Happy New Year! I finished up my 2026 just before the end of the year as I typically complete a new board just before the end of each calendar year. Vision Boards can be completed at any time! Other useful times to create a vision board:

For your birthday - Many people treat their birthday as their opportunity to reset.
During a time of transition - If you have recently been laid off, are going through a personally challenging time like a divorce - it may be a good opportunity to set some intentions and create a vision for your next adventure or next life.
To get out of a funk or during a dark time - When we are experiencing challenges or darkness, it is rooted in energy. Shift the energy, you shift your life. Vision boards are a great way to inspire yourself and to crawl out of the dark place you may find yourself in.
During the spring - Most ancient civilizations mirrored their timing and clocks off of nature so spring was the time they did their reset or considered that their new year.

I’ve been doing vision boards for at least 20 years so my ritual and practice has been to do one at the end of each calendar year. That system has worked well for me. I have also created vision boards during transition periods - I created a new vision board after going through a divorce and I’ve also done a vision board in honor of my birthday.

I was sharing on social media that this is the first year I can remember not feeling like I need to do a total reset in my life. I have finally achieved the regulated nervous system which comes with a sense of safety and security. If you’re like me and you’ve experienced a lot of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) you’ve had to spend a lot of your adult life rewiring your brain and attempting to heal from trauma. Watch this short video from PBS to learn more about ACEs and how they may be impacting your adult life:

In 2025, I received the first normal blood pressure reading in my adult life. I was hospitalized for blood pressure related issues at least three times in my 20s and 30s. My vision board always starts with my intentions. I set at least one intention for each area of my life. You can learn more details about my process in my book I Am: Intend Align Manifest.

Here are a few of my intentions for 2026 (in no particular order):

Continue building wealth through saving, investing and financial education. One of the reasons why I have so much peace is the growth and stability I’ve been able to bring to the area of my finances. When you have to worry about how you’re going to pay bills, or worry about a vehicle being repossessed, or worry about about whether or not your lights are going to be cut off, that is stress! Stress for someone with a chronic health condition like high blood pressure is not good. i am also committed to building generational wealth so that my daughter can begin her adult life in a better financial position that I was able to.
Devote more time to pouring into health friendships and social activities. I have been blessed with some really good friends. I am committed to spending more time with them in 2026. I also want to spend more time with my loved ones who bring me so much joy. Most of my highlights from 2025 involved the time that I spent with them.
Spend less time doomscrolling and wasting time. Don’t get me wrong, rest is important. As a chronic overachiever and workaholic, I have to be conscious of how I am prioritizing rest. I spent WAY too much time doomscrolling on social media though in 2025. I checked out my screen time and my daily average is 5 hours 59 minutes with 2 hours and 49 minutes being devoted to social media, 1 hour to shopping and food (this CANNOT be helpful in my quest to build wealth) and other 1 hour 9 minutes. I picked up my phone on a daily average of 48 times per day with most of those pickups happening on Sundays. Needless to say, I’ve got some work to do in this area.

Last year I picked up some new habits that I will continue this year including:

Laying out my work outfits for the full week. I used to just lay my work clothes out the night before. In 2025, I started laying out my clothes for the full week. The hour or so that it takes on Saturday or Sunday brings me so much time during the week and allows my mornings to be a little smoother and easier. Decision fatigue is what the experts call it, and it’s just another fancy word for stress. It’s no wonder my blood pressure was normal for the first time in over 20 years. I was intentional about limiting and reducing all forms of stress last year.
Started renting clothes from Nuuly. I love new clothes and I love shopping. In September of 2025, I started renting clothes from Nuuly. This wasn’t the first time I tried a rental company. I was a huge user of Rent The Runway, but I used it primarily for formal events and gatherings. Nuuly has been great, because it has allowed me to fulfill that desire of having new clothes without the burden and commitment of actually purchasing clothes and storing them. When you do decide to buy something, it is heavily discounted. I purchased a coat that retailed for like $300 for $50. I also find myself taking more fashion risks which is fun, and I can take advantage of fashion trends again without the burden of ownership. If you want to check out Nuuly, be sure to use my link to get $30 off your first month.
Allocated more time to scrapbooking. I got back to scrapbooking at least once a week by the end of 2025 and created 111 individual scrapbook pages. Scrapbooking is a hobby that feel so restorative and it has the added benefit of archiving and documenting life. Felt so good to get back to it.
Traveled more. Trips included to Kansas City, D.C. and California. I have always loved traveling but COVID and becoming a new mom in 2021 slowed that down for me. Last year I took trips to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles California and Kansas City, MO which is the place I call home since I lived there from 4 years old - 14 years old during my formative years. Now that my baby is 4, I plan to do more travel.
Watched YouTube videos. My Generation Alpha baby loves YouTube, and that totally rubbed off on me. We subscribe to YouTube TV for our streaming/cable service and then I regularly turn our smart TV on to YouTube.

Speaking of YouTube, if you haven’t watched Jay Shetty’s you’ve got to watch it. So much of what he said resonates with me:

“Manifestation works when you match intention with infrastructure.” - Jay Shetty
“Before setting your plan, set your energy.” - Jay Shetty
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” Jay Shetty quoting James Clear.

Go ahead and invest the 20 minutes into watching this episode. Be sure to have your notebook ready! He is dropping gem after gem:

It’s crazy how Jay Shetty mentions selecting a word for the year in the video I embedded above. That’s how you know when you’re in alignment. You receive all kinds of unexpected confirmations. Confirmations are weird coincidences, or as we call it in the metaphysical community synchronicities. I usually have YouTube videos going in the background when I’m doing other tasks, but hearing the first couple of minutes of Jay Shetty’s video, I stopped what I was doing, grabbed a pen and my journal and had to go make eye contact with this man and give him my undivided attention.

Diligence is my word for 2026.

Here is my 2026 Vision Board:

Embed Block

Add an embed URL or code. Learn more