Stepping into happiness with a vision board experience.
By Neasel Conner
Leaving the safety of my 14-year career in education at the height of the pandemic and pursuing my Beyond the Happy business full-time was not on my bingo card when 2021 started. Yet, here I was in front of my desktop on a warm April day, one click away from changing the trajectory of my life. So how did we get here? In January of 2020, I leased a small office space to begin my journey of part-time private practice and by February of 2020, I had secured my first client. We met in that tiny office space one time before the whole world shut down.
As the year progressed and the need for mental health support skyrocketed, I pivoted to teletherapy, ballooning my therapy caseload quickly from one client to fifteen. I found myself juggling a full-time job and a growing private practice while wearing the hats of wife, mom, daughter, sister and friend. For a moment, I kind of felt like superwoman. Then the back pain started.
For six months, I endured the most debilitating back pain that I have ever experienced in my life. It was hard to sit, it was hard to walk, and it was hard to keep up the current pace of my life. This “superwoman” was spending anywhere from 12 to 15 hours a day sitting in front of a computer screen at work and at home. My body just couldn’t continue and I knew that something had to change.
By December of 2020, I prayed and decided that I was going to give myself one more year to save enough money to leave my full-time job in education and pursue private practice full-time. This was the biggest and scariest risk that I would ever take. I never dreamed of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship felt risky and less secure than my stable job in education and with two small children in the middle of the pandemic, it didn’t seem wise to leave.
A Vision Board Sparks A New Beginning
In January of 2021, I was encouraged by friends to host a vision board party. I wasn’t big on traditional vision boards because I often felt like something was missing. But I decided that if I was going to do a vision board party, I was going to do it my way. I met with my close friend and business partner, Purposely Inspired Creations’ Robyn Grant, to help design a box that would house all of the elements a participant would need for the vision board party. This box had everything, and we even included additional elements like Calming Kits and “Dear Self” letters. I’m a firm believer that two big things get in the way of us reaching our goals: our mindset and our mental health. So, I wanted to address these at this vision board party. I hosted my first Vision Board Experience in January 2021 with nine women on Zoom. After posting about it on Instagram, a Google contact reached out to have me host a vision board party for one of their groups. By March, my business partner and I hosted Vision Board Experiences for over 300 people.
Your Gifts and Purpose Are The Path To Security
Bringing us back to that fateful day in April, in front of my desktop computer. I found myself at a crossroads. My part-time private practice was thriving, our Vision Board Experiences were taking off and I had saved enough money to launch out on my own. But was I ready to leave the security of my career? I wasn’t ready, but in that moment I realized that the fear of staying comfortable was scarier than the fear of the unknown. So on that day in April, I notified the district of my intent to resign at the end of the school year. Two weeks later, I learned that my whole department was going to be cut. I wasn’t even going to have the job that I thought was so secure.
What's On the Other Side of Scary
So what’s on the other side of chasing your scary? For me, it was the impact and platforms that I never imagined. Since deciding to pursue my own dream, we have been able to facilitate Vision Board Experiences with over 5,000 global participants and with companies like Google and the United States Air Force. My private practice has thrived. I’ve been on local and national stages to speak about mental health. But the greatest gift has been having a front row seat to what can happen when you say yes to your scary.
