Here is how to make a vision board that works. I’ve been making these for years and it’s eerily amazing how they really come through.
This week’s Crafty Chica’s Tips for Creativepreneurs podcast is packed with brilliant vision board tips for the new year. My friend, Alexa from Swell Design joined me to talk about vision boards – and how to create one with purpose and intention. While discussing the topic, our conversation became somewhat of a brainstorming session which led to a several light bulb moments.
I’ll list the basic tips here, but I really encourage you to listen to the podcast episode to hear all the extra ideas that we came up!
What is a Vision Board?
A vision board is a collage you create that displays what you want to manifest throughout the year. It’s as simple as taking a poster board, scissors, glue stick, and magazine pictures to create a visually appealing collage. Then you hang it up where you will see it every day.
How vision boards work
There are several benefits. The first is it should help you keep your goals at the top of your mind in all you do. Secondly, if you believe in ‘putting the energy out there’ – it certainly triggers that as well.
It also helps you physically identify what you want to bring into your life – and why.
The WHY is a big part. Once you break it down and know the reasons why this addition will benefit your life, the better.
Another important part is taking action.
Take note of what you put on your board and then make an action plan to get the needle moving in your favor.
For example, want a new job? Write down your dream job description, they pay, and the companies you’d love to work for. Then go online and print out the logo of the company and out it on your board. Then in your journal, script out a sentence in past tense about how you. love your job there and what it is you do, and the good ways it has helped you!
The history of vision boards
The history of vision boards is long and varied, but the concept is simple: to create a board that displays your dreams and goals.
Vision boards have been used for centuries by people all over the world to manifest their desires and achieve their goals. The practice of using vision boards is said to date back to ancient Egypt, where people would create hieroglyphics on papyrus scrolls to represent their goals and desires.
In more recent history, vision boards were popularized by self-help guru Tony Robbins, who wrote about the power of using vision boards in his best-selling book, Awaken the Giant Within. I first learned about vision boards when I saw the book, The Secret.
I figured it was worth a try, what could it hurt?
The idea behind vision boards is that by seeing your dreams and goals displayed in front of you, you will be more likely to take action and make them a reality.
There are many ways to create a vision board, but the most important thing is to make sure that it is populated with images and words that inspire you and represent your deepest desires.
If you’ve never created a vision board before, there’s no better time than the present to get started.
Just grab a piece of poster board and some magazines, and start cutting out pictures and words that represent your goals. Use a journal to document your choices and the WHY behind those choices. It’s very revealing!
Then, glue them down and hang your vision board in a place where you’ll see it every day.
Who knows? With a little bit of effort and a lot of visualization, your vision board just might help you achieve your wildest dreams.
In the meantime, here is our podcast (the tips are listed underneath)!
Supplies for a vision board
Poster board or foam core board: You can keep it whole or cut it in half. I usually cut them in half, and save the other half for the second part of the year.
Magazines
Scissors
Glue stick
Optional: Stickers, stamps, embellishments
Journal
Directions to make a vision board:
Use your journal to review what has made you happy lately, what you want more of in your life.
Make a list of your goals and why they are important to you.
Go through the magazines and read the headlines, look at the images and see what connects with what you journaled. Cut out a bunch of images.
Separate them and categorize them.
Decide if you want to randomly place them all over your board or arrange them sections.
Incorporate headlines and action words.
You can start with the most important items in the center and work your way out, or just let you instinct guide you and paste at random.
When you are done, hang it up in place where you will see it every day.
Tips to Make an Epic Vision Board
Kathy’s three tips:
There are plenty of ways to approach making a vision board. But I like to really be specific with my intentions, so here are the things I do that I feel l help a lot!
Access and embrace your current financial situation.
No matter what stage you are at in life, in the red or in the black, add up everything you owe and write that number down. Accept it and know you have the power to chip away at it with or without a vision board. If you incorporate money or wealth into your vision board, recognize that you’ll be paying this amount off, or working at it. In the meantime, you can work on money making ideas to get the ball rolling.
I know you are thinking – “Dang, Kathy. You are a buzzkill. Vision boards are about making our dreams come true!” Yes, that’s right. But the truth is, money will not fall out of the sky. And worrying about it will clog up your channels for your dreams and goals.
The more self-aware you can be about where you stand financially, the more chances you have to attract and generate income to pay off that debt. Rather than let your money situation haunt, nag, and stress you out – take control be the boss of it. Then you can have room to breathe and work on other goals.
State three reasons why you are choosing the items to glue on that poster board.
The power of a vision board is the intention you put behind it. It sets the wheels into motion. Rather than just randomly glue a bunch of items, have an internal conversation with yourself as to why you want/need these things.
Sometimes you’ll find it is more than a material object! To go even deeper, you can have a vision board journal where you can document an action list to go with your board.
Have an end goal picture for when your spirit is shaky.
Create an image in your mind of you on the beach, or you being promoted, or whatever it is you want.
Think of it as an Instagram photo and caption you are pre-posting in your head. You know you will get there because you are taking the steps, but when you begin to doubt yourself, close your eyes and think of this image.
Stay positive!
Alexa’s three tips:
Make sections in your vision board.
She suggests home, family, career, and fun. Then you can create mini-collages to go under each topic. This way your board has a clear focus for each area in your life.
Choose 2-3 big things for each area.
Be realistic knowing that it might be difficult to take on too make high-level goals.
Again, be specific. She suggests making a five-year vision board that captures all of those BIG goals. That way you are not dismissing them, you are just allowing yourself more time and resources to make them happen.
Take pictures of each section of your vision board and use them in the specific places.
You can use them as your desktop screensaver, or your smartphone wallpaper, or just tape them on your bathroom mirror.
You really have to hear the whole thing, there are some really great ideas.
Alexa said it could be a good idea to write down your goals and then create emails to yourself and pre-schedule them to be sent throughout the year.
OMG!! Yes! I am so totally doing that! Love it!
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