One of the best ways to make sure your biggest goals and dreams stay top of mind and ever-present in your life, is to translate them into a powerful visual to keep you on track, and help you to manifest the life you’ve always dreamed…

By creating a Vision Board!

What is a Vision Board?

A Vision Board is a visual tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal (or goals). A vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life.

Vision Boards are great because not only are they super fun to make, but they also help you really visualize specific aspects of your life that you want to manifest. For example, instead of having a goal of “I want to be happy” – you can find a few fun images that represent how this goal looks to you. It gives you something more tangible to grasp hold of and aspire to.

Benefits of a Vision Board

There are numerous benefits associated with creating a vision board, and they will vary from person to person, but here are some of the top, most agreed-upon benefits of creating a vision board.

1. Vision boards help you take back control of your life

Life gets busy – that’s no secret. And it’s easy to let your life devolve into a pattern of “going through the motions” – of going to work, coming home making dinner, watching TV until you go to sleep, and repeat. We say that “some day” we’ll quit our jobs and start our own business, or “some day” we’ll move out of our crappy apartment, or “some day” we’ll start dating and look for the man or woman we want to marry.

Well here’s the thing – these days that you’re spending going through the motions, where you’re waiting for “some day” to really start your life – these days ARE your life. Any day (today, even!), can be “some day.” It all depends on you to just. get. started.

And a vision board is a great way for you to start the process. Allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to think big. What do you want? If you could create your perfect life, what would it look like? Getting a visual together will help make your dream life more tangible, and subsequently, more achievable.

2. Vision boards help you stay motivated

Once you go through the steps of assembling your vision board, make sure you hang it in a prominent place – somewhere where you will see it often, like your desk (at home or at work), your kitchen, your bedroom – you get the idea. Seeing these positive visuals often will help remind you what you are working towards, and keep you motivated and on track.

3. Vision boards help you discover your true self

All too often, we don’t make enough time for ourselves. We spend our days working for others, living for others, taking care of others – but we don’t invest the time we need to in self-care. This is one of the easiest ways to lose yourself. 

To live your best life – your most authentic, confident, happy life – you need to make yourself and your own dreams a priority. Sitting down to put together a vision board of your own dreams is a great way to re-start your self-discovery, and help you get back in touch with your true self.

How to Make Your Vision Board

To get started with your Vision Board (and without providing too much of a rigid structure), here are a few guidelines:

What You Will Need

• Magazines (either lying around the house, or new ones from the store)
• Other visual pieces – books, printed images from the computer, photos
• A piece of paper (at least 8×10 size)
• A glue-stick
• Fun pens, markers, and even glitter, if you’re feeling fancy!

Vision Board-Making Suggested Steps

1. Gather a few old magazines (or purchase some from your local grocery store). You can also gather up any books, or even be prepared to print images from your computer.
2. Spend at least 30 minutes thinking about your goals – if not longer! What do you want to achieve this year? In 5 years? In 10 years? If you need some help putting together helpful, actionable goals, check out this free “Set Your Goals” Planner template. 
3. Once you have your goals and aspirations in mind, spend some time thoughtfully going through your magazines and other visual resources – What jumps out to you? What represents something you’d like to manifest more of in your life? Rip or cut them out as you see them. Go with your gut – don’t over-analyze!
4. Once you’ve assembled a good stack of potential images, it’s time to lay them all out in a visually pleasing way. Grab your piece of paper, and start placing images and other cutouts on the paper.
5. Your Vision Board can be all images, but it’s also a good idea to either write down or find some text to convey words associated with what goal achievement looks like for you. Try writing it out in pretty script and placing it right in the middle, so all other visuals are radiating out of it, or do what feels right to you!
6. Once you’ve assembled your Vision Board, hang it somewhere where you will see it every day – like above your desk, or even next to your bed! Keeping these images top of mind will help you continue to think and talk about your goals, all of the time.

Finally, once you’ve finished your Vision Board, snap a picture an upload it on Instagram! After all – one of the best ways to stay accountable to your goals is by sharing them with others!

What About a Digital Vision Board?

Another route for putting together a vision board is doing it digitally, through a Word Document, Google Document, or even on Pinterest (Pinterest is basically a series of vision boards!)

This is 100% an option – in fact, it may be easier to find and assemble visuals that inspire you all online. However, just make sure that once you finish your digital vision board, you then print it out and hang it somewhere you will see it often. If you spend the time creating a beautiful digital vision board on Pinterest, but then don’t continue to see it daily and let it do the work to motivate you, then all that dreaming and assembly work just won’t be as beneficial to you. Make sure that, physical or digital, your vision board ends up printed and hanging somewhere close by.

A vision board only takes a few hours to make (maybe even one hour if you’re focused and have done some prep-work!), but the effects of the work are lasting and incomparable. Take back control of your life, claim your goals, and get started creating your vision board today!