, but I was at a networking meeting with my BW Nice women a couple of weeks ago and one of the women, the president, said let's go around and introduce yourself and either say what your word of the year was or what your hopes are, and I hadn't given it any thought. And then, when it came to me, I stood up and said my word of the year is abundance. And it came from I don't know where, and I can say I'm sticking with that. I felt that that just came from somewhere deep within. That's my word of the year.

Speaker 1:

I want abundance in my relationships with my kids, with my relationship with money, in my giving back to other people, in my fun personal life, in travel, in just everything. Just that feeling of abundance. And it also, for me, is a reminder of how much abundance I have now. Me is a reminder of how much abundance I have now being grateful for everything that's in my life it really is already abundant. But that is my word of the year, that is what I am focusing on, so you can play around with that as well, you can. You know Google and you can come up with. You know all different examples of different words like growth, joy, balance, clarity, and if you can't come up with anything, I got 15 sprinkles right here that you could use Perspective, mindset, belief, courage, responsibility, dreams, direction, vision, action, discipline, adaptability that's a good one. Resilience, curiosity I love that one Connection joy and new beginnings that's not a one word, it's two words, but why not? This is for us Okay.

Speaker 1:

So after I kind of have those things, the next thing that I do is I go to magazines. If you even have a magazine anymore so many of us don't I really don't get too many magazines I get. I have a prescription, a subscription to People magazine, so I have them. I actually anything that I haven't used in previous years I kept so that I, you know, just accumulate them. I put them away in a cabinet somewhere with my extra crayons and poster board and stickers and stuff, and so then before today I went and took stock and went to the store and refilled the stuff and then you can get like even a more accurate picture, because we all, you know, on stilts that's blue. You just put that in and voila, you have a picture, and it's actually better because it is. It helps you to really visualize exactly what you're looking for and you know, when I first did it, I printed out a lot of words. As a matter of fact, I should have had that.

Speaker 1:

This I'm going to show you something. Hold on Creek, that's my chair. I have an old one here that I had done many, many years ago, and you see, it was. It's in my office, it was right over there to my left, so I could see it at all times, and here I didn't have that many pictures. What I've since learned is words and phrases are great, but pictures images they, they tend to conjure up a different feeling and it's like all you have to do is look at the picture it's instead of actually reading a phrase. Now, look, words are still okay, it's not like we can't have them, but you know, I think the images are better, and so this is one of my original boards and for those of you who are listening, who obviously can't see most of the things that I have on here are phrases Speak what you seek until you see what you've said Today I am grateful for. She believed she could, so she did. Dare to dream fearless progress over perfection. I have a picture of weights and an apple and a tape measure because I was looking to lose weight. Excuse me, I have and I have.

Speaker 1:

Back then, when I made this, I had just started the caregiver support squad and I have that on here and find your calling healthy upstairs. So I have. I actually made a few. So this was a bigger one that I made that I keep in my office, bigger one that I made that I keep in my office. Then I also made a smaller one and I actually was going to bring it downstairs before I came to talk to you today. But it's taped so well to my mirror in my bathroom that I didn't want to rip it because it's kind of like on construction paper. So I didn't want to rip it.

Speaker 1:

But the one that I have upstairs had more images. It had a yoga mat, it had a beach, it had like a pile of money. It actually I actually took a check and wrote it out to myself for a certain amount of money, just like Jim Carrey did. I don't know if you've ever heard that story and I don't remember the year, so I'm totally making this up right now the year, but let's say it was 1985 and he was like a starving actor who had not been successful and he wrote himself a check for $10 million and in the memo he wrote for acting services rendered and he folded it up and kept it in his wallet and almost 10 years to the day he I think it was Dumb and Dumber was chosen to be the lead in Dumb and Dumber. And what'd he get paid? $10 million, 10-year vision in the making, but I would say that it certainly paid off. So I did. I did the same thing. I wrote myself a check and I look at it every day on my mirror and I love having it in my bathroom because it's there when I'm blowing my hair dry.

Speaker 1:

What are you doing when you're blowing your hair dry? I mean, I guess you're supposed to be looking at what you're doing to your hair, but let's face it, you're not doing that all the time, so it's a perfect time to have something else there. I'm looking at it when I brush my teeth. They're just when I'm taking my makeup off at night. I really, really find that useful.

Speaker 1:

So I made one for my bathroom upstairs, I made one for my office here in the house and I made another one that I keep at my office at my insurance agency and, you know, every single day I'm looking at it. It's reminding me of my dreams, of my visions, what I want in my life, and it really it is inspiring and it's empowering, and you have to remember that there's if you're like me, because I, no matter what I do, I always think am I doing it right? Oh no, is this going to work? Maybe I didn't do it the way I was supposed to? Let me go Google directions.

Speaker 1:

Let me ask chat GBT how exactly am I supposed to make a vision board? You know what You're supposed to make a vision board. You know what You're supposed to make a vision board that works for you. That's the answer. What is going to connect with you is going to be different than what connects with me, and since I started doing this on New Year's Eve, it has changed my relationship with New Year's Eve. I look forward to it.

Speaker 1:

You know what, if I got invited somewhere now, I wouldn't even want to go. I really wouldn't want to, because I can't wait to get all my stuff out, all my supplies. I can't wait to get all my stuff out, all my supplies, all on my kitchen table, and just start creating. It is. You know what it really it's. I'm getting like excited talking about it. I can't wait until later on. First, I'm taking my son and his girlfriend and my other son, my older son, out to dinner, an early dinner to celebrate, and then it's me time, me and my vision board, and so I hope that you do the same.

Speaker 1:

I hope that 2025 is a year of abundance, of happiness, of health, love, joy, every single thing that you hope for. And I just you know really would like to leave you and remind you that things are going to come up this year, just like they do every year, that you don't expect and they could throw you. Off course it happens, that's okay. Life's filled with bunches of circumstances and ups and downs, but if you still keep your eye on your dreams and your goals, you're going to get there. It's not a straight line, that is for sure, but that's okay. So remember, you have the power. You have the power to design a life that you love. So let 2025 be the most vibrant, colorful, fulfilling year yet. Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2025.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for spending part of your day with me here on Maybe I Can, exploring possibilities, one sprinkle at a time. It's been great having you and I hope you're leaving with a spark to light up your journey to more. Remember every big change starts with a single maybe. If you're ready to kickstart that change but not sure where to begin, I've got just the thing for you Head over to download my free guide, the One Critical Step to Kickstart Change and take that all-important first step. Let's make those maybes into reality, one sprinkle at a time. Catch you next Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific, with more stories, tips and that extra push you might need. I'm Debbie saying goodbye for now, but always remember maybe, just maybe, you can.

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Debbie Weiss

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