Dream Board

As part of the goals process at the office, each employee is basically expected to create a five-year plan to help direct them in the desired career path. My colleague, being in her forties and still not really sure what she wants to be when she grows up, was struggling with her five-year plan so she called a meeting to whoever was interested to discuss the creation and direction of each other's five-year plans. I wasn't initially going to attend the meeting because I have already written my five-year plan, but three minutes before the meeting this colleague pleaded with me to attend.

When we all gathered, it was more like support group then a meeting about five-year plans. There was some discussion about some good books to read, such as Who Moved My Cheese, or Love It, Don't Leave It (the job, that is). Then she busts out this poster board, a "dream board," that reminded me of a collage I did in 4th grade - pictures cut out of a magazine that represent "me." The idea was, as another colleague put it, either really interesting or I was now in an episode of The Office. The idea behind a dream board is to create a purpose, or overview of what each of us wants out of life, an "articulation and expression of the dream." After providing brief insight into her own life, she handed everyone poster board and strongly encouraged all of us to go home and get to work and bring our own dream boards back to the next meeting to share with everyone, then hang them in our offices so we could look at the pictures that illustrate our success over and over again to in-turn manifest our dreams. Uh, huh. Sure.

When I got home and turned on my DVR, there was my daily Oprah show recording - and what was the topic of the day? It was all about The Secret (we all know how I really feel about that), positive thinking and creating - you guessed it - dream boards! Ok, I took that as a sign that I needed to get to it and start making a change.

So here it is (not quite glued together, but layed out). Pictures that represent me and the person I want to be, personally and professionally. I have to admit, the process of creating the dream board was rather enlightening, revealing a lot of my insecurities in life as I thought through the pictures and phrases I wanted posted to remind me of who I think I am and what I want to be. I won't be taking this to work, but I've already warned Mr. G that it will be hanging in our office at home. As cheesy as this first seemed, this was a good experience and I encourage everyone out there that feels like they need a change or some direction to go through this exercise.