The Vision Board Book

How to Use the Power of Intention and Visualization to Manifest the Life of Your Dreams

By John Assaraf
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In February, I was tasked with a daunting challenge: team up with John Asssaraf to write the definitive book on vision boards, how they work, the history and theory behind them, and a thorough how-to for how to create your own — and do it all in, oh, ten days.

That “ten,” fortunately for me, was expanded to thirty. Still, a single month to write a full-length book on this weighty topic? Yep. And we did. The Vision Board Book is part of a fascinating production called “The Complete Vision Board Kit,” now available from Boyond Words Books, a division of Atria, the people who brought you The Secret and The Answer.

Here are a few excerpts:

From the Introduction: “Why Would I Want to Create a Vision Board?”

Each of us has a certain number of years to get what we really want in this life, and we cannot calculate what that number is. What we can do is to put ourselves on track to create the life we most earnestly desire, and then put ourselves on that track with the focus of a laser.

It’s easy to dream. It’s even easier to make excuses for not achieving our dreams. Millions of people do it every day, finding dozens and hundreds of ways to settle for less than they really want. They stay stuck in jobs they hate, in relationships that don’t work, in a life that is only a small fraction of all that it could be.

You and I both know that it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to settle. And in stepping up to create the life you truly want, the first step is to become absolutely clear about what you want. And this is where I want to encourage you—no, I dare you—to think big. I mean really big. The question isn’t whether you have goals. The real question is: What are your biggest, most audacious dreams—and what are you going to do to make them real?...

From Chapter 1: How Vision Boards Work

At its core, a vision board is a set of visual images that represent the story you are telling yourself about who you are and what your life is like.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly telling ourselves stories. Many of those are stories that someone else told us. When we were little, for example, our parents told us stories. Maybe our older brothers or sisters read us stories, or maybe it was the babysitter. In school, teachers read us stories, and we told each other stories, too. And we retell ourselves these stories with that little voice inside our heads, repeating them hundreds and thousands of times a day.

In earlier times, children grew up hearing the stories of the tribe, the village elders, the bards or minstrels. These days, we grow up steeped in stories told by television, movies, and comic books. From the earliest bands of prehistoric hunters and gatherers to people of the post-modern electronic age, one thing about human life has never changed and never will: we knit the fabric of our lives through stories. And the most powerful stories are the ones we repeat to ourselves through the words and the pictures we hold in our minds.

The stories we tell ourselves shape our lives. They shape who we believe we are, and this belief translates into who we become.

The purpose of this little book is to help you consciously choose the stories you’re telling yourself about who you are and what kind of life you lead. A vision board is really nothing but a story in pictures. It’s the story of your life—of the life you want....

Table of Contents

Part I: The Power of Vision
1: How Vision Boards Work
2: Your Goals and Dreams
3: Intention
4: Visualization
5: Your Beliefs
6: Affirmations
7: Meditation
8: Positive Action
9: Gratitude
10: Moving Mountains
11: Visualization in Ancient Times
12: The Modern Lineage
13: How Vision Shapes Our World

Part II: Creating the Life of Your Dreams
14: Dream Big Dreams
15: Make Your Vision Board
16: Create Your Visualizations
17: Give Yourself a Belief Makeover
18: Getting It Into Your Head
19: Creating Your Health
20: Creating Your Wealth
21: Creating Your Relationships
22: Creating Your Career
23: Helping Your Kids Create Their Dreams
24: The Last Two Ingredients