Page 85 - Hard Goals

76 HARD Goals

on my walker like I was nuts. Even my husband was rolling his
eyes at me.” Ivy set her goal into motion by creating a collage
of inspiring images, her own version of a vision board. “I cut
out a bunch of pictures of water, people swimming, famous
swimmers, and plastered them all over a piece of poster board.
It was the kind of thing I would have had my kids do back when
I was teaching. It probably sounds crazy, but I could see myself
in every one of those pictures right down to my killer swimmer’s
bod, which I defi nitely did not have at the time.”
Ivy competed in her fi rst meet last month. She came in
fourth. “I’m not saying it’s the Olympics, but that was never
my goal. I just wanted to be the best swimmer I could be, and
that’s exactly what I see myself working toward every day,”
she says. It’s been a while since Ivy made a vision board; she’s
been too busy training with her coach. But the other day she
stopped by the crafts store to buy a piece of poster board. “I
have a plan,” Ivy says, “a new goal, really. I want to swim in
waters all over the world. Like the Dead Sea and the Arabian
Ocean, which I hear in some places is the most gorgeous color
of emerald green. So I’m putting together some images to help
inspire me to make it happen. I told my husband last night that
he should start thinking about packing for Yemen around July.
He thinks I’m kidding, but honestly, I’ll be pretty surprised if it
doesn’t happen. I can already see myself there.”

RULES FOR MAKING A PICTURE

Just like Ivy, when you begin to create an animated goal in your
head, you don’t need to use words. You’ll add them in a bit, but