Vision Board

I've always been kind of a half believer in the Vision Board thing. I would do one each year, mostly because it was kind of fun to cut and paste from magazines or find fun images online of things I dreamed about having or achieving. Thinking it actually worked, not so much. But, a funny thing happened when I started creating my 2019 Vision Board. I looked at my 2018 board and realized how many things had come true!

During one of Heather Cobb, UBAM Vice President's, speeches during convention or maybe the leadership retreat, she inspired us, as she often does so well, to Dream Big. I believe that was the year she told us to imagine a treasure box that would be FILLED with ALL of the things we hoped and dreamed for no matter how big. She also mentioned that sometimes things don't happen quite the way we expect or plan and to be open to that too. I recalled those words as I looked at last year's Vision Board because when I created the board, I imagined making such a huge UBAM income that I would be able to afford all the things I put on there. The truth is, that isn't really what happened. What happened was that we were extremely fortunate to buy a home in 2008 in Broomfield, CO (with help from family) and by 2018 it had almost doubled in value. What happened was we visited my mother in law on the coast of North Carolina and found out what housing cost here. What happened was we started envisioning how different our life could be if we sold our house and moved East. So, we did it and with that move we checked off many of the items on our vision board:

- We paid off our debt and are living mortgage free!

- We moved into a home with beautiful hardwood floors that I had been dreaming about "someday" getting for all 10 years in our Broomfield house.

- We bought a new to us car with a third row, perfect for hauling the boy's friends and lots of BOOKS!

-Summer camp didn't happen since we weren't really anywhere permanent last summer but we were able to take the boys on an amazing tour of 8 National Parks last year!

- We're in the process of planning a beach vacation, just Pete and I. Oh and we live 3 miles from the beach and can visit it everyday!

- There is no cleaning service but we actually down-sized our house and got rid of so much crap that cleaning is sort of kinda fun now, well easier at least.

UBAM may not have directly funded all of these dreams but it did have a huge impact on making them happen.

1) Freedom. UBAM has provided me with the freedom to work not only whenever I want but wherever I want. If I was working some 9-5 job, we might not have had the guts to leave it and try to make it work someplace brand new.

2) Priorities. Before UBAM I was working a "regular" job at a non-profit and was giving not only most of my waking hours to it but also most of my energy and heart. It wasn't until UBAM that it hit me how much of my boys' lives I was missing out on. Being clear that our family comes first helped us make the leap, knowing that the quality of our time together would be better in North Carolina, even if we were losing a lot of the other things we loved about living in Colorado.

3) My dreams were in front of me. Once we sold our home in Colorado, we could have easily misspent that money or simply bought a bigger house in North Carolina. The Vision Board, that lives on my computer screen was right in front of me with that Debt Free image right in the middle reminding me of our #1 priority. Honestly, that would have been enough! That we got some other goodies in the process because we were clear on what was most important is pretty dang awesome!

4) Inspiring Others. My personal business took a big hit with the move, a hurricane and losing my mom all within the last 6 months. However, while I struggled here to just hang on, amazing things were happening with my team. It felt awesome to hand over the relationships I'd developed in Colorado the past five years to capable, enthusiastic and hard working team members. Watching them go after their dreams and make a difference for so many kiddos and families has kept me going. I'm looking forward to new relationships here in North Carolina and continuing to build up team members everywhere!

If you've made it this far, I know that your story will look different than mine. Most of you won't be hauling your family across the country anytime soon. I just hope you trust me when I say that if you know what your dreams are and you keep them in front of you. Amazing things can happen!

Here's my 2019 Vision Board. I can't wait to see yours!