Someone asked me recently if I had a vision board.
It caught me off guard—not because I don’t have vision, but because I’ve never needed a cork board full of future wants to orient my life or my business.
That question forced me to pause and ask something more important:
What actually anchors a vision?
Because vision without grounding doesn’t guide behavior—it just fuels desire.
The Problem Isn’t Vision. It’s Definition.
Vision boards aren’t inherently bad. The issue is what most of them reveal.
When you look closely, many are centered on:
acquisition
status
self
outcomes divorced from responsibility
They’re filled with things to get, not things to be or steward.
That’s not vision.
That’s appetite.
And appetite, left unchecked, is never satisfied.
Why Gratitude Is the Missing Anchor
I don’t have a vision board.
What I do have is a gratitude list.
Not as a feel-good exercise—but as a compass.
Gratitude forces clarity. It reminds you what already matters, what you’re responsible for protecting, and what success actually looks like when no one else is watching.
Gratitude doesn’t eliminate ambition.
It disciplines it.
When gratitude is present, vision becomes focused.
When gratitude is absent, vision becomes insatiable.
What Gratitude Actually Does
A real gratitude practice does a few critical things:
It grounds ambition in reality
It prevents ego-driven drift
It reframes success around stewardship, not accumulation
It clarifies what you’re unwilling to sacrifice in pursuit of “more”
That’s not motivational.
That’s operational.
A Lesson From an Unexpected Place
Years ago, I watched this play out in a business development group I was part of.
We were trying to measure value—like most groups do. Initially, we defaulted to the usual metric: what people gave.
Leads. Introductions. Effort.
Then we flipped the question.
Instead of asking what members contributed, we asked:
What value are you grateful to have received?
The shift was uncomfortable at first.
People had to stop performing generosity and start acknowledging impact. Ego had to step aside for awareness.
The result?
More connection.
More retention.
More meaning.
Gratitude changed behavior—not because it was encouraged, but because it was measured.
What This Means for Vision
Vision that isn’t anchored in gratitude becomes restless.
It keeps moving the finish line.
It confuses progress with accumulation.
It convinces people they’re behind—even when they’re not.
Gratitude, on the other hand, creates a stable reference point.
It answers questions vision alone can’t:
What is already enough?
What am I responsible for sustaining?
What would success cost—and am I willing to pay it?
Those answers matter more than any image on a board.
The Question Worth Asking
Before you add anything new to your vision, ask yourself:
What am I already grateful for—and what does that obligate me to protect, grow, or honor?
Because once gratitude is clear, vision stops chasing.
It starts leading.
And more often than not, you’ll realize you already have far more than you thought you were missing.