Making a vision board and refining it every year has had a profound impact on my life. It’s affected my personal life, my business life, my spiritual life, and many more areas. Because it’s something that’s so critical to success, I want to share with you exactly how to create a vision board that works.
Often, when we hear of vision boards, we think of them as an arts and crafts project involving glue sticks, scissors, magazine cut-outs, and printed pictures. But, a vision board is so much more than this: It’s a visual manifestation of the life you want to have. It displays what you want out of your time on this earth and what your inner-most desires are calling you to accomplish. There is possibly no other tool that can get you closer to fulfilling your idea of a perfect life than this tangible guide to the future.
What does it require? Time, serious contemplation, and regular check-ins.
But I promise you, the more you put into this project, the bigger results you’ll see in your life. In fact, studies show that you are 43% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. This is one of the top reasons vision boards can have an enormous impact on the life goals you achieve.
Today, I’m going to explain why vision boards are incredibly important to goal-setting and goal accomplishment. I’ll also go over how to create a vision board that not only works but creates massive positive transformation in your life. We’ll cover:
- How vision boards work
- How to make a vision board
- Getting the most from your vision board
- Common vision board challenges and how to overcome them
Do Vision Boards Work?
What we focus on expands and becomes our reality. Where intention goes, energy flows.
dacey paul
A vision board is a roadmap for the ideal vision you have for your life. From where you want to live, to your dream job, to the traits you want in a life partner, vision boards provide the vital clarity and perspective needed for turning dreams into reality.
Studies show that simply writing a goal down increases the ability to recall it later on, which also increases the likelihood of it coming to fruition or being accomplished. Further, information absorbed visually is retained better and for longer than information received simply audibly or through plain text. This is because 65% of the population are visual learners, according to the National Library of Medicine.
If you can write your goals down in a way that allows you to see them, such as with a vision board, you’ll remember them, and they’ll stick in your memory. When you think of your goals each day, you begin to align your actions and decisions in a way that supports them. And when your daily actions and decisions align with your stated goals, your chances of achieving them increase tremendously.
How to Make a Vision Board
Setting goals is the first step from turning the invisible to visible.
tony robbins
Creating a vision board is a personal journey. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Still, if you’ve never done it, it can seem intimidating. Thinking about the different areas of your life and the goals and dreams you have in each category can be overwhelming. This is why many of us don’t spend time focusing on the vision we have for our lives.
As easy as it is to let life happen to us, it isn’t a healthy approach. When you let others take the driver’s seat, you’re no longer in control of the destination—and more often than not, you won’t like where they take you. That’s because we all have a purpose and calling we’re meant to fulfill. When you avoid directing yourself toward it, it results in pain, misery, and unfulfillment.
To avoid massive corrections in the future, start creating a vision board that sets you on the right path. Follow the three simple steps below to get started.
1. Visualization
The process begins with visualization. Start by sitting or lying down where you can disconnect from external stimuli. Relax into the space, close your eyes, and begin imagining what you want for your life. Do you want to buy a house? What does the house look like? Where is it? Or do you want to become a better team leader? What leadership behaviors do you need to adopt? What kind of leader do you want to be? Sitting in a peaceful place, even in prayer or meditation, and thinking of these details will help you conjure specific visuals that guide your actions. Repeat this as often as possible so that the images of what you want becomes clearer and clearer.
2. Writing Down Goals
Once you have clearly visualized the areas of your life that you want to focus on, write down the specific goals you need to have to achieve them. What are the daily, weekly, and monthly steps and actions needed to get the house of your dreams? Or to become a leader in your field?
Writing goals down doesn’t have to mean onto a plain piece of paper with a pen. The same benefits of recall and memorization occur if you print or cut out pictures representing your visual goals and attach them to a poster board or a corkboard. You can also arrange them in a collage or a digital vision board.
If you’re artistically inclined, you can use paintings and drawings to represent your visions and goals. Just be sure to include both the overarching visions and the associated goals to achieve them with images that are specific and relevant to what you want. If it’s just a collage of pretty pictures that don’t represent your desires and values, it won’t have any impact on your life.
3. Strategizing
Once your vision and the specific goals associated with them are clear, it’s time to strategize. What are some new habits you’ll need to integrate into your life to begin working towards them? What will the schedule of these new habits look like? For example, to buy a house, maybe you need to start cooking at home more to save money for a down payment. This habit could look like meal-prepping on Sundays for the week ahead. Or, to learn how to become a CEO, start studying your company’s leadership team. How do they work together? What professional traits and habits do they share?
Strategizing is the process of taking your goals and vision out of the abstract dream space and taking actionable steps to make them a reality. It’s also the first step of the law of attraction—or when you have positive thoughts and actions that attract positive experiences.
Tips for a Successful Vision Board
Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.
oprah winfrey
A vision board doesn’t have much impact if it’s hidden, outdated, or doesn’t represent your truest personal desires. With the right approach and intentions, however, vision boards can be truly empowering tools for guiding you to the life of your dreams. Use the tips below to ensure your vision board is effective at doing this.
- Make it personal: Our friends, family members, and colleagues may all have ideas and opinions on what they think we should pursue. Be sure to not let these influences distract you from what you want. Get personal with yourself. Meditate on it. Pray on it. Dig deep. Make sure your vision board is an accurate representation of you and no one else.
- Make it visible: Place your vision board somewhere you’ll see it every day. You want to be reminded of your vision daily so that your actions and habits always support it. If you don’t see your vision board, you’re apt to forget your goals, and your daily choices may come out of alignment. This misalignment is what holds back many from achieving their objectives.
- Update it: What you want out of life can change, and that’s okay. Maybe you’ve discovered a new passion or interest you’d like to explore. Or your life has taken an unexpected turn in some way. It happens. The key to having a successful vision board is making sure it is always up-to-date with where you are. If you need to change out pictures, set new specific goals, or update your strategy, be sure to do so.
- Embrace change: If things in your life are too different, it’s okay to create a new vision board. Embrace the changes in your life and acknowledge that some things are not meant to be. Sometimes, discovering who we are and what we want requires trial and error. Therefore, if you’re encountering resistance, try another direction. It’s possible that change is actually what’s needed.
Overcoming Common Vision Board Challenges
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
james clear
If you make a vision board for a New Years’ resolution without giving it the thought and attention it needs, you can’t expect success. Vision boards require visualization, goal-setting, and strategy. They also require scheduled time, daily and weekly, for reflection and habit alignment.
Sometimes, people follow a spark of inspiration to make a vision board once. They gather all of the materials and set aside the time to start building it out. But unfortunately, without the right habits to support it, the poster board or corkboard ends up in the trash. Achieving success with anything, even vision boards, requires having atomic habits. When you establish strong daily habits, your goals will be positively reinforced, thus transforming your life in positive ways.
Continue your journey of self-discovery by reading “How to Create a Vision for Your Life.”
