At the beginning of April, I joined a 30 day challenge which featured ways to grow and improve your life. Among the challenges was something I had done recently; to make a vision board. I enjoyed making one so much that I wanted to write about the process.
A vision board is a pictorial representation (can have words too) of one’s dreams, aspirations and goals. They are meant to serve as motivation to bring desires into fruition.
I made a vision board at the end of 2022, as a way to help me clarify goals for my short term future. On this board, I included pictures of travel, self-care and how I’d like to decorate my new space.
The first step is to get clear on something you would like by brainstorming goals and writing them down. These can be wishes, dreams and other positive changes you’d like to make. For example, if I dream of wanting to own my own business, I would make a vision board based on that.
The next step is to find images that represent this. You can do so by looking through magazines (and cutting out) or by printing them. Going back to my entrepreneurship example,I would look for images of computers on desks, pictures of people collaborating (good team culture), a picture of the particular industry, money (to represent loans or wealth) etc. I would also like to note that vision boards are not limited to images. Everything from motivational words, quotes and affirmations that resonate can also be used.
If you are the hands on type, a vision board can be made by purchasing a poster board or cork board. The pictures can be affixed using glue, tape or pins. The arrangement is really up to you. Finally, hang the board in a place you’ll be able to see it regularly to reflect and review.
I keep mine in a desktop folder on my laptop. This helps me stay accountable and encourages me to make small daily steps to achieve a goal. As time passes, I find myself adding or removing elements as what I want changes.
Vision boards can also be made digitally using Pinterest or Canva. Canva has a variety of paid or free options (it’s what I used), is super user friendly and has many free images.
Finally, The board has no limits on how many things you want to put on it. Conversely, if you are really struggling, ask yourself ‘what do you want more of?’ and try starting with 3-5 images. The vision board process can take as long or a little time as you are comfortable with.
There’s other ideas out there like travel, finances/career, healthy body/healthy mind, love and relationships.
One last point is to use the vision board as a way to identify long term goals, and then break them down into small daily steps. Using my small business example, one of the first steps I would take is conduct market research, followed by writing out a business plan, then looking for ways to fund the business. After all, dreams are attainable but they do take work.
Good luck with creating!