Illustrating Goals and Values

 

It seems like anytime I’m laid up for a period of days I turn to Anthony Robbins’ book “Awaken the Giant Within” and reassess my values, priorities and goals. I’m happy to say I’ve met or I’m on my way to meeting a lot of the short-term goals I set in April.

The goals I’ve yet to meet are: (1) Taking a tropical vacation in February 2013 (2) Running a 10k (3) Expanding my social circle to meet training partners and other healthy folks (4) Exploring a career change.

My values, in priority order are: (1) Health and vitality; (2) Love/Compassion/Warmth/Intimacy; (3) Cheerfulness/Optimism/Hope; (4) Determination/Courage/Resiliency; (5) Passion/Adventure/Fun; (6)Intelligence/Curiosity/Growth; (7) Gratitude; (8) Solvency

Illustration of Short Term Goals

Since I have quite a bit of time on my hands this weekend while I’m resting my ankle and basically not leaving home, I decided to turn my lists of goals and values into vision boards. Since I didn’t have any magazines to cut up, I decided to illustrate them myself.

At first, I thought I’d combine the two into one board. I started by listing my short-term goals and noting the values that are aligned with each goal. The end result is an illustration that will support me in achieving my goals, but doesn’t remind me of my values.In fact, it completely ignores values #2 and #3. OK…I included #2 but it’s sort of a stretch.

Illustration of My Values

As soon as I realized values #2 and #3 were missing from my goals board, I realized I hadn’t made them a priority in my life lately either. There is a reason I made those values #2 and #3 and it was time to get them back up there. So I decided to give them prominent positions in my values vision board. Value #2 is Love/Warmth/Compassion/Intimacy and is represented by the two hands holding each other. Values #3 is Cheerfulness/Optimism/Hope and is represented by the sunflower. My last two values (Gratitude and Solvency) are important or they wouldn’t have made the list. However, I’m not sure how I want to capture them visually so I’ve left them out of the illustration for now.

Illustrated Goals and Values on the Refrigerator

I had a lot of fun creating these drawings. They’re now hanging on my refrigerator. I feel optimistic that they will inspire me to strive to reach my goals and to live in accordance with my values. Or try to at least.