December Reflections - 2019 - Vision Cards Part 2

As promised, here are the vision cards I made for this year.  I have used basically the same six themes but tweaked them a little bit.  They are the same size as last year, an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock cut in half. 

Last year I had "Health" but this one is "All About Me" because now that I have lost a significant amount of weight, I know I need to focus on other aspects of my wellbeing.  It is time to do a little more exercise rather than just walking the dog.  I need to get some strengthening in my arms and tighten the core muscles.  I also need to focus on my mental health as well.  Self-care is an important thing that gets overlooked a lot. 

"Money" is now "Show Me The Money."  The goal is to get some of our debt paid down and continue to save for the things we want to do.  Hopefully more work and some attention to non-essential spending will help with that.  Fortunately we on Social Security got a raise!   

"Connect" is now "Making Connections" and I think it continues to be important to keep the connections with friends and family as a top priority.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the work that I don't take time to be with the family.  As an introvert, social gatherings are hard for me and I need to try and get over that a little.  

"Home" is "The Old Homestead" and again, we can't afford much but we do need a new fridge and could use a fence around the front yard so Benny can go outside sometimes and play.  I'm still holding out for my fire pit in the backyard too!  I love cacti as a garden because they don't need much care and can be really interesting.  

"Go Places" is now "Experiences" because the focus will be on new experiences in familiar places.  The beach is free and so are things like walking across the Golden Gate or just getting in the car and driving to the City to do touristy activities or down to Carmel and Monterey.  Even Yosemite can be relatively inexpensive.  Gotta get out there.  

Last but not least, "Craft" is now "My Crafty Business."  I loved the word Phoblographer because that encompasses a lot of things.  The goal chart is to help me get more specific with the direction I want to take my business in.  Plus, as part of the self-care, I have a lot of personal projects that I want to work on, not just to be sold.  The kids each have an album that is seriously behind and my concert album is certainly not up to date.  Those things are important too.  

If you are interested in making your own vision cards, I highly recommend the class by Jamie Ridler.   If you'd like to see some of my past years, here are the links:

2014, 2015, 2016 are in one post.

2017 and 2018

Again, one of the main reasons that I like doing these cards is to take the pressure off of having failed an attempt at a "resolution."  As you can see, some of the things that I wanted in 2014 are things I still want but there has been a lot accomplished in each area as well.  I know that Jamie makes 10 or 12 cards but I think six is about all I can handle, at least for now.  So what do you think?  What would your vision cards be about?  Love to hear your ideas.

December Reflections - 2019 - Vision Cards Part 1

It's time to make the vision cards for 2020.  I use vision cards instead of making New Year's Resolutions because we all know that resolutions don't always get resolved.  Instead I take different areas of my life that I'd like to work on and make collages to help identify goals.  I've been making these since about 2014 when I heard about it from Jamie Ridler.  She has an excellent course on making them if you are interested.  Anyway, before I get to next year, I like to take one last look at the ones I made this year and see how much I have accomplished for each area.

I called this one "Go Places" and it is probably the one that got the least attention this year.  Except for the concerts and our annual Boulder Creek mini vacation we really didn't go anywhere.  We didn't even go to Reno which is something we've done every year for the last four or five years.  I had in mind that we would just do local fun things but money was really tight and so we didn't.



The Health card was very different.  I managed to lose 55 pounds from March to December and that actually is a 70 pound loss from what was my highest weight.  In addition, I am off all the medication I was taking for diabetes and my blood pressure is normal. 








Money is such a tricky thing and some of it is not in my control.  Unfortunately we had a reversal of finances between having to spend money on the studio and a lack of expected income on my part.  I have starting increasing my transcription by taking on work that is not strictly medical in nature and hopefully that will help in 2020.  Asking the Universe to help with the craft business a bit as well. 

Connecting with friends and family was a little more successful.  We did have a few dinners out and got to take a boat cruise around the San Francisco Bay with friends.  I did visit my sister more and talked with her by phone a lot as we went through the process of moving my mom out of her apartment.  Also got to have breakfast a couple of times with my best friend who lives quite a distance away.  Hubby and I also started some counseling to help with our connection with each other.  Even though we've been married for 35 years, I was starting to feel disconnected. 


As far as my Crafty life goes, the studio was the biggest accomplishment.  I love it and have been able to make some videos and start experimenting with different techniques.  I am using a lot more of my supplies than I had been because everything is more organized and accessible.  I participated in four Holiday Boutiques too.  I also did a purge and got rid of some things that I will not use. 





Finally, we have Home.  Again, the biggest thing here was getting the backyard down to bare bones and building the studio.  I did do some deep cleaning to some parts of the house and we went to a flea market where hubby actually sold some of his tools and made some space in the garage.  I have a ton of things that I was going to sell in a garage sale but the year got away from me and now the weather is too unpredictable so that will have to wait until the spring.  We also got our Benny dog and that has made a big change in our home. 


So that's the update on the vision cards I made for 2019.  All in all I think I did pretty well and even though some areas got more attention than others, I feel a lot better about things than if I had just made some New Year's Resolutions that I didn't keep.  Also, by doing it this way I have some actual record of what was done every year since I write it on the back of each card.

Tomorrow I'll show you the ones I made for 2020.  Bet you can't wait.