Former Valley girl and current San Diego morning-show host, Alexis DelChiaro shares life lessons and her California adventures.

Do you have a vision? Not like a paranormal vision, but do you know what you want out of life? I’ve always believed in writing about what’s happening in my life so it’s easier to define what’s making me happy and what’s not. My first journal was in my first-grade classroom. Once a week, we wrote about what we did over the weekend, class field trips, family vacations, that sort of thing. This practice of writing down bits and pieces of my life stuck with me. The next year I was given a diary for Christmas. It was bubble gum pink with multicolored hearts. I loved that little dairy along with the dozens of others that have followed it. To this day I am still a faithful author in my journal—sans the multicolored hearts. Sure, the topics have changed over the years, but the idea is the same: a place to write down my thoughts, concerns, joys and heartaches.     
Recently, a friend gave me the idea to make a vision board as a different way to express myself. I liked the idea. It’s very similar to my journal writings, except instead of using words, you use pictures and phrases. The end result is a collage filled with hopes, dreams and goals. So one cloudy San Diego day, I got to work thumbing through magazines and ripping out pictures of my vision for a happy life. Yoga girls, mothers with their babies, deserted tropical islands, Regis and Kelly, a bottle of Champagne, the leaning Tower of Pisa, even Kate Middleton’s huge sapphire ring (why not? That rock is gorgeous!) All of these images signify something in my life that makes me happy or something I’d like to accomplish.
My favorite image is of a girl in a cowboy hat and bikini looking through binoculars out to the water. The caption reads “Live your dream life.” I’d like to think that girl is looking toward her future, determining how to create the best way to be. Sometimes, achieving your dreams is as simple as identifying them. All of these images (or a version of them) can be mine; all I have to do is make it happen.
Just like a third grader steadily working on an art project, I cut, positioned, taped and re-taped my magazine clippings until I had created my own masterpiece. A reminder of what I want out of life and what I need to do to get there. Of course, a vision board isn’t set in stone. As I change, so can it. All I have to do is add more pictures, modify them or even rip them right off that flimsy posterboard. After all, it’s my vision.
I’m going to hang my work of art on the inside of my closet door. I’ll be forced to stare at it every morning as I stand in my closet lamenting the fact that I have absolutely nothing to wear to work. What a beautiful way to start every day: with a fresh mindset and a newly instilled hope for the future.