Follow-up: a focus board and inspiration wall
I ended up making two things as a result of my New Year’s writing exercise: a focus board and an inspiration wall.
My Focus Board:
What I call the focus board is just a very simplified vision board anchored by two themes for the year in the middle. The themes are surrounded by five areas to which they apply. I used pictures of places I want to be or what I want to surround myself with as the background and added a sprinkling of words and sentences around the edges as additional inspiration. I wanted to keep it super simple to make centering myself easy and quick. There are no people on this board because it’s for my life and what I imagine and make it to be. The focus board is on the wall above my desk, directly in front of me behind my open laptop.
The Inspiration Wall:
The inspiration wall is more free-flowing – both in shape and size. It’s pretty word-free and really just has pictures of people that inspire me to create my own content and not conform to societal norms. This is where I think about other people’s journeys and how different or similiar they are from each other and mine. I expect the images to change throughout the year; I’ll add more as I discover them, perhaps covering other ones up.
Most images are of well-known actors/celebrities. (And reveal my current girl crush on Felicity Jones!) I also added a few Asian models and an actress from a movie I haven’t seen yet. Though I don’t actually know who they are, it’s important and significant to see multiple Asian faces on my inspiration wall. They help me visualize people who look like me being as popular and influential as the other people on the board. Seeing them bolsters my belief that I belong in this industry and not just marginally.
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It’s been about a month and a half since the two collages went up, and so far I like having both!
One calms and centers me to the tasks at hand while the other encourages letting my imagination run wild and making bold choices, like wearing a vintage 80’s dress to a Duke alumni networking event! (See below for me and the dress in an impromptu photo shoot – shoulder pads!)
Life’s too short not to make a bold choice now and then…AND the wool dress kept me quite warm walking around the city! A win-win!