Vision board success story: how 1 goal started to manifest instantly

I want to share my latest personal vision board success story with you. It’s nothing over the top, but it’s honest, it got me really excited and positively charged, and I think it will be relatable. If it happened to me, it can happen to you. Vision boards really do work.

I’m also scribbling down my thoughts to express sheer joy, gratitude, and also a bit of wonder. Even though I’m a firm believer in vision boards (duh, I’m the co-founder of Bold Tuesday where we design vision board kits), I still feel almost child-like excitement and surprise every time things start manifesting faster than I expected.

As I’m writing, just two months have passed since creating my latest vision board. So this is not an annual review of how the year went. I’m writing at this random time because one goal from my dream board started manifesting like crazy. Out of the blue. Before I even expected any results, to be honest. 

That goal is gaining more experience in public speaking

I thought: This year, I want to get out there and share Bold Tuesday’s journey and my own story. I want to gain more experience and skills in public speaking. But most of all, I want to ignite a spark by sharing my experiences – whether it is making a positive change in someone's life, starting a business, setting up good routines, or getting their mental health out of a dark place.

Here’s the visualization card I chose for the goal – a woman giving a talk or presentation and some hands clapping (I created my board using Bold Tuesday’s Vision Board Reimagined. All the supplies come with the kit, including 100 image cards). 

The image is symbolic for me in many ways. First, I like that we can see the reaction and engagement of the audience. This is not an image of someone just standing in the middle of an empty stage alone. This is interaction. Second, I like how the audience is in the foreground and focus – it’s about them, not about me. 

The image also captures how I want to feel regarding this goal: upbeat, energetic, engaging, and giving value to the audience. Ok, I admit, the recognition and praise that I can see in the image also sound pretty great.  

I wanted to make the goal as concrete as possible, but not to the point where it would start feeling limiting. So I wrote some comments on the backside of the card (that’s another great feature of this vision board kit – the cards all have a dedicated space for writing): 

• students who are figuring out their future
• a high profile audience - to push my comfort zone 
• at least 1 podcast this year

Just saying YES

I promised myself I would keep my eyes open to opportunities and seize them as they come.

Fast forward just two months, and I’ve gotten way more than I ever asked for. I’ve had speaking opportunities popping up almost every week (remember, I’m not a professional motivational speaker but a designer and CEO, doing this aside from all my other responsibilities). And in the case of some, I can’t even figure out how they reached me. Or in such timing. Serendipity...

First, I had a great opportunity to guest lecture design students from the Estonian Academy of Arts about Bold Tuesday’s product development experience. Then I talked to business students from the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences about our marketing strategy. 

Fast forward a week, and I was an inspirational speaker at a virtual event for top HR managers. This time, opening Bold Tuesday’s story from the perspective of our company culture, the team, and the potential of vision boards in teamwork and coaching.

And then, jumping from the C-level audience to the youngest, I was asked to speak to high school students about starting a business and my path from an art student to an entrepreneur. As a side note – I was blown away by the quality of the Q&A we had with the kids. Their questions were super insightful and mature. A smart answer is great, but a great question is ingenious!

The podcast didn’t come out of the blue, but that doesn’t diminish the experience. The theme of it is super thrilling – talking to successful people about their failures – which is absolutely the best learning material. And it’s so important to acknowledge that EVERYONE messes up. I’ve been on podcasts before, but this experience was a whole lot different. When usually you’re allowed to put on your best face and talk about how awesome your life is, then this was… A complete cleansing ritual! 😄 

I decided to go full vulnerable and shared all my previous self-damaging beliefs, anxiety, and 2-year depression treatment. And all the countless times and ways we have messed up at Bold Tuesday. But all of that through a positive lens: how I managed to turn my mental health around, the good habits that I swear by, goal-setting, and using vision boards. If you want to hear the full story (and speak Estonian), listen to the podcast on Spotify.

And last but not least, my vision board manifested something that had been on my big life goals list for some time – teaching my own course in the uni I graduated from. For me, this is something like writing a book might be to others. Today, I still have about a month to go until the beginning of the course, preparing the materials and feeling super excited. A bit nervous too. But in a good way.

But why does it work?

One thing leads to another, so I already have new invitations for the upcoming months because of these events. But the initial ones I mentioned came all individually without any connection to each other, just at the same time. So it still feels a bit strange. How did all these people decide to look me up at once? What is it? Magic? Energies? Simply my brain noticing patterns and coincidences? Or even imagining patterns where there aren't any? 

Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to vision boards. One falls on the more spiritual side and is connected to the Law of Attraction (success is a matter of belief). The other approach is more linked to goal-setting (success is a matter of habits and working for your goals). 

Usually, I sway more in the direction of the second approach. That's because vision boards came to my life not through the Law of Attraction but as a coaching tool. But I keep an open and curious mind to everything. Sometimes things just unravel positively, without your interference. 

Sure, there is this thing called value-tagging at play – the reason behind why you start seeing certain color cars or dog breeds (or anything else) everywhere after you’ve talked about, thought about or bought one. They just become more salient, and you notice more of them. So it might be that I’m just noticing or giving a higher value to all the public speaking opportunities that came my way. Perhaps a year ago, I might not have even observed this pattern? (Actually, I doubt.) 

But maybe there is some truth behind the saying: Where focus goes, energy flows? I feel this is true for so many occasions of my life – the moment you direct your attention to an area of your life, things start moving. I’ve had similar experiences with my earlier vision boards as well (I briefly go over them in this founder story).

I’ll just leave this here as I don’t have the perfect answer either. And maybe it’s not even that important? If this feeling gets you moving in the right direction, more confident, more open to future opportunities, then who cares what’s the mechanism behind it.

Kairi Kuuskor is the co-founder and designer of Bold Tuesday - a company that aims to help you live a better life. To do that they create vision boards, motivational cards, notebooks and other self-development tools with an emphasis on high quality and great design.