Have you ever heard of the phrase "Out of sight, out of mind"?
If you don't create a personalized visual reminder somewhere easily accessible, whatever ideas those reminders feature end up at the back of your head covered by daily distractions.
This came from the piggybank idea. I wanted to have money saving habits but I didn't want to be overwhelmed with complicated financial tasks like personal finance (this was years ago) when I was trying to get a feel on the subject, so I started with a coin banks. I reflected on why I was saving less and found it difficult to fill the bank after a few weeks of starting.
The Change:
Instead of putting the bank on a closet where I have layers to obscure the "idea", I placed the thing on my study desk and others (I had more coin banks) on different parts of the room. Similar to how a wall clock tells you about the time, a visible coin bank prompts you to cough up some coins. The amount doesn't matter. It's the habit you're reinforcing. You want to start saving and if you can attach some pictures that remind you why you bother, it just reinforcement the behavior. It takes days of consciously putting a coin in until it becomes an unconscious habit.
The point is psyching yourself into doing productive habits that bring you closer to your goals. A coin bank -> prelude to building personal finance habits. Start simple before spreadsheets.
If I wanted to work abroad (let's say I want to), I'd create a road map and put up milestones. Use that road map as a wallpaper or an ideas board.
If I can't see my future, I figure out what to do first based on what I want then move some goal posts as needed. I bank on the Rosenthal Effect (aka Pygmalion effect) to help me carry my shit together, this means believing I could do it step by step AFTER I created the visual reminders to get where I want to be. Some of my patients do this, they photoshop their faces on places they want to travel in the future abroad for work/vacation.
It works for them because now they know where to move forward to and they've been doing that.
The point is, you're likely to lose sight of what's important if you don't have a means to ground you future goals. So visual reminders are just life hacks to psyche yourself up.
There's a reason why churches remind us about our spirituality, a hospital building for our mortality, and a car reminding us where we can or want to go. It's visual, symbolic, and it reminds us of other things by association.
For my version, those reminders are stuck in a folder on my laptop, tablet, and phone. I had a pin board era where I made collages of random ideas for art, and to-do lists but quit after transitioning to gadgets.
Getting my life's shit together one visual reminder at a time.
Thanks for your time.
