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From Dreams to Done Crafting Your Vision and Action Plan for the New Year
27 Plays3 months ago
Episode Summary:
In this empowering episode of The Sol Well Podcast, Autumn Colon guides you through the process of setting a clear and intentional vision for the new year. But we’re not stopping at creating a vision board! Autumn shares actionable strategies to turn your dreams into achievable goals. If you’re ready to make 2025 your most aligned and productive year yet, this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- The importance of having a clear vision and how it influences your goals.
- How to create a meaningful and intentional vision board that resonates with your goals and emotions.
- Steps to build a practical action plan to achieve your goals.
- Tips for staying aligned with your vision throughout the year.
- Practices to celebrate milestones and stay motivated.
Key Takeaways:
- Vision boards are more than collages—they’re visual reminders of the energy and goals you want to attract into your life.
- Breaking down big goals into small, actionable steps is the key to progress.
- Checking in with your vision weekly helps you stay aligned and adjust as needed.
- Celebrating small wins keeps you motivated and focused on the journey.
Call to Action:
After listening to this episode:
- Take 30 minutes to reflect on how you want to feel this year.
- Create a vision board that truly resonates with your aspirations.
- Write down at least three actionable steps for one of your goals and set deadlines to get started!
Connect with Autumn:
- Instagram: @solwell_
- Website: www.solwell.co
- Join the Sol Well Community https://themomspace.mn.co/collections/2369816
Join the Conversation:
Share your vision board or action plan and tag SolWell on Instagram! Let’s support each other in achieving our goals and creating a meaningful year. Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Email us at podcast@solwell.co
Subscribe & Review:
If you loved this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps us grow and reach more listeners who want to live with intention and harmony.
Next Episode Teaser:
In the next episode, we’ll dive into the art of rest and recovery—how slowing down can be the key to speeding up your growth. Don’t miss it!
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Transcript
Welcome Back & Holiday Reflections
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the So Well Podcast. I'm your host Autumn Cologne. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I hope you had a restful holiday. We took a break from the show. I needed it. I spent some amazing time with my family over the holidays.
Goals for 2025 & Vision Setting
00:00:21
Speaker
Um, and really reflected on what I wanted to do and what I wanted to have come to life in 2025. Um, and I'm excited to share some of that here with you today. Um, but yeah, let's jump right into it. Right. So as you can see, the title of this episode is called vision, right? But what do I mean by that?
00:00:46
Speaker
We're going to get to it because in this episode, we are talking about setting a clear vision, but we're not talking about just creating a vision board, though we will get to that. We're going to be going deeper and exploring how to create an action plan for your vision that ensures you actually achieve the goals you set. Vision without action is just a dream. Okay, y'all. Let me repeat that.
00:01:14
Speaker
Vision without action is just a dream. And today I want to help you understand how to turn those dreams into reality. So let's dive in.
Vision & Action: A Road Map
00:01:25
Speaker
All right. So let's start with why vision is important. Having a clear vision for your year is like setting a GPS before a road trip.
00:01:34
Speaker
putting it in your Waze app, finding out what direction you're gonna be going, that is what the vision is, right? It gives you direction, it helps you anticipate the journey and it ensures you're heading to the destination that align with your values and your purpose. But here's the thing, your vision doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't need to look like anybody else's. This is your story, your journey and your goals. So I want you to take a moment and think about this question. What do I want my life to feel like this year? Not what you want to accomplish, but how do you want to feel? What do you want to experience? Is it peace? Do you want to feel energized, joyful, grounded? And when you find that word and find that feeling that you want to embrace this year, think about that.
00:02:34
Speaker
Think about that as we move forward with how to go from vision to action.
Creating Vision Boards
00:02:41
Speaker
All right, so I am sure so many of you have heard about vision boards. Maybe you have one.
00:02:48
Speaker
You may have seen the TikTok videos where you make them a screen saver on your phone, or you went to a vision part, part a vision party, a vision board party. You have a collage on your desktop, whatever your method or format. I'm sure those of you listening, many of you have heard of vision boards before. um But those of you who haven't, let's get into what they are. Let's talk about vision boards.
00:03:15
Speaker
um be are not just collages or pretty pictures you stick on poster boards, though that's fun and it's a great activity. Trust me, I've been to my share of vision board parties. When you do and you create these vision boards with intention, the vision board becomes a visual reminder of your aspirations and the energy that you want to cultivate. Remember how we just talked about what feeling you want to feel this year? Your vision board helps to be the guide, right? Or the direction to set that energy into your life. So
00:03:58
Speaker
I want you to think about the next time that you're maybe going to make a vision board. Maybe you want to remake one. Maybe you haven't started one. I want you to start with reflection. Take your time to think about the past year. What went well? What didn't go well? What lessons did you learn that you want to carry forward? And then you want to get specific, right?
00:04:22
Speaker
Let's think about specific areas in your life that you want to create a vision for.
Personal Focus Areas for the Year
00:04:28
Speaker
For me, this year, health, spirituality, personal development, relationships, and finances are big ones for me, okay? I am starting on a new journey in school, um going after a graduate degree, and that's going to take a lot of personal growth.
00:04:51
Speaker
I'm leaning deeper into my faith and my spirituality, studying the Bible more and really trying to understand as opposed to just read. And then my health, I'm really digging deeper into my plant-based lifestyle. Last year I had a lot of ups and downs in my health. And so this year I'm really focusing in and I'm getting specific.
00:05:15
Speaker
So I want you to get specific when you think about your vision board and ask yourself, what do I want to achieve or improve this year? All right. So the next one is choosing your visuals with purpose. So this is the fun part. This is the part where we get to like, you know, cut out pictures from our favorite magazines or, you know, go online and Google things that make us feel nice and pretty. But when you pick these images, choose ones that invoke an emotional connection.
00:05:43
Speaker
Don't just pick the car because it's pretty, right? It's nice. But pick it because it represents freedom, financial freedom, right? Maybe it aligns to your goal of paying off debt to be able to then get a new car, right? represent Maybe it represents success. Or whatever it is that you want it to symbolize when you choose these images, choose them with purpose and intention.
00:06:11
Speaker
Lastly, what I want you to think about when you are creating your vision board is to include an affirmation. If you have been listening to this episode for any length of time, you know my affirmations girly, go a couple episodes back, you can find some a affirmation episodes. When you are creating your vision boards, add some phrases of affirmations to your to your board, right? I am aligned.
00:06:37
Speaker
I experience joy everywhere I go. I prioritize my peace. You could even tie that back to the emotion, right? The emotion that we spoke about earlier, tie those affirmations back into there. I want you to remember that your vision board is not just about the material goals of the pictures and the symbols that you put there. We're not idolizing these things. They are there to remind you to connect They are there to remind you to go back to the vision that you set for yourself. And so don't idolize them. Yes, we're putting them up on a board or we're putting them on our screen, but they're just direction.
00:07:16
Speaker
And when you do it with purpose, when you get specific, when you reflect and include affirmations, I think that is a really harmonious way to start off your vision board with intention.
Crafting an Action Plan
00:07:28
Speaker
And then that brings us into action. All right, so here is the part that I feel like people skip when they are creating an action plan.
00:07:47
Speaker
First and foremost, what is an action plan? An action plan is like, how are we gonna get this done? and How are we gonna achieve the vision for our lives? What are we doing? um So your vision board is your what, your action plan is your how. So play pay close attention. This might be where you wanna pause and take notes or come back to this later if you're driving, but you want to break down your big goals.
00:08:14
Speaker
So take each goal or area from your vision board and break it into smaller actionable steps. For example, if your goal is to get healthier, your steps might look like every Sunday I'm going to meal prep. I'm going to exercise 30 minutes for three times a week, or I'm going to drink 40 ounces of water. That's a goal for me a day.
00:08:36
Speaker
Right? So break down those big goals, right? It's not enough to say, I want to get healthy, but how are we going to actually achieve that? And you can even get even more specific by adding deadlines, right? About, you know, I'm going to do this by March, or I'm going to do this by, you know, the end of January. When you assign deadlines, even if they're flexible, they help create urgency and accountability.
00:09:03
Speaker
And then next you want to identify resources. So, you know, if your goal we're sticking with getting healthy, right? If your ah goal is to, you know, get healthy and you want to, you know, have more exercise, what tools and support or knowledge do you need to achieve your goals, right? So maybe it's getting a trainer. Maybe it's actually signing up for the gym. ah Maybe it's downloading a couch to 5K app.
00:09:31
Speaker
or some type of tool to help you exercise at home. So having the resources will help you to achieve your goal, right? And then you wanna make sure, this is another thing that I think is really important and has always helped me, is creating a weekly check-in. So I'm a checklist girly, I have notes on my phone, I have notes on pens, on me on papers, in pads, I use the Notion app,
00:10:01
Speaker
Um, I am a girl who loves lists and I check in with myself every day. I check in with my work. I check in with my family calendars. It works for me. Okay. Um, but if you set aside time each week to check in with yourself, reflect on what you accomplish, right? What challenges came up? Do you need to adjust the plan? Right? Things happen. Did you get an ankle injury? That's going to prevent you from running, right? That's happened to me before, right? And then it's like, what did you do next?
00:10:29
Speaker
You find something else to do and you adjust, but that only comes from being able to have a check-in with yourself. And so having a check-in is important for your action plan. And then lastly, milestones. I, my love language, my second one is gifts. Okay. So that means I give to myself as often as I would like.
00:10:48
Speaker
And so celebrating mouthfuls is a big one in your action plan because you don't want to wait to the end of the year to celebrate. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't need to be 12 months of dedication. And that's the only time that I can celebrate. No, you need to celebrate your small wins so that it gives you some motivation to keep going and celebrate your progress along the way. For me, I am trying to achieve a specific weight loss goal and I've put different, you know,
00:11:17
Speaker
Um, things that I want to do, um, that I could do normally, but I'm calling them special things and I'm putting them as things that I'm going to celebrate for when I achieve a specific goal. Um, it doesn't need to be that extreme where you're giving yourself gifts, but celebrate yourself. You deserve it. Um, and so that's how you build an action plan. So to recap, you're breaking down those big goals, setting deadlines, identifying resources.
00:11:43
Speaker
creating a weekly check-in and celebrating your milestones. Next, we're gonna get into how do you actually stay aligned to this action plan for the year? Like, how do we do that? I don't know, that's all we
Staying Aligned with Goals
00:11:58
Speaker
need. All right, so you know how we talked about the action plan and adjusting. Vision setting isn't a one-time thing, right? It's about staying connected to your goals and realigning as needed.
00:12:14
Speaker
life happens things change and that is okay so i want you to consider these options when things change and i want you to consider these options for your daily practices in your life to help you to keep your vision alive throughout the year morning affirmations i'm gonna say affirmations on this podcast a lot So morning affirmation, start your day with affirming yourself, aligning with your vision. um Like I mentioned, if your vision board actually has affirmations on there, maybe you are repeating those affirmations to yourself. Revisit your vision board. Place it somewhere that you can see it daily as a gentle reminder of what you're working towards. So don't make a vision board and put it in the back of the closet and be like, all right, see you next year. Put it somewhere where you can revisit it, where you can be reminded of
00:13:10
Speaker
the feeling that you're trying to evoke in the direction that you're going. You got to look down at the GPS every now and then to see where you're going. And then lastly, it's going to be journaling regularly. I'm a journal girl, always have been since the seventh grade, but I love to journal about everything. And so I encourage you to stay aligned to your goals.
00:13:31
Speaker
and your vision this year to write about your progress, write about your feelings, write about your shifts, your challenges, your goals, your milestones, your priorities, write it down, write it down because it's cathartic number one. And two, it'll allow you to go back to it, to go back to how you were feeling in the moment. When you revisit this next year and come out with a new vision for the new year,
00:13:56
Speaker
You want to remember where you were last year and how you may need may have needed to adjust. And so journaling is a big one.
Embracing Adaptability & Self-kindness
00:14:04
Speaker
And most importantly, I want to kind of end us on this last thing. You need to remember to be kind to yourself. Everybody is on social media telling you what you should be doing and the goals and this and that. And you need to have this together and that together. And it's a mad dash to get your shit together at the beginning of the year.
00:14:27
Speaker
But I want to remind you that you can start over at any time. So whether you're listening to this on January 6th, 7th or October 12th or December 21st, it does not matter. You can change your life. You can change the trajectory of where you're going in your direction. You can switch the GPS anywhere.
00:14:49
Speaker
at any point in your life. And so don't be pigeonholed to societal standards of you must be in the rat race and doing it now. Do what works for you, because only you didn only you know you. Whew, that was hard to say. Growth isn't linear and setbacks are a part of the process. So be kind to yourself.
00:15:11
Speaker
Things change, life happens, remember that mama, it is so important to remember to be kind to yourself. So with that, before we wrap up, I wanna give you a call to
Engagement & Mental Health Support
00:15:25
Speaker
action. After listening to this episode, I want you to take 30 minutes to reflect on what you want this year to feel like. And then I want you to create your vision board or your vision screen saver and your vision collage with purpose and intention. And then lastly, I want you to write down at least three actionable steps for each of your goals. If you do these three things, you're already ahead of the game. And with that, I want to thank you for spending time with me today on this topic about setting the vision in action for your year. If this episode inspired you, share it with a friend,
00:16:07
Speaker
tag us on Instagram at so well. Whenever you get your vision board done, right? Whether you have that screen saver or you do a physical copy of your vision board, we want to see it. Let's keep each other accountable. If you need more accountability, you can join us in the mom space. The mom space is a space dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of moms of color. So come and join us. Until next time, stay well, stay grounded and keep living with intention.
00:16:36
Speaker
I'm rooting for you always. I hope you hear well and see you next time on The Sew Well Podcast. Hit the notification bell, wherever you are listening to us today and join us next week as we delve into more mental health conversations. The Sew Well community offers a safe ground for the transformative healing and restoration of intergenerational trauma, ensuring moms of color have a space to rewrite their stories, recover, live well, be seen and heard.
00:17:04
Speaker
Join us online and on Instagram at SewWell for daily inspiration, blogs, events, and more. See you next time.