Treasure Map

Since I touched on visualization yesterday, I thought today I would talk about one of the most useful tools for picturing your goals, dreams and desires: a treasure map. Basically it's a piece of posterboard onto which you glue pictures and words that represent your dreams.

Mine is pictured here. It's a little bit hard to see, but on it I have a photo of myself and my husband in the middle, to remind me of what's really important--my loved ones. Then each quadrant of the board is related to some aspect of my life. In the upper left I have the New York Times Best Seller list mock-up I mentioned with my book title and my name in the #1 spot, plus a mock-up of the actual book cover. (Okay, I stole a Nora Roberts cover and doctored it up a bit.) I also have some words, like, "What would you do with $20,000?" and a couple of nice pens and a dragon (because the book I was writing at the time was about a dragon). In the upper right hand corner I have pictures of beautiful food and groups of friends socializing, because I want to be a really accomplished cook and to entertain my friends. The lower right has pictures of what I'd like my home to look like, and the lower left represents travel, health (there's a bikini-clad girl in there, a beach, people riding bikes, and women in pretty clothes. There's also some cool jewelry and a Jaguar.)

I put this on the wall near my desk where I see it daily. It was a lot of fun to put it together, and it gives me pleasure every time I look at it. Since then, many of the things I included have come to me, particularly the travel, home improvements, and cooking. Others I'm still expecting!

So give yourself a treat and make your own treasure map. You can update it as often as you want. The important thing is that it makes you feel positive and optimistic about the changes coming into your life.

Visually,
Kara