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The Power of Intention

  • Writer: Stella Beckmann
    Stella Beckmann
  • Jan 3
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jan 23


halloween at dartmouth
Halloweekend in Hanover, New Hampshire, 2024

I used to think vision boards were just star-sign-y, manifestation-y woo-woo—how could pasting colorful images onto blank white make your dreams come true? But when preparing for a two-month exchange in the States, I realized I needed to be intentional and prioritize my time to make the most of it. That’s when I decided to write out my goals and pair them with a picture or two on a slideshow. It wasn’t pretty and the formatting was terrible, but technically, it was a vision board.


Here’s a summary of what was on it:


  • Clubs: join the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC), the college newspaper (The Dartmouth), student government, and meditation club.

  • Academic Goals: get A’s, have good relationships with your professors, go to office hours.

  • Networking Goals: A referral from a particular top psychology professor, connections with people in corporate industries and journalism like the New York Times.

  • Social Experiences: Great girlfriends. Great roommate. Boston and New York trips, possibly Canada. Fit in naturally to the party scene and easily make friends there.

  • Pictures I included: One image was a group of girls sitting on a blanket on grass, laughing. Another was two girls in a cute Halloween outfit. Another page had two professors whose classes I wanted to be in, and a third author-professor with whom I wanted to meet.


Furthermore, during the exchange student orientation on the first day, the exchange coordinator suggested we write down our goals for the term on sticky notes. I transferred the ideas from my vision board onto this sticky note then left it in one of my desk draws in my room.


At the end of the term, while clearing out my room, I came back across it. A smile pulled at my lips and I let out a light scoff; reading over the goals, I’d achieved everything I’d written down. 


I went on multiple DOC trips, led a meditation retreat, wrote for the college newspaper, and attended political events.


I made deep and inspiring connections, traveled to New York with the school, and traveled to Boston with my roommate.


The psychology professor from my vision board offered to be a reference for me.


Halloween did not only involve one cute outfit, but a surprising THREE (one for each consecutive night of partying—that’s how they do it there). 


I got straight As in all my classes.


I wrote six articles for the college newspaper.


Some of it turned out differently than I imagined—such as not joining the meditation club but rather, leading a meditation retreat—but it all manifested one way or another. 


There were challenges. One of the classes I needed to be in to graduate from my degree was in high demand; 20 of us sat in the 16-person course on the first day, the professor expressing the slim likelihood of any of us making it in. However, one spot opened up, and the professor emailed me first, intentionally prioritizing admitting me. I was so grateful.


Even after the exchange finished, things continued to play out, as I sat at my desk in New Zealand having a two-hour long call with a famous travel author and former New York Times and Time Magazine journalist who’d visited one of my classes.


Ultimately, what surprised me most was how much I could achieve in such a short time—it felt like two years’ worth of experiences packed into two months. In fact, I’d achieved MORE than what I’d even imagined with the vision board. It felt like I’d tapped into a reservoir of potential I didn’t know I had. Everything I’d outlined, visualized, and put energy toward unfolded. 


This experience taught me that we are all capable of so much more than we think, but our energy needs direction and purpose. Without intention, it’s easy to spend our efforts aimlessly, which is fine—sometimes exploration is necessary. But when we align our energy with clear, actionable goals, incredible things happen.


The vision board provided purpose and clarity, helping me focus my energy on what mattered most.


I want to carry this lesson into every part of my life: pairing clear intention with deliberate action to unlock new possibilities.




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