Part 1 - Motivation boards
With anything we do in life we need some sort of motivation to keep at it and succeed. Saving money is likely one of the hardest things some of us will set out to do, I know that's certainly true for me, so we need to have our motivation - our reason for saving - out in the open available for us to see at random moments through out the day.
The best way to do this is to create a motivation board. I have a digital version as my wallpaper so I see it each time I use my computer and also a 'hard copy' on the table with our savings jar (more about those in part 2).
They're really easy to make all you need to do is find images that represent your motivation, images of your goals and dreams whatever they may be.
Above is my digital version. The two larger images are our big goals. We want a house of our own and we want to go back to Disneyland/America. The smaller images are other goals we would also like to achieve. Home decorating ideas and other travel destinations. They're smaller because well we can't decorate a house until we have one and we've made Disneyland our must see destination - if we are only ever able to make one more trip overseas it will be back there. For us all our goals and dreams depend upon us buying a home. Once we have that we will have achieved our biggest goal and can then look towards the other dreams we have - I'll be honest we have a LOT.
The hard copy is quite similar but as I see it on average every two minutes due to where it's placed I added images that will really help motivate me. We still have a house on there but we also have a house all decked out for Christmas in a winter wonderland as that is our ultimate goal... To move to America or the United Kingdom. We still have Disneyland but I've also added an image of Rockerfeller Center in New York City as it is part of our big America dream.
What you will need to keep in mind is that it's going to take time. Unless you win significantly in the lotto - in which case wahoo! - saving for a goal will not happen overnight. I bring this up, as obvious as it may be, because motivation boards can sometimes become de-motivational. My board has only been up for 24 hours and I've already had to remind myself at least four times that "it takes time". Seeing your dreams staring back at you can often make you think it's all too hard and it's never going to happen. It's at those times when you need to remind yourself why you made the motivation board. It wasn't to rub salt in the wound it was so you would look at it and say loud and proud "I will save the money, I will reach my goal, I will have that (insert dream/goal here) one day"
Now for the how to...
The digital version is probably easy to figure out. I searched my Pinterest boards for the images that truly represented my dreams, saved them to my camera roll and then used 'photocollage' to put them together. You can use pic monkey on a PC, I highly recommend it as it's easy to use and best of all it's free, or any photo collage app you have on your mobile device.
Once your motivation board is complete be sure you make it your wallpaper, then Bobs your uncle you're all done.
The hard copy is just as easy. I had the husband make me a board from some scraps of wood but you can use anything you have lying around the house. A piece of cardboard from a box, an old photo frame, a canvas, pin board. It doesn't have to look nice as you'll be covering it with your motivational images.
As for the images themselves search magazines you have lying around for photos that mean something to you. If like me you have no magazines because you threw them all out in a mad cleaning craze before Christmas then hit the computer again and print some out.
Arrange them how you like on your board of choice and glue them down. Lastly find a spot in your home where you will see the board the most and create a space for it, make sure the spot you choose has room for a savings jar - we'll discuss that tomorrow.
Once you're done creating your motivation boards I'd love to see them so come back here or in our Facebook page and share what you're saving for, after all motivation can come from our friends too.
Skye
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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