Goal Definition – How to Turn Your Desktop Wallpaper Into Motivational Aid Using a Picture Collage

Although you may already have a number of goal setting strategies, I’d like to share with you another one that I recently incorporated into my day. The seed for this article was planted on October 29, 2008 while I was attending the Blueprint for Success Workshop hosted by ProCoach Success System Certified Trainer Andrew Barber-Starkey. Andrew indicated that one of the best ways to develop self-confidence and achieve your goals is to always look for ways to “Impress Yourself”.

Be impressed screen saver

I find “Impress Yourself” to be one of the best motivational quotes I have ever heard and I wanted to have it somewhere highly visible in my everyday life. I thought the best place to put this slogan was on my computer monitor as a screen saver. With this creative idea, I would see the motivational quote “Impress Yourself” floating on my computer monitor many times throughout the day. My plan was for this visual aid to remind me of my previous goal setting activities, so I can refocus my efforts and move on.

Generating an idea

While I found the screen saver to be a powerful technique, the following idea struck me as even more so! I attended Bob Proctor’s “Create Your Own Economy” weekend seminar in May 2009. Both Bob Proctor and Gerry Robert attended this seminar. I find these two entrepreneurs to be great educators and I am inspired and motivated by what they have to say. Fortunately, I was able to get a photo of myself with each of these men at this conference. I was planning to use these images as one of my desktop themes. I knew that seeing these images on a daily basis would help me in the area of ​​self-improvement and motivation.

This presented me with a dilemma. Up to this point, I had been rotating the desktop wallpaper image on my computer screen on a semi-regular basis, usually using my children individually or together at different events or phases of their lives. Since I didn’t think my children would like to be moved from my monitor, I decided to create a simple collage of photos of my children and educators.

A simple picture collage

In my first attempt to produce my own free desktop background with my kids and educators, I used Microsoft Word. I added the images to a page of a Word document and then added the motivational quote “Impress Yourself”. I copied and saved the file in Paint as .jpg and used it as my computer wallpaper. This simple collage of images inspired me on a daily basis as I saw it every time I worked on the computer.

The Big Picture Collage Idea

Around the same time I was working on my simple Word collage, my nine year old daughter was making a massive photo collage using PowerPoint. I pasted numerous images onto the same slide and overlapped them. As I watched her create her masterpiece, my mind raced to create one of my own. It immediately became apparent that creating an image collage in PowerPoint was much faster and easier than using Word. You can easily drag images across the slide, arrange your layout however you like, and overlay the images.

Building my first large photo collage

For my first large image collage, I added about 75 images to a standard PowerPoint slide, but soon learned that unless your computer monitor is the same length and width as a standard sheet of paper, the photo collage it will be biased. I resized my PowerPoint slide to match the exact size of my computer monitor screen, added more images, a couple of motivational quotes, and saved this image collage as one of my desktop backgrounds.

For a standard 19 “LCD computer monitor, which has a viewing area of ​​around 180 square inches, I estimate I could see 75-150 images instead of just one. My largest image is about nine square inches, while the smallest is about one square inch. You may think a small one-square-inch image is too small, but I think this is all you need to inform yourself. For example, I have a small 1-inch square image of a multi-family house in my picture collage. As soon as I look at this picture, I immediately see and visualize a house that I would like to build for low-income people. The rooms are small but it is a house that people can afford and hopefully , with the property development of self-esteem.While you may not be able to fully distinguish the details of the photo, the purpose of the image is to make your mind remember. Set your goals. I find that images of this size address this concept very well.

Setting personal goals

I think there are two main benefits of including your goals on your computer desktop background. First, all your past achievements and future goals are in front of you on a daily basis. Seeing what you have already accomplished ensures that you are capable of creating more for yourself. Second, the time it takes to review your lenses in image format is pretty quick. For example, I have a dream book that contains what I want to achieve in the future. However, as I am generally time constrained, I rarely look at my dream book. However, every day I remember my goals when I work on my computer through my computer wallpaper photo collage. In essence, my computer wallpaper has become my vision board and my dream book.

Personal growth educators generally want you to review your goals as much as possible. Using this photo collage technique, I have my entire dream book and vision board in front of me every day. I think this is great goal setting tip and good self improvement and motivation technique. This simple idea is not only easy to implement, but fun to put together. Also, it reminds me very quickly of my goals on a daily basis. This gentle reminder tends to keep me from doing things that don’t move me forward and focuses me on what I need to do to achieve my personal goals.

My results

One of my main goals is to become a better stock trader. Ever since I saw the phrase “Impress Yourself” and look at my collage of photos on a daily basis, I have tried very hard to always use extreme discipline when trading stocks. I find that I can do this better by controlling risk, always having stops in place, and generally limiting how long I am in the stock market. For me, a slight change in mental attitude has improved my ability to trade stocks.

Your challenge

What little change of thought do you need to drastically change your life? What goals are you looking for? Can you use this self-improvement and motivation technique in your life?

Are you ready to start building your first picture collage and use this simple idea for daily inspiration that will hopefully lead to a better life? When creating your photo collage, include the images that you think will best motivate you to be successful. You can also include inspirational and motivational quotes to guide you further.

In an image collage, you can put one large image at the bottom, and then place multiple images on top. Just send the large image to the back. In this way, you can increase the number of images on the slide. If you are not sure how to create an image collage in PowerPoint or Word, I have put the required information on my website.

I hope looking at this type of photo collage on a daily basis is as inspiring for you as it has been for me.