The Importance of a Vision Board
by Elena Chen
One of my oldest friends told me in middle school to write a list of all the things I wanted to have done in my lifetime. She was reading about the Law of Attraction and as a resolute skeptic I really did not think much of this list at the time. Now, at the start of every year I write a list of everything I can think of that I want to have accomplished for the year, no matter how big or small it is. I also have a separate ongoing list that I add to whenever I have a lifetime achievement I want to have completed. I don’t know much about the Law of Attraction and its tenets but what I do know is that the idea of “manifestation” is more than just a fad that the current sass gods are peddling. I think that this sort of goal-setting, where you clarify with yourself where you want to be exerting your limited energy, is so effective because it delineates a clear target for your attention and resources to be directed at. In a time where our attention is constantly being tempted away from us and procrastination provides a twisted sort of comfort in this fast-paced technologically-boosted world, having focus is a superpower that requires continual nurturance. The ability to protect your attention from others, consolidate that attention and learn how to manage distraction has become more important in today’s world than any other time. I think a global and lifetime wish list might just be a step towards that direction.
As a child growing up with dial-up connections, T9 phone signals and floppy disks, I always just felt like the world was ever-expanding and brimming with opportunity. Opportunities to be stimulated, entertained and intrigued. Living in Hong Kong as well, one of the most fast-paced cities in the world where some neon lights are constantly flickering, I became multilingual by the time I was 5. I never questioned the role of technology in the anxious and neurotic side of my nature. I always thought that I was a sensitive person and just needed to stay away from the outside to recharge. This was all before 2010, before the social media era. In my late teens and early twenties, without realizing it, my attention was becoming increasingly fragmented and I would feel restless when my mind wasn’t churning. It was almost always producing thoughts or feelings. Social media was on the rise and it meant that there was new content to be consumed, subgenres to be discovered, and endless moments for comparison that needed to be felt. For many years I refrained from Facebook and Instagram. Now, I have returned to social media as a means of expanding my small crochet & knit business. This has opened so many doors and given me a creative outlet that I have always been yearning for but has also led to an attentional experience I was not prepared for.
From the moment I clicked on Instagram, the rush of viewing interactions would draw me into the app and soon I’d be in a rabbit hole scrolling on the explore page indefinitely. This experience probably would not be that harrowing were it not for the way it influenced my creativity. I saw posts that did well in terms of likes and comments and I would want to imitate the type of crochet/knit work in the post. On fashion reels, people were often in great lighting, shot from multiple angles and wore makeup. I suddenly had the desire to produce reels of a similar look.
There is a certain truth behind viral posts or content that has done well as measured by numbers, but I hated the feeling that I was being swayed, nay, influenced, by this. I was on an app for influencers, meant to influence me, and felt overwhelmed and inadequate under this influence. Amidst all this I was also using Pinterest, Youtube, and Tiktok (though thankfully sparingly) and it all added to a sense of needing to produce more work, of trending aesthetics, that was presented in a high virality manner (reels instead of posts for example).
I was without a center for a while. Whenever I spent time away from social media, seeing friends, going to work, or doing something that removed me from the internet, I would return to fiber feeling a renewed enthusiasm for the craft. I would have all these ideas and techniques I wanted to try and felt energized enough to actually experiment. It was also during these moments that I would be on Pinterest and start looking at textile arts that weren’t just crochet and knitting. I found that on Pinterest I could avoid a lot of the intensity that came with likes, comments and going viral that was so present on Instagram. I once wrote about moodboards and how putting them together realizes the mood. This time, also with Pinterest, I began putting together a vision board. This was an informal and subconscious process that I think came as a reaction to the overload I was inundated with from Instagram. On my vision board, there were no numbers. My ideas and creations would not be evaluated by results. It was a place of looking forward and not measuring after. Alongside these visuals, I jotted down notes and made lists of where I wanted to go creatively and professionally. I felt like it gave me respite from the incessant stimulation. More importantly, it gave me a direction to funnel my attention towards that was centralizing it and not fragmenting it. This did wonders for my mental health.
So much of my list consists of memories I want to have made. So much of Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram reminds me of what I have still yet to do. I don’t want a neverending to-do list. I don’t want the pressure of conforming to a certain aesthetic or look in order to feel I have succeeded in a creative pursuit where success is determined subjectively. To set myself closer to these goals and not that of the apps working tirelessly at my attention, I decided to limit my exposure to social media and work for my own vision. In 2022, I put on my vision board, my list for the year, that I wanted to start crocheting, knitting and make a business out of it. I wanted to bake and share my baked goods online. I wanted to work with clay, and experiment with it. I also wanted to exercise more and incorporate journaling into my routine. I started learning French and wrote that I wanted to move to France. There were many things on the list I didn’t do as well. I didn’t get to see my parents or visit Japan where my best friend lives. I didn’t get my ears pierced. I didn’t start selling digitals on Etsy. However, in two weeks, I will be visiting Japan with my partner to see my best friend. Afterwards, we’ll be traveling to Hong Kong to see my parents. I might just get my ears pierced on that trip.
In April 2023, I’m due to start living in France. Paris, actually. I have more dreams for this year. I have lists and photographs and pictures of the vision I want to live out in 2023. I don’t think it’s about ticking everything off that list, because it would just become another type of influencing pressure that we all need to alleviate from ourselves at a time where technology has become another insidious mode of pressuring us. It’s about having a direction, an atmosphere, an inspiration, or a way forward. If I recount this year in my head, I remember crocheting and knitting for hours on end, spending so much (too much) time worrying and stressing over the lack of interaction on my instagram and constantly trying to learn how to be gentle with myself on my broken French. Somehow, with my list in the back of my mind, I managed to do so much more than I would have remembered. Despite my low interaction on Instagram, I’ve been doing quite well on Depop. Miraculously, I now understand large chunks of conversations held in French. I’m going traveling and I’m moving to Paris. I don’t know how this happened. Have I been attracting this into my life? Not knowingly, I can assure you of that. But I made a list, and I think I worked towards it. I made clothes I thought were interesting. I talked about what intrigued me in France. I’m in a relationship with a lovely person who’s French. I cooked and baked and loved creativity more than I have ever honored it. In 2022, I made a commitment to enacting a vision. I plan to do the same this year.
