How I Turned a Vision Board into a Different Way of Living.

The real process behind “manifesting” as a single mum and freelancer…

I’ve always made Vision Boards, but last year I created an ACTION Board inspired by Tara Swart.

Not the kind filled with vague affirmations or aesthetic travel images for the sake of it, but one that felt specific. Financial expansion. International travel with my boys. Stronger positioning in my business. A version of myself that felt braver, steadier, more capable. Nine different categories to be precise.

It included travel. Financial growth. Working remotely. A sense of freedom that didn’t feel irresponsible. A version of my business that wasn’t tied to one location or one level of income.

At the time, those things felt possible ‘ish’ but certainly not guaranteed and if I’m honest some felt too far of a stretch.

I’m a single mum building a business alongside a salaried role. There is structure in my life, but there is still risk. So when I choose expansion, it’s intentional and when I say I “manifested” a plane ticket, I don’t mean I wished for it.

I mean I became the kind of person who could book it.

It was a year of stretching.

It wasn’t a year that was soft or serene, it was a year of saying yes. Yes to opportunities that felt slightly bigger than me. Yes to rooms where I wasn’t fully comfortable yet. Yes to longer hours. Yes to pushing through the wobble.

I didn’t curate my calendar perfectly. I didn’t say no often. I didn’t protect my energy perfectly and I didn’t filter every opportunity through alignment. That’s work I’m learning now and I accepted that last year was about expansion through effort. I worked hard. I put in the hours. I followed up, pitched, delivered and I kept moving when it would have been easier to shrink.

Regulating before reacting.

There were tight months and unexpected outgoings, these were moments that could have easily triggered panic. What changed for me wasn’t the circumstances, it was how I handled them.

Part of that is meditation which is non-negotiable for me. Not in a floaty, aesthetic way. In a practical way, I use it to slow my nervous system down before making decisions. I visualise bigger scenarios and the harder more mundane tasks daily, booking flights, increasing income, handling more complex shoots and to feel those situations in my body before they happened.

It wasn’t about “thinking positively”, it was about training my system not to react from fear. And I made a choice, when something unexpected came in or my new campervan got written off, I didn’t spiral. I sat with it. I regulated first. Then I responded.

It’s those pauses that changed everything. I also made a conscious decision not to grip money too tightly. I believe money needs movement. Even in months that felt snug, I still gave where I could, small acts of generosity, helping someone who needed it more.

Meditation gave me space between trigger and reaction. And in that space, better decisions were made.

The decisions.

The Campervan (Cowboy) wasn’t something I had mapped out in a five-year plan, it came up, it aligned and I said yes. Not recklessly, or with blind optimism (maybe a little) but with a quiet sense that I had grown into the decision.

The same with the flights, I didn’t sit there over-analysing it. I didn’t have a dramatic moment of courage. It felt strangely like momentum meeting opportunity and when I clicked confirm on those Oz flights, I actually felt completely stunned. Like woah, I’ve done this. I’ve done this now, alone in 2025 not in 2027, 2028, now!

That feeling wasn’t about the travel itself, it was about realising I had expanded further than I’d noticed.

The shift wasn’t in the ticket or the van. It was in me.

This year feels different.

If last year was about stretching, 2026 is about steadiness.

Now that I’ve created space, the work feels different. It’s less about saying yes to everything and more about learning to say no unless it’s aligned.

My instinct is still to grab opportunities tightly. To accept anything that feels like security. That instinct makes sense, it’s protective.

But growth now looks like discernment. Choosing the right work, not just more work. Filling the space I created intentionally rather than reactively.

What “Manifesting” Means to Me Now.

It isn’t about thinking positively and hoping for the best. It’s about…

• Clarity

• Action

• Regulation

• Trust

The action board was a starting point and the real shift happened in the daily decisions, the ones that built capacity quietly over time. I know now the plane ticket and the van were outcomes and the expansion was internal.

Want to create a vision that actually moves?

If you’re craving growth but also need it to feel grounded and sustainable, that’s exactly why I created my Vision + Action Board workshop.

It isn’t about cutting out images and hoping. It’s about clarity, identity and practical steps that sit behind the vision.

You can book your place here because the board is only the beginning.

Take action.