Keep your dreams where your eyes meet them

Hello,

most of us believe we know exactly what we are aiming for. We feel the direction is clear. Yet if someone stopped us on the street and gave us only ten seconds to name our most important dreams or goals, many of us would manage only one or two vague answers — the kind almost anyone would give. General wishes do not move us to take concrete steps, let alone to go further or to give our maximum. Only people who are truly going after something specific do that.

Without a clear reason right in front of our eyes, the effort we invest stays inconsistent. For many, children are living motivation — we see them and know we would do almost anything for them, and so we do the hard things that others without that daily reminder often hesitate to do.

If you do not yet have the things that give you real drive placed where you can see them every day, and you want fresh wind in your sails, take a few minutes to choose what truly does not leave you cold. There are two practical ways to keep them visible.

A physical vision board — many people use one, and some later compare old photos with the board they created years before and are astonished at how closely life began to match the pictures.

Or a digital board on your computer or laptop. Images are easier to update, though it is wiser not to look at it right before sleep (here the physical board has an advantage). I personally prefer the digital version for a simple reason: right after waking, under the morning cortisol surge, even beautiful images of the desired life may not yet feel uplifting. When I switch on the computer I am already more awake, and the brain is in one of its best states of the day — so the sight of the board awakens the right kind of “what if I were already living this” energy, and I get to work. In the AlmostThere app there is now a free tool for registered users that lets you set a vision board as your desktop. Just download it and fill it with your own dreams and visions.

What belongs on the board? This is not a trivial question. Many of us have spent years asking what the world wants from us and trying to meet those expectations. Now the question turns around: What do I want from the world? What will bring a real sense of happiness? What sweetens life? What have you always longed for, yet circumstances quietly pushed into the background? Be specific. The braver ones even add a date. For me it is living near any body of water where I can swim, time independence, and financial freedom (with a concrete number written beside it).

This is useful for more than motivation. Your brain filters the enormous amount of information that reaches it every moment. Structures involved in attention and arousal (often popularly linked to the reticular activating system) help decide what gets through to conscious awareness. When you repeatedly expose yourself to clear images and specific goals, you train that filtering system to notice matching opportunities, ideas and resources that would otherwise stay invisible. Research on vision boards and visualization is nuanced: pure daydreaming of an already perfect outcome can sometimes lower energy for action. But when images are concrete, personally meaningful and kept in front of you, they support clearer goals, stronger commitment and more consistent attention toward what matters. They turn vague background wishes into living direction.

So today, if your reasons are still only thoughts floating somewhere in the back of your mind, give them a place where your eyes meet them every day. Then let that daily reminder help you do the maximum — not because you force yourself, but because you can see why it is worth it.

Keep them where you can see them.