Expert Interview – Karen Habra Smyth
Karen not only wants to aspire and achieve health and happiness goals for herself and her family – she wants you to adopt a deliberate vision for your life, too. Karen and her business partner Jodi offer products and resources to help everyone, including family caregivers, create the vision for their life that they deserve.
Surprising many that knew her, Karen Habra Smyth resigned from her corporate job about 10 years ago. She was trying to start her family with her husband Michael, she wasn’t feeling fulfilled by her career at that time and she wanted to grab the reigns to influence the outcome she desired.
Karen is a mother of two children(age 8 and 5), is married to her soulmate and has a strong respect for family caregivers.
She is an immigrant from Lebanon who takes her upbringing wherever she goes. Before we dove into vision boarding, Karen shared with me how she feels the Lebanese culture differs from the American culture in regards to caregiving:
What is a Deliberate Vision Board
Karen and her business partner have facilitated dozens of Deliberate Vision workshops for small and large groups. She gets so energized just talking about the experience of a these workshops. People sharing dreams and stories and helping each other find the perfect word or picture to accompany their vision – the environment is like a modern day quilting bee and provides a great opportunity for people to connect to one another on a deeper level.
Here is an example of a vision board that was created in a Deliberate Vision workshop:
I also want you to hear how Karen explains what a vision board looks like to give you some other ideas:
Why do caregivers need a vision?
‘What you focus on expands’ is one of Karen’s favorite mantras and she believes everyone can be happy and healthy by creating a visual manifestation of what you want.
Karen has a collection of not only 10 physical vision boards but also an impressive list of goals she has accomplished by using this process. She shares that she is still working on some goals that have carried over from previous boards.
Her first vision board had pictures surrounding two big goals ‘conceiving a child’ and ‘building a successful real estate career that would sustain her family’. She explained that her vision board contained very focused pictures around her goal to conceive a child – she’d have images around carrying a child, delivering a child, holding a child, feeding a child, etc.
Goal achieved! Karen has two smart and adorable children and a successful real estate career in the Atlanta area. She celebrates the achievement and feels even more empowered to create the next vision.
Karen says creating her own vision isn’t selfish, it’s really quite the opposite. Here’s how she explains it:
She positions her physical vision boards in her home office where she sees it multiple times a day – on the wall behind her computer.
Karen’s expert tip is to also take a picture of your current vision board and use this photo as a screensaver on your computer and wallpaper on your phone.
The key is definitely not to hide it but to blast it out into the universe so don’t be shy about posting it online or where others can see it.
How to start you own vision board
Karen’s big tip for creating your vision board is to construct it with other people.
Creating a vision board with others helps you further define your goals and when you share them openly with others your goals and your energy around them expands. Others can also help keep an eye out for images and words while they are searching for their own in magazines.
You’ll need a few supplies such as poster boards, glue sticks, magazines, scissors, photos, and markers. We aren’t talking a huge dollar investment here since most of these items can be picked up at your local dollar store and what a great way to upcycle your magazines.
Karen suggests separating your personal vision board into categories that you intend to laser focus on such as business, health, experiences, and relationships.
For popular cutout images and inspirational words, Deliberate Vision offers books to help you get started available for purchase on Amazon.
Karen’s hope is that by applying the vision board process you will become an activate participant in your life, not just a spectator.
You can learn more about Karen and vision board workshops and products by visiting the Deliberate Vision Facebook page.
