Unmasking Greatness
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Unmasking Greatness
Transforming Dreams into Reality: Mastering Vision Boards for Unstoppable Success
Imagine kicking off the new year not with a list of resolutions doomed to fade but with a powerful vision board that transforms dreams into reality. This episode of Unmasking Greatness promises to reshape how you approach your goals in 2025. Through the lens of personal experiences and a touch of inspiration from a lively vision board party led by my sister-in-law, we explore why immediate, messy action is more effective than waiting for the stars to align. Discover how understanding the 'why' behind your ambitions is the key to breaking old habits and gaining unstoppable momentum.
Together, we'll navigate the delicate dance between personal and professional aspirations, setting clear intentions across health, family, business, and personal growth. Learn how to turn vague desires into concrete, achievable objectives by embracing the art of visualization—not just as a dreamy tool but as a strategic blueprint for success. Embrace the concept of "double R"—resilience and reduction—as you clear emotional roadblocks and stay laser-focused on your journey to greatness. With actionable steps and creative uses of digital vision boards, this episode offers the insights and practical tips you need to turn your ambitions into tangible successes.
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Welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, a lifestyle fitness coach and mentor. This podcast is about unmasking your greatest potential, finding your purpose and crafting a life worth living. Health and fitness has been the gateway drug to all of my success. My continuous drive to keep learning and surround myself with other high achievers forces me to level up, which has developed my mind to something I never thought was possible. This podcast is here to share what I've learned and continue to learn with all of you. This is your sign to take back control of your health, mindset and personal environment. Strap in as we are recharged and always find value in the show. Please subscribe and share, as we can all get better together. Let's go. What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of Unmasking Greatness. My name is Chris Koukouris and today we got 2025 we're rolling into.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the new years. Everybody, and more than likely many of you have created some goals, same ambitions, working on your dreams. 2025 is exciting. You know everybody's. You know ambitious excited new people in the gym, I mean everyone's trying to do something to better themselves or get some sort of outcome that they want. And as much as I love that and I do, don't get me wrong. I made a post about this a couple weeks back about New Year's resolutions a post about this a couple weeks back, about New Year's resolutions. And one of the things with New Year's resolutions is I don't care for them too much in the sense of how people are approaching it, and what I mean by that is many of these people out here that are creating goals. They started, maybe early December, mid-december, you know, writing down what they want to accomplish in this year, and then they wait. They wait to actually start working towards those goals until New Year's Day, january 1st, and even some of them, new Year's Day was on a Wednesday this year. Somebody's like, oh, who starts a New Year's on a Wednesday, I'll start it on a Monday. And now we are six days into the new year and you haven't started anything, and what you are doing subconsciously is creating a new habit without even realizing it. You are starting to procrastinate, and probably you have already had that habit, because you're still doing it without even realizing it and it's time to just take some messy action, start doing things to just move you closer to that goal Move in a direction, for that matter, from where you currently are at and over time, you know, it won't be so much of like how far you need to go. It's more about looking back behind and say, dang, I actually came pretty far from where I started and so, instead of waiting for the perfect time, the perfect date, the perfect year, do it now. Do it now, okay. So I have a story for you guys, actually today, because now we're going to the New Year's.
Speaker 1:I am not somebody that has ever done a vision board. Do I set goals? Yes, do I put things in place to achieve those goals? Yes, and I'm going to explain some of that here in a little bit. In place to achieve those goals? Yes, and I'm going to explain some of that here in a little bit. But you know there's some you know different features and tricks of the trade people like to do going into the new years. That helps, and one of them I've always seen are vision boards. I see a lot of people do it.
Speaker 1:It's just not something I have ever taken the time to do, nor did I know much about it, other than people start slapping pictures and words and verbs and things on there that are, you know, things that they want to obtain, and so this year my sister-in-law actually reached out and said, chris, like we should have a vision board party and if you don't know, my wife is one of 10. So party is a understatement for the most of the time because there's so many of them. Little gatherings are actually big gatherings and so I thought it was a great idea. I was like, oh yeah, dude, let's, let's do it. I think that's cool. I've never done one, so this will be a great experience for me and I can kind of venture and see if it's something that I want to continue doing in the future or even promote to, you know, clients or people I talk to.
Speaker 1:So this was really me just diving headfirst in doing a vision board. So we set up a date on the weekend this was probably about a week or so before the New Year's and prior to going I did some things to help me get prepared for this. But again I was already like doing some research and I caught myself looking at other people's vision boards, and that's one of the mistakes I think people like if you're going to do one, don't do that. You know, make it personal to you. But again we got together and she had excuse me, she had, you know poster boards, a couple magazines, things like that. And in the middle of it she goes Chris, you're going to give like a little speech for us, motivate us, inspire us, because I know I do the podcast and then, you know, sometimes I'll do you know talks in front of people. And it just I was like hit left, like I'm like I'm going to shoot this from the hip. I don't even know what I'm going to say, but let's, let's roll with it and I'm going to get the recording. Somebody recorded it on their phone but you know it was cool.
Speaker 1:They all sat down in the living room and I gave this you know speech to them about staying focused, making sure whatever they're creating, whatever goals that they have, ask themselves why that's important for them to achieve that, because breaking bad habits and habits you've had for years is very difficult to do. So sometimes starting small will gain the momentum and the foundation to start getting closer to those bigger goals. And I kind of went more in depth with taking a shift to their mindset, giving them some hard hits of reality, because you know I am not perfect, by no means, but when it comes to being disciplined, strategic and reaching the goals that I aspire to achieve disciplined, strategic and reaching the goals that I aspire to achieve. I've done fairly well Again, but for me I told them I was like you guys are setting goals. Understand, whenever you set goals, I almost want goals that I will never achieve. And I say that in a sense like, of course I want to achieve my goals, but there's always more to it, because I love the journey. I, you know, when you get the outcome, it's cool, you know, and you feel like you accomplished something. But I get more enjoyment and I thrive off the struggles and the you know difficult times for me to achieve it, because it makes it worth it, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like climbing a mountain. You know trying to climb. You know Mount Everest. You know how difficult that is. You know trying to climb. You know Mount Everest. You know how difficult that is. You know to go up something like that. You're freezing People die. You know doing stuff like that. But when you make it to the top, it's like, oh my God, I can't believe I just climbed this massive rock and it's a great feeling. But a lot of times people get to that top and they breathe in that air, that cold, cold air. And, you know, depending on the person, they're already thinking of what's the next mountain that they want to climb. So it's more of the journey that people thrive off of versus actually achieving that goal. It's just a, it's a mile marker, you know. So I really broke that down for them in that concept and, you know, I think it resonated with a lot of them. So, hopefully, if you're listening to this and you are, you were there for that speech this is your reminder to make sure that you stay focused.
Speaker 1:So you know I wanted to come on here, you know, talking about these vision boards and there's and again this is going to be my opinion there's a lot of different people's takes on what they if vision boards work, they don't work, how to do them, how not to do them, etc. I'm just going to give you my version of how I created mine and you know, if you've done one, maybe you want to implement this. If you haven't done one, maybe this is a great start for you. So, first things first. Okay, when you're creating a vision board, something that's going to help you is first, don't rush it. You don't want to rush the process because, again, what you're going to be putting on. This is something you're going to see on a regular, for one but two, it should really mean something to you, okay. One but two, it should really mean something to you, okay.
Speaker 1:And when we're specifically talking about goals, prior to doing the vision board, what I did every year for the past three years is I have an Excel sheet and I have four quadrants. Okay, four quadrants that I write down where my goals are going to be going. So these four quadrants are my health, my family, my business and personal. Okay, and I'll only do three quadrants, maybe four, depending on what I want to accomplish in each, and it may only be two. You know, depends on what season of life I'm in.
Speaker 1:But you know, with health is you're trying to put things you know specific to you what you're trying to do. Is it you're trying to lose weight or trying to maintain a body fat percentage? Do you want to get more mobile? Do you want to have more mobility in your life? Alongside of health is not just physical, it's mental. One of the things that I want was stress reduction. I wanted to find ways to reduce the stress that I have in my life, so finding avenues for that. So that was the health With family. I wanted to have more intimacy with my wife, even more than what we already do. I also want to create more time for more memories with my family. So, versus like buying us all these things, I want to create more quality time with them, going on trips with them, going into events with them, etc. So, you know, creating something for the family specifically has to be. For me personally, that was a quadrant. That's very important to me.
Speaker 1:Of course, business, you know, this is how I make a living. This is what I love doing, to be honest with you. So, business, you know, for me, I don't put much on there when it comes to like, oh, I want to make a million dollars. That's not really for me. Again, this is just me. Things that I put on the vision board are one I want to have another podcast studio, which is actually gonna be a content studio, which, if you're listening to this, more than likely you'll hear about that if you're following me on social media in the next couple weeks. So just tune in for that. I'll leave that for that. Maybe that'll be another podcast in itself, but I think I found a place that I'm going to start doing some more content in general, also increasing my impact in others.
Speaker 1:So how can I help more people, how can I make an impact in their lives? How can I provide more value? This is something that goes along inside of my business. Outside of saying I want to make all this money, it's like if I can impact other lives in a more beneficial way and get them healthier and improve the quality of their life, money will come, as long as I'm doing it with good intentions, right? So I'm not robbing people, I'm not stealing Like my intention is to help people and I think, if you've ever talked to me robbing people, I'm not stealing Like my intention is to help people and I think, if you've ever talked to me generally, I think that you can, uh, you can tell, you can tell that that's, that's just my personality.
Speaker 1:Um, it's funny. I had a conversation with another person, um, the other day on how they see people on social media and when they meet them in person, they're totally different and they're like you are just like you are showing up on your podcast and in social media. You're the same person. I'm like yeah, it's just me being authentic. Plus, I'm not a good liar. So I couldn't I can't put on a face or a mask to do the stuff that I do. This is just how I am and how I talk.
Speaker 1:So you know, business, I have my specific things that I'm trying to target for there. And then personal Personal is anything from you know setting better boundaries for myself. It could be having a more crafted morning routine. That's, you know, helping me. You know mentally or emotionally, you know it kind of falls within the health realm as well. And then you know paying off some debt, etc. Those are more personal things that I want to tackle. That doesn't really include anybody else but myself, right? So you that again, these are very personal to you. That's what you would decide to put in there.
Speaker 1:Now I said I had an Excel sheet. That's one quadrant section. Below it is the same quadrants, but you're going to put actionable steps for each one of those goals that you wrote. Having a goal, having a dream, having something that you're trying to attain, is nothing without actually having a game play. Have a playbook of what you're going to do day to day, month to month, to accomplish this.
Speaker 1:Now your vision you can create for a year. You can do a five year play. You can do a 10 year play. I feel like 10 years a little bit stretch. I think a year is going to keep you on target, so then you know you can create another one if you feel like it's working. But again, that's personal choice. I did mine for a year, so having those actionable steps is going to help me tackle that. Now that's not going on the vision board specifically, but I'm going to tell you guys that is something that you need to keep as a reminder when you are writing down your goals.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing when we did the vision board I'm sorry, the vision board, uh, my, my sister-in-law a bunch of got a bunch of posters, okay, and and magazines and things like that, and again I did a little bit of research I did not do that, I opted out from that. I get it. It can be fun, but it can also be pretty frustrating and it can take a lot longer, because when you're trying to find visuals and words that are very specific for you and your goals, you know digging through magazines can take a lot of time, and then sometimes you're settling for something and I think whatever visual you put on the board, it needs to speak to you, it needs to have some emotion, some pool some energy, because that's what's going to attract you to it. So I decided to create mine on Canva. I do a lot of work on Canva and I saw somebody actually create a vision board on Canva and you, basically there's a template for it you, uh, you, you create it any way that you want, of course, and then you can actually pay Canva to send you a canvas. And that's what I did, uh, roughly, and it's pretty big, I would say it's I don't know the dimensions off the top it's a decent size, I'll tell you that. But I'm going to hang. I hung it in my wall in my office because this is where I do all my creation work and podcasting and video calls, et cetera. But it's roughly $120, $130, but it's got a frame. It's super, super nice.
Speaker 1:But in context, you know, I was thinking you're going to buy a board, you're going to buy a ton of magazines. You got to buy the glue. All the time You're going to have to try to shuffle through these pages, you're still going to be paying close to the same amount and you're not going to be getting exactly what you want. So you know, obviously, doing on Canva, you can search visuals, you can look things up. There's Pinterest, there's Google, there's other websites you can go to to pull pictures from your personal pictures. I did a lot of personal pictures in there because, again, I needed to speak to me and so I crafted it in that way and my canvas specifically is segregated into those four quadrants, so each corner. I split it basically in four even slots and I've just plugged each one of my personal quadrant goals in each one, and I know what that is. Again, this thing is speaking to me.
Speaker 1:So I chose Canva to actually build mine out and create it, and it was having my Excel sheet and then being able to do it there. It really reduced the stress. For one, I got everything that I wanted to get done and I was able to actually complete it within a couple hours. You know, I spent more time with my goals and my game plan and my steps and my structure to accomplish them, but with the Canvas it was a little bit easier to put into play. So I use Canva.
Speaker 1:If you guys have more questions about like details of what to click, where to choose, how to do that, you can send me a DM. I'm more than happy to, you know, give you a little more breakdown of what you should be doing. But you know, and here's a reminder if you didn't do one yet and you still want to do one for the new year, do it Okay. Don't say, oh well, you know, we're already five, six days into the new year, there's no point in doing it. No, do it. Do it, you know, cause it's still the beginning of the year. You can do it in the middle of the year, for all I care. I mean, this vision board is for you as a reminder, and so I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to kind of dive a little bit deeper into the purpose of doing a vision board as well, outside of like how I built it, et cetera. You know, when you are building something out like this um, actually did an Instagram story on this there's, there's three, uh, three things that I want you to keep in mind when you're creating this. Okay, and the three are. The first one is keep it personal. Like I said, you want those visuals, those words. Whatever you put on there, you want it to speak to you. Who cares what anybody else thinks? Because it's not theirs, it's yours, it's a piece of artwork, and that energy and that vibration is going to help you, be able to remind you to be able to keep working towards those goals that you set for yourself. So really take your time, personalize it, and that's why I actually really like doing it on the computer and on Canva, because I shuffle through tons of pictures and words and stuff and when something just grabbed my attention I was like that's it, I saved it, plugged it in, you know, to keep it realistic in. You know, to keep it realistic.
Speaker 1:I this is this is probably gonna be my heavy topic to just really hone in on when you guys and this is also one of the reasons I say don't look at other people's vision boards, because everybody's goals and where they are in life is very different you want to set realistic goals for yourself. Do they need to be? You know, shooting for the stars? Yeah, like, make them, make them hard, make them difficult, because a lot of people are going to. You know, use the, the vision board, as it's going to help me with my manifestation. You know I'm going to manifest. I'm going to keep telling myself that I'm going to get this thing and this thing and this thing and realistically, you can manifest all you want.
Speaker 1:If you don't have a playbook, a step-by-step strategy, if you don't have a way to keep track of those goals, measurable goals, to make sure that you're going in the right direction, you will not likely reach them. Just manifestations are really just dreams. Now does it keep it in the subconscious? Sure, but again, you got to take action. And that's where I come into taking messy action. Even if you do something and it doesn't get the results you want. Well, shift, pivot. This is life, this is how it works.
Speaker 1:And another thing when you're putting things on there, sure, make them goals that are difficult to achieve, but don't make them outlandish. Again, this is my personal opinion. There's not going to be a billion dollar mansion and a yacht and a Ferrari and things like that. I'm not saying that I'll never be able to attain those things, but it's highly unlikely, especially highly unlikely in the next year. Ok, so you don't want wanna put something on your vision board that you're gonna see every single day and is gonna mock you. You're gonna look at it and feel defeated because it's just not obtainable in that timeframe. So everything that you are doing, which even could be moving you closer to that goal, daily, you're gonna feel like nothing is working. You're not getting any closer because it's so far-fetched. So to build momentum, we need some wins.
Speaker 1:So, based off of where you're currently at, if you're just starting on goals, make these obtainable to build that confidence within yourself and then you can start to push that threshold. But again, you have that confidence in your ability to actually reach those goals. So you know, not only should you put these visuals and pictures and verbiage on your vision board, I would even encourage you to put other verbiage on there. That is how you're actually going to obtain these things and how are you going to obtain goals that you really want. That's something that you're passionate about. It means something to you Hard work.
Speaker 1:That should be in there. You should put things, put an action step in there. You know one step every day. You know you should put things in there. You need to visualize the effort, the hard work, the sweat it takes to obtain those goals, because that is what's going to make everything worth it to you. And if you think you're going to avoid those things and get what you want, you're going to be sadly disappointed by 2026 and you're going to have to scratch it and start over. So I encourage you guys to visualize yourself getting into the mud, get a little messy, break a little sweat, earn your place, earn what you're trying to achieve, all right.
Speaker 1:And then the third thing put it where you can see it daily. Okay, it needs to be somewhere that you see it every single day, because that, again, is a constant reminder. Keeps it top of mind. You know we are in a world that is full of distractions right now. It is so easy for us to have our mind just wander. You know, they even say what's the term doom scroll. Welcome to social media. Nowadays, there, there are people in it. Their only job is to keep you on the platform any way they can, to keep you occupied on the platform. And so and they you're not going to outsmart them this is that's what they do. So, again, eliminate distractions as much as possible.
Speaker 1:You need to again put this in a place that just keeps it in the forefront. Honestly, be careful, because if you're putting very personal things on there, maybe they're a little extreme pictures, maybe you don't want other people to see it, so you might want to keep that at home somewhere versus your office. You know if you have an office job somewhere else. But if it's, you know, fine, you don't care. Then I would put it in a place that you work, that you get creative, that you're inspired. Have it in a place that you see it every day.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so I'm going to wrap this up with just my tidbit of a reminder going into 2025. I'm going to clone this as the double R. Okay, the double R is resilience and reduction. I want you to keep these two words in mind this year resilience and reduction, resilience. I want you to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. I want you to say that to yourself. Whatever it takes, I'm going to achieve this and you're going to put your feelings to the side. All right, I want you to take your feelings and shove it off to the side, because your feelings are going to get in the way from you taking actions to your goals.
Speaker 1:If you're tired one morning, you don't want to wake up, but you know you got to get to the gym in the morning because it's the only time you can get there. Shove those feelings to the side. You got ambitious goals to create impact and you want to income and a great life for your family. Oh, you don't feel like working that hard today. Oh, you need a vacation because life is so tough. Shove those feelings to the side. Shove them to the side. You want a better relationship. Somebody pissed you off. You know you had a bad conversation. Shove those feelings to the side. Humble yourself. Have a conversation to make that neutral again. Be resilient.
Speaker 1:Resilience should be the first R. The second one reduction. Like I just told you guys, this world is full of distractions. Don't think about adding more to your plate. Think about what you can take off of the plate and have those focal points, your goals. Those should be the only things that you pay attention to. Everything else is a distraction. Get rid of it. Take it off the plate. Reduction All right. Life is complicated enough. We don't need additional stress. We don't need additional anxiety. We don't need additional work that's not getting us closer to our goals. Reduce it. Reduction, all right. That's your double R's going into 2025.
Speaker 1:So I hope this was helpful. I hope this was a little bit inspirational. Again, I've never done a vision board before, but it definitely put a lot of things in perspective. I think I learned a lot from it and you know again, I'll keep you up to date with how it's working for me, but I was really, really excited. I'm really proud of what I created. Again, it's very personal to me and maybe it inspired one of you guys to do it. So, hopefully, if this resonated with you, if you know somebody that would get inspired or want to hear some of this topic, please share this podcast and again, love you guys. I hope you have a great rest of the week and I'll catch you in the next episode. Peace.