"When we tell G-d what we want G-d to do, or we tell the universe what we want it to do, we're not really opening ourselves up yet - we're still speaking from an egoic place. But when we confess our deepest heart's yearning and tell the divine that we're inviting it to give us anything we need to awaken, we very well might get it. To open ourselves to this grace, to this flow of truth, means that we have to step out of ourselves. We have to let go of the illusion that we are in control of our life. When we hand it over, we'll find ourselves falling into grace, falling into this clarity and openness and love, falling right into the grace of awakening from separation, where we realize our true spiritual essence: this beautiful, unknown, unborn presence which manifests as everything we see." - Adyashanti
In one online course I joined recently each of us students is asked to draw the so-called "vision board" and share it in the private Facebook group for the course participants. When I was asked to do the same almost around January 2018 in group coaching I participated in as a coachee, I hesitated to do this assignment and showed a blank sheet of paper in front of the other coachees, explaining that I would like to get rid of all the negative emotions.
When I saw vision boards posted by about a number participants so far to the Facebook group of the course, I understood why I had hesitated instinctively to draw one. Most of the pictures on these vision boards reflect what the ego wants - manifestations of materialistic "success". In the meanwhile I've decided to leave this Facebook group in order to protect myself.
What the ego wants isn't the same as what it needs for itself, the physical body and the soul. And for this very reason we aren't supposed to always get what our ego wants. Drawing such a vision board only inflates our ego and gives us an illusion that what our ego wants is what it really needs.
Many people "pray" for the realization of what their ego wants, and many life coaches seem to "promise" to help their clients realize what the latter's ego wants. Just as I hesitated to pray for the wants of my ego, so do I hesitate now as a new life coach to make such promises to my new clients. I'd like to help them help themselves to identify what their soul needs. As for their realization, I'm not worried as I'm more and more convinced that we are supposed to receive all the needs of our soul sooner or later in our respective life until we return to where our soul came from and belongs to.