What I Learned From My Kid's Vision Board
In November, my family of three had an epic vacation to Arizona.
The mission: Get to the Grand Canyon.
The why: Because my daughter, Ella, put it on her 2023 vision board.
The how: 10 days before we went, I planned it all and committed to turning the vision into reality.
I’d thought about it for the entire year, reminded every time I saw her vision board framed on our office wall. And at Christmas time, over a month after that Arizona trip when I was writing this article, I asked why she singled out the Grand Canyon. Ella said that I’d had a photo on the fridge all this time of me sitting atop a piece of canyon captured on a trip out West decades earlier, and it inspired her to want to go there, too.
It made me think about why I put that photo on the fridge in the first place. Hindsight reveals it was a subconscious way for me to envision myself back there, a place I’d visited several times since early childhood and clearly loved. Unintentionally, the quest to manifest it translated over to Ella, who put this on her own vision board, which got into my subconscious, which eventually came to actually happen for us both.
Mind a bit blown. Especially when I realized I could recreate with Ella a photo that I had taken with my mother at the canyon when a child. (See then-and-now graphic.)
Run, Ella, Run
Another item Ella put on her vision board was “Run a race.” After starting a homeschool conditioning and agility class at UbrZati that empowered and helped instill confidence in Ella, and after she realized she could collect cool medals by running races, she declared we needed to find the next road race available. That turned out to be the inaugural Manatee Hustle 5K in January, in Indialantic.
Twenty-one road races later (plus more kids series races on area high school tracks) and I’d say Ella went the distance for that vision. But our family didn’t realize what would materialize from this until we were deep in it. We’ve all three done almost all these races together. (Ella and I were happy to sit out the Space Coast Half Marathon when my husband did that one.) The benefits are many: exercise, fun, family bonding and a sense of community as we join others who enjoy this same sport.
Not to mention a whole lot of giving back. Each race channels entry fees as a means to fundraise for various causes, schools and nonprofits. It was a shock to tally up our multiple entry fees to see we’d expended a few thousand dollars for the year. Ella is big on helping and giving, so this aspect was a perfect fit for her soul, and for ours.
How to Vision Board
People teach classes on how to do vision boards. In fact, EverythingBrevard CEO and publisher Tracy Stroderd is one of them. And while I don’t teach this, I can attest to its power. I had to learn to guide my kid how to include goals that were not too far-reaching, but yet keep her dreams alive.
Ella also put Hawaii on her 2023 vision board. She did audition for a film that was slated to shoot there, so I thought perhaps sometimes these visions manifest in roundabout ways. Other items of hers also came to pass in different or partial forms. That’s the beauty of sharpening our sense of desire and learning to balance it with what truly makes us happy.
As I write this, we’re still fine-tuning Ella’s 2024 vision board. Several items are carrying over, like owning a dog. That’s been on every vision board since she started. And one day, a furry bestie will tear down the hallway and leap into her arms.
I haven’t been creating a board like hers, but rather creating a bracelet with my word for the year. In 2023, my word was LIVE. And we did plenty of living! For 2024, my word is SLEEP. While a vision board is designed to turn dreams into reality, in this case, I plan to wear the SLEEP bracelet in hopes that my reality will convert to actual deep-sleep dreams.
Connect
Follow Ella Grace Helton on social media:
Instagram: @adventuresofellagrace
Facebook: /adventuresofellagrace
Follow Lee Nessel
Instagram: @lee_nessel
Facebook: /leenessel
Lee@everythingbrevard.com
Meet Our Managing Editor
EverythingBrevard Managing Editor and proud word nerd Lee Nessel is an award-winning journalist. She thinks best through her fingertips and started churning out iambic pentameter as a kid. She embraces last-minute cross-country travel and also works as a junior publicist thanks to her daughter Ella Grace Helton’s child acting adventures. She prefers to operate behind the scenes, shining the spotlight on the uplifting stories of the people making an impact on the Space Coast. Lee loves the barbell, home cooking and can’t stop tapping her foot to the great rhythms of being a ballroom dance mom.
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