As the year draws to a close, I’ve been settling into my new house and hanging up all of my art. My 2023 vision board is sitting on my downstairs desk — I’ve yet to determine whether to hang it upstairs or down — and it occurred to me that I’m going to miss looking at this thing. It’s the first vision board I’ve ever created, and while I was a bit skeptical, I love how it turned out. I’ve enjoyed having it near my desk over the last 12 months. I’ve been thinking about what I’ll create for next year. Is it cheating to swap out some images, but keep some of them the same? I’ll definitely be re-using this template!

Here are some notes about the images on my board and how the year turned out.

Travel was a theme in this board, and I did take a few trips in 2023. I visited Palm Springs in the winter and Watch Hill in the summer. I also embarked on some business trips to Texas and Newburyport, MA.

The photo of lobster was supposed to symbolize lots of delicious meals, but lucky for me, during my multiple trips to New England, I did get to eat a lot of lobster as some of those delicious meals. 🙂

I included a picture of Benny because I had planned to find more fun activities for us to do in 2023. Unfortunately, that devolved into just a lot more training and working on his aggressive behaviors, as well as lots of trial and error to find a food that he would do well on. In March, we went on 30 walks with 30 new people to work on socialization. We also participated in a scent work class this fall with other people and dogs, and Benny did great at that! It’s funny that the photo here includes his ball. Balls have become Benny’s favorite toy. After two trainers suggested my dog shouldn’t play with toys at all earlier this year, I re-introduced them as a training tool, and I’ve had success redirecting a lot of his big feelings about visitors into his ball. We also play “find it” with scented balls.

I also included a stock photo in the middle of a dog running with a bull terrier. This photo was supposed to represent running with Benny, but it played out in a much more literal sense. I’ve gone my entire life not knowing a bull terrier in person, but I met two bull terriers this year. One belong’s to Vince’s brother, Ryan, who moved to Virginia Beach in February. The other belongs to one of my new neighbors.

I learned to sail this year! When I plopped all these photos of boats into this board, I’m not quite sure what I was imagining, but I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go sailing this spring and then keep doing it all through the summer and early fall. 🙂

The photos of a living room and a closet were supposed to represent rearranging some rooms in my house. But in fact, I ended up buying a house this year, and I moved in 8 weeks ago. The layout of my couch and a plant in relationship to the window are similar!

The stack of books was to encourage myself to do lots of reading this year. To date, I’ve read 57 books in 2023!

The images of yoga, and skincare, and fruits/veggies were supposed to symbolize health and wellness. I’m delighted to report I’m ending the year almost 20 pounds lighter than when I started it.

I included the photo of Ocean House because I wanted to visit there again. I took my parents there this August as a Christmas gift, and you can even see the room we stayed in from the angle of this picture.

I kept hydrangeas on my kitchen table for most of the year. I haven’t gotten any for the new house since I moved in, but I’ll do that before the end of the year, for sure.

The photo of the mid-century modern shelving unit represents that I wanted to get my grandparents’ old one out of my downstairs closet, refinish it, and set it up in my living room or dining room. Once I bought my new house, that was pretty easy — I ripped some built-in bookshelves out of this house to make a wall long enough for this piece, and about a month ago, I cleaned it up with some wood restorer. It looks great!

There were a few of these that didn’t play out, of course — no skating competition, no horseback riding, and there probably will be no big, fancy family holiday dinner. I’m going to stick around here for Christmas again this year because I’m not ready to leave the dog with anyone again quite yet. I doubt I’ll make it to a snowy ski resort before the end of the year, either. And I didn’t go surfing or see any autumn leaves in New England. (But I did get to see lots of autumn leaves here in Virginia Beach — they were beautiful this year!)

Overall, this was a fun project at the end of next year, and I’ve enjoyed keeping the framed hard copy of this board on the wall near my desk. Will I do it again? Yes. Will my 2023 board probably look really similar my 2024 board? Probably. 😉