Creating a Vision Board and Setting Goals are Not the Same
Today I heard someone say that creating a vision board is the same thing as goal setting. While the two processes may be similar, they are far from the same.
Vision boarding is a fun and useful exercise for visualizing what you want in the future. However, the process of creating a vision board is almost 100% about the “what” of the future and the details are left to faith. What’s more, not thinking about the details is what makes vision boarding so fun and allows you to open your mind up to greater possibilities. This is what makes vision boarding so useful as not needing to think about the details makes thinking about the big picture easier.
On the other hand, goal setting is typically not nearly as fun as vision boarding. It requires much more thought as the details must be just as clear as the “what”. In fact, without details a goal is useless. This is why most long term goals are nothing more than visions and should be treated as such.
Ideally, vision boarding long term goals would be the first step in a good goal setting process, but not the only step. Additional steps would include coming up with the more specific short and medium term goals with all the details. Including how those short and medium term goals logically progress towards a long term vision.
Yes, in many circumstances it does make sense to let vision boarding and goal setting stand alone from each other. But it’s a mistake to think they are substitutes or interchangeable with one another.