I’m writing this case study about how to use a vision board to take more initiative at work and show you the many ways you can use these visual tools to enrich your life, based on real-life experience. I’m Maia, an expert in vision boards. I’ve been making vision boards for a very long time, both for myself and for others.
This is just one example of how I’ve used a vision board to improve my own life and help others achieve their goals and manifest their dreams.
Struggling with Visibility at Work
A few years ago, I was in a job I loved, but I felt like I wasn’t making enough progress. I worked hard, met my deadlines, and went overboard to perform every task with excellence. Yet, I sometimes felt invisible and wasn’t sure why.
To give you more context, only three years earlier, I had moved to a new country. As you can imagine, I experienced a bit of a culture shock. Nonetheless, I tried to do my best to fit in. I was making progress, but at a relatively slow pace.
At work, my appraisals were good, but I felt like I deserved more recognition. One thing that truly bothered me was why I wasn’t getting any shoutouts in the monthly calls.
Eventually, I asked a colleague I was close to for some honest advice. She told me, “Maia, you’re kind of invisible.” Imagine the shock… Was I invisible at work? She advised me to take more initiative and make myself more visible.
It sounded so easy, yet for me, it was hard. You see, in my native country, it’s considered improper to take too much initiative at work. A good employee is someone who executes what comes from their superior. Initiative is seen as a disruption of the pecking order.
This is why it was hard for me to follow my colleague’s advice and put myself forward. Sure, I started taking small steps and taking shy initiatives here and there, but I felt awkward every time, and I felt my colleague wasn’t convinced. It felt as though people were starting to notice me a bit more, but I still didn’t fit into the “proactive” group at work.
As you can imagine, I read psychology articles, advice pieces online, etc., and they did help, but only to a certain point. What I was still missing was true confidence and the ability to spot opportunities to take initiative more often.
Creating My Vision Board for Taking Initiative at Work
Finally, I decided to start using a tool to speed up my progress. That tool was a vision board. At that time, I was quite new to vision boards: I had used one only once before, to get a new job and increase my salary and total compensation.
I was successful at that time, so I thought I might use this method again. If you’re new to vision boards, you can read my guide on what a vision board really is.
The board I built for taking more initiative at work was initially quite simple: an image showing a confident woman in an office environment, a picture of a woman celebrating success, a photo showing a group of people brainstorming in an office, with a woman appearing to be the leader of the group, an image displaying the word “confidence,” and two handwritten affirmations: “I am able to take initiative at work” and “I am confident at work.”
I put all these elements on a simple cork board and hung it in my bedroom. I looked at my vision board for one minute in the morning before heading off to work and for one to two minutes at night, before going to bed.
I was also aware that it might take some time before I started to see results, and I wasn’t wrong. Nothing really happened for almost three weeks. I felt the same awkwardness every time I came up with a new idea or took any kind of initiative at work.
From the fourth week, I started to see the first signs of improvement: I was putting myself forward a bit more often and didn’t feel as awkward as before.
The progress continued for another two months, becoming more noticeable over time. I even received official recognition for putting together a best-practice guide and presenting it.
No awkwardness, not even when presenting – did I mention I had an innate fear of presenting and speaking in public? I knew at that point that my simple vision board was indeed working.
My 1:1s with my line manager improved as well. She noticed the change and was very encouraging. Maybe a bit too encouraging…
A New Challenge and the Limit of My First Vision Board
At some point, she dropped the bomb: “Maia, I think it’s time for you to take this a step further and come up with new initiatives that are not necessarily connected to the work I usually give you, meaning take bigger initiatives and even challenge my ideas from time to time. You know, it’s important for our team to challenge the line manager here and there, as this is how we grow faster as a team and improve our overall work.”
What??? I was shocked. I told myself, this is too much and I simply can’t do it. You see, all my previous initiatives were somehow connected to the work or tasks already assigned to me. It was more about improving things, adding a few things, etc.
But to challenge my boss and push back from time to time if something didn’t sound right to me … well, that was too much.
I went home that day and looked at my vision board. In its present form, it wasn’t helpful for this new “shocking turn of events.” To be honest, I initially thought no vision board could help me with this.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to take on this challenge. I had already improved a lot, so what was the point of taking this extra, very uncomfortable step?
I stopped using the vision board, as the confidence I initially wanted was already there and I didn’t need the board anymore. I also ignored what my manager had asked me to do, simply doing my usual stuff and taking initiative here and there, presenting a bit more, etc.
Uncovering Subconscious Limiting Beliefs
The change came a few months later, when I was talking to a friend about my work. She told me, “Of course you can’t push back on your manager, even if she encouraged you to and gave you a rational reason for doing so.
Being submissive to your boss is something deeply ingrained in your culture. I believe it’s written into your subconscious mind.”
That’s when a lightbulb lit up in my head. Yes, she was right: it was my subconscious mind holding me back. And this belief that a subordinate must be 100% submissive was even stronger than my lack of confidence to take initiative in more standard situations at work. It was a true limiting belief, and a very strong one.
Let me tell you a bit about the subconscious mind and limiting beliefs. This is the hidden part of our mind: we’re not fully aware of it, but it influences every aspect of our lives, especially the choices we make.
The famous psychiatrist Carl Jung and the neurologist Sigmund Freud studied and wrote extensively about this important part of the mind.
This is where limiting beliefs are stored. We heard them when we were young, from our family, neighbors, school, or even strangers. The mind recorded them and stored them in the subconscious mind, but we’re not truly aware that they are there and influence us every single day.
Adapting the Vision Board to Rewire My Mindset
After having that big realization about what was actually holding me back, I spent a couple of weeks just trying to figure out how to remove this belief. I started writing down this sentence every day: “I am allowed to challenge my boss.” I did it a few times per day.
After a few weeks, I started to feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of pushing back on some of the things my line manager was suggesting. But it was just a vague feeling of being less uneasy about the idea.
Finally, I thought about using a vision board again. But obviously, I had to build another one. The first element that came to mind was the affirmation I had been writing down every day: “I am allowed to challenge my boss.”
I then put two more affirmations on my board: “My manager rewards me for pushing back on her from time to time” and “I am strong enough to challenge my boss.”
But I hit a wall when it came to finding suitable images. I simply didn’t feel like using images of confident, successful people in a professional environment would help me this time.
I realized I had to use images that awakened the leader in me. I needed to think and behave like a leader, not a simple employee. I played around with several images until I found two that really spoke to me: a picture of an eagle cruising above a mountain and an image of a painting depicting an 18th-century general leading his army into battle.
I know it sounds surprising and maybe silly, but these two images helped me get into my new “role.” This is what my subconscious mind reacted to more strongly. It doesn’t mean they would work for everyone -each of us is different.
I built this new vision board and used it daily again. By the way, if you want to find out more about the process of creating a board, you can check out my guide on how to make a vision board.
Results and Takeaways
Long story short, my board worked, but it took quite a long time: almost 10 months. It was only after that long period that I finally mustered the courage to challenge my manager in the way she had requested. But I did it with a bit of shyness, still.
And although my confidence in this type of initiative-taking grew over time, a bit of shyness remained, which is kind of normal, as a strong limiting belief may never be overcome 100%. But I was happy I was able to at least partially remove it.
You may wonder if I got a promotion after this. Well, I did, but one year later.
It’s important to be aware that although vision boards work, the timing can vary a lot, depending on how difficult your goal is and how strong your limiting beliefs are. If you were born into a culture that rewards initiative-taking, you’ll most probably need much less time to become truly visible at work and start acting more like a leader than a subordinate.
To summarize, this is what I learned from successfully using a vision board to help me take more initiative at work:
- Vision boards work, but only if they are built the right way and used every day.
- It’s important to address any limiting beliefs that may interfere with your goal – you can use powerful elements on your board to remove or at least partially shift those beliefs.
- You need to be patient – progress might take some time, from weeks to months or even longer, depending on how ambitious your goal is and how strong your limiting beliefs are. You can find out more in this detailed article on how to track your vision board progress.
- Choose images and affirmations that truly speak to you, even if someone else might find them weird or unsuitable.
- Don’t focus on putting a lot of images or other elements on your board – even a few can work well if they are the right ones for your goals and dreams. Focus on relevance, not quantity.
I have another story about using vision board successfully, this time for a much easier goal: how I manifested my dream vacation.
My Vision Board Kits
Over the years, I created more vision boards for myself and also for my friends and acquaintances. This vast experience resulted in the development of a 3-step framework for building vision boards that truly work.
This led me to create my own vision board kits, which are downloadable and easy to use. They also contain special sections like “Overcoming Limiting Beliefs” and a vast collection of images and affirmations, plus much more.
