Being a first-generation immigrant growing up in the conservative South, I followed the “traditional” vision board. At the age of 40, I reached the American dream: successful mommy doctor entrepreneur, married, raising three kids, living in an affluent neighborhood, driving an environmentally friendly vehicle, investing in real estate, traveling the world, and making yearly charitable contributions.

I made it! OK, great, now what?

My knee-jerk reaction was: Now you do more.

You work more to help more patients, to scale your business more, to make more money, to travel more, and to donate more.

Traditional vision boards teach us to focus on doing, but I was tired of doing. I needed a break.

Can I just be satisfied with all the doing I have done so far? Can I pause, acknowledge, and celebrate my achievements? Can I, for once, be satisfied enough to enjoy life?

What would my next version of a vision board look like if it wasn’t based on doing but simply slowing down and being?

Doing is an action.

Being is an essence.

My vision board consists of five different categories: family, career, wealth, travel, and fun.

Family

In the family category, “doing” focuses on creating a nuclear family. It consists of dating a partner with the intention of finding a soul mate, getting married, and having kids.

In “being,” you care for and nurture yourself. I define “yourself” as your physical self, your emotional self, your mental self, your spiritual self.

Get to know yourself, ask:

What does my body need today?

How am I feeling today?

How did I talk to myself today?

What was the most common thought I carried today?

That is the kind of family I want you to create on your vision board. A self that respects, loves, and guides you through life with patience and compassion rather than competition, criticism, and judgment.

Career

We are all too familiar with “doing” in the career category. The studying, volunteering, researching, publishing, admitting, intubating, suturing, operating, diagnosing, treating. Doing is goal-oriented.

Being doesn’t center around a result or an outcome. It’s self-oriented. It emphasizes the way you feel when you are in the act of doing.

So start by asking yourself two simple questions:

Who do I want to be when I am doctoring?

How do I want to feel while I am doctoring?

Wealth

Traditionally, wealth is defined as money, dollars. I want to introduce you to the concept of emotional wealth. It’s how you feel about the money you have. It’s your relationship with money. Plenty of millionaires feel insufficient about their funds, and plenty of average Joes are very grateful for their bank accounts.

How do you identify your emotional wealth? Awareness.

How do I feel about my finances right now?

Why do I feel that way?

How do I want to feel about money in general?

What is blocking me from creating that feeling?

The truth of the matter is you will end up doing, chasing, pushing, grinding your way to “wealth” yet never feel fulfilled or sufficient if you don’t mend your relationship with money first.

Travel

Instead of planning lavish Caribbean or ski vacations, I want you to embark on a self-journey—a reflection of your past, present, and future.

Ask yourself:

Where do I stand right now?

Where do I want to go from here? Not just physically but emotionally and mentally?

Where did I have “delays” in life where I was expected to launch but failed?

When was I swimming against the currents?

When did I successfully hike to Pike’s Peak?

When did I hit turbulence but continued to grip on tighter with more belief?

What lessons did I learn from those experiences, and was the trip worth it?

Fun

For many of us, fun is taboo. Fun doesn’t pay the bills. It can even be deadly. Having fun on the job can lead to mistakes and patient demise. So, over the decades of training, we have been inflicted by a disease of seriousness. It has drained all our energy and vitality, leaving us numb.

I challenge you to scribble, doodle, and finger paint. Dance in the rain. Run through sprinklers. Sing along with Alexa. Bang on the drums. Build a fort. Jump. Hop. Skip.

If you can’t remember how to have fun, ask your parents, flip through your high school yearbook, dig out old photo albums, or watch your childhood videos. Just have fun!

And that’s it. Those are the five components of the next version of my vision board. Now go out and re-envision your vision board and make sure that you see yourself in it.

Sogol Pahlavan is a board-certified pediatrician, co-founder, managing partner, and CEO, ABC Pediatric Clinic. She, along with her sister, Silen Pahlavan, has grown their two-physician private independent pediatric clinic, serving 10,000 patients in East Houston, which is an underserved Hispanic community. After struggling with burnout, Dr. Sogol embarked on a journey of mindfulness and became certified as a mindfulness physician business coach. She is a TEDx speaker and a podcaster, hosting Mindful Living with Dr. Sogol. She is also the co-founder, SOULpreneurMD, which helps female physician entrepreneurs create profitable, hassle-free businesses, and can be reached on LinkedIn.