I’ve been ruminating on how to write about this topic for a while. A couple weeks ago, I attended an event with the Portland chapter of Young Women’s Social Entrepreneurs. The event was “a creative vision workshop: usher in 2013 with vision and purpose.”

Aside from the lovely ladies in attendance, a few of them dear friends and incredibly inspiring to me as professional women, I really took to heart one particular lesson from our workshop, and that was to take time for introspection. I enjoyed thinking purposefully about my last year, my goals, my successes and what’s driving my motivations in 2013. It was nice to take the time to really put some answers out there, and to set intentions through artistic expression. Because we did- through collage!

Basically, we came up with a phrase and image to define our goals and intentions, and then illustrated it through found printed materials. I got a good start during our meeting, and have found myself slowly coming back to this project periodically ever since. Here it is, in progress:

And here are a few details:

Being “happy” (even though I know this is Doc.)

Working hard, working out. 

My phrase for this year actually comes from a card a sweet friend gave to me during a transitional time last year. It said “This is Our Adventure”, overset on a sunrise. I’ve always kept this card near my workspace, and drawn energy from the idea that this life is a shared, unpredictable experience- and that’s a wonderful thing.

The card that inspired my board.