For years, I have been creating plans to achieve goals and reach success for myself, corporate teams, and direct reports, so many of  the SPARCK techniques used had already been in the making, but what really got things going was a conversation with friends.  In 2019, a group of friends looking to do something awesome to start the year asked me to host a vision board party to which I politely replied "No".  In all honesty, they are friends, so I might not have been polite about it, but I was adamant about my "No".  The group, like most people, had been taught the laws of attraction and told about visualization, but was missing the often overlooked very important part to obtaining success in life - the actions we take to get there. Even though I loved the idea of a vision board party, I could not allow my friends, the people I care about, to put their hopes an dreams on a board and miss this important concept.  Visualization is great and vision board parties are fun, but faith without works is dead, and it's only when we do our part (set goals, make plans, and take action) that faith moves to get us where we want to be.  So instead of agreeing to host a vision board party, I offered to lead an Action Board™ Party. 

 

Now you must know, when I offered the Action Board Party I didn't know what it was. I had never heard of it or thought of it until that moment, so my response when they asked, "De, what's an action board party", was simple, "(shoulder shrug) I don't know, but I know what result it'll bring".  Then I went to work doing what I had done for years ~ creating a turn key system that helps others accomplish whatever tasks is at hand.  I pulled from my experiences as a Leader, Accountant, Parent, and Person.  I developed the concept, applied proven principles of goal setting, pulled in the fun parts of vision boarding and then allowed my creativity to run free.  The response from the girls was overwhelmingly amazing.  They enjoyed the time, but more importantly, they really felt they could accomplish the things they set out to achieve that year.  For them, this was much more involved than a simple vision board party and was just the sparck they needed to push them to reaching the success they wanted.

 

Of course I didn't stop there.  I didn't want to miss another important part of goal setting - Accountability, so I brought the ladies back together and introduced a second phase of the program - the part that promotes focus and determination while providing encouragement and direction.  For as long as I live, I will never forget the sound of complete silence and wine glasses hitting the table as this group of normally very chatty, thirsty women started focusing and working through phase two.  Their receptiveness was encouraging, but seeing them really work to create plans of action for success made my heart smile.  By year's end, we were all smiling and clinking glasses about the successes we had seen and the difference the program made.  That's when I decided to finetune the program for the use of others.

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Creativity, a Type A personality, and a desire to ensure everyone has a great time led me to putting everything into one well organized box - including the board.  The name had not been selected yet, but I prayed about it, so I was sure it would come.  Then, I took the product to a series of focus groups to get feedback.  It was nothing short of amazing.  I received so much positive feedback and after hearing so many say "that was just what I needed", I took the design used for the pilot box

(SEE ~ PLAN ~ DO ...and then Celebrate)

and created the program name

SPARCK™

(Set a goal, make a Plan, take Action and be held Accountable, Reach success, Celebrate, and Keep SPARCKing).