How To Make A Vision Board That Works

When you start talking about goals, one method that comes up in some conversations is vision boards. It’s a method that thrown around in network marketing groups, and many people stand behind this method.

The idea of a vision board is that it is a visual representation of what we want to achieve. We can use it to show our end goal and where we see ourselves being in the future. Not only this, but a vision board will also help you show the process of how you envisage getting to these end goals.

However, while there is a lot of support for vision boards, there’s also a lot against organizing ideas in this way. Because of the varying opinions on the topic, we can uncover how to make a vision board properly. We can explore why many often fail and the various drawbacks, and how you can make a vision board properly to achieve your goals and visions.

Why Do Vision Boards Fail?

Before you learn how to make a vision board, it’s important to cover why many fail in this area. After all, this method is talked about a lot, and there are lessons to be learned from both success and failure.

Overall, the reason vision boards fail often comes down to your own mindset. For example, say you’re checking Facebook and see some of your friends taking vacations, and you feel that urge to add that to your vision board.

While that’s great, that may not be the best desire for you to have. Even though a vacation is nice, it doesn’t always mean this is what you want out of life.

In other cases, it might be you’re not putting in enough effort to achieve your goals. Or perhaps deep down you don’t think you can achieve what you’re putting on your board in the first place.

These are all similar aspects to setting goals and writing them down. However, that similarity is where you’ll be able to thrive when making a vision board now and in the future.

When Do Vision Boards Work?

With a vision board, you will be able to see what it is that you want in the future and identify how you can get there. When you can see it, there, in front of you, then you are going to want to get there, and you are going to feel much more motivated to work towards these goals. Not only this, but the process of making a vision board is more fun than you may realize. This means that you can look forward to doing it rather than ignoring those goals and stopping yourself from achieving what you want in the future.

Using a vision board means following some key steps that’ll allow you to manifest from it. Once you’ve created the vision board, you can:

1. Understand the steps to manifest. These steps are ask, believe, and finally receive.
2. Visualize your ask. Getting back to asking, you’ll have an easier time asking by visualizing. Your vision board should make it clear that you’ll be able to ask for exactly what you’d like.
3. Instil belief through goals. The third step is to instill belief in yourself. Merely thinking about it won’t help you to achieve your vision. You’ll need to be setting goals and using the vision board to reinforce that belief.
4. Be present in your life. Many people fail at this step because they’re worried about the past or the future. This step is to remind yourself to keep working at it so that one day you’ll be ready to receive it. Furthermore, this step will help you to realize what you’ve received already and what you can use as you grow.
5. Appreciate the now. Lastly is showing appreciation for things right now. Working towards goals is tough but there is satisfaction at the end when completing it. There is more appreciation to be had when you take the time to appreciate what you have right now, even if it’s little.

How to Make a Vision Board

Making a vision board is simple. You’ll need a few materials, as well as a working space to do it. Here is what you’ll need:

A Board

Naturally, this is the first thing you’ll need. This board can take on any shape. Whether it’s a physical board, a cork or poster board, or even a virtual board is up to you.

Craft Items

If you’re not going digital, you’ll need items that allow you to place things on your board. This includes scissors, pins, glue-sticks, tape, etc.

For the more artistic people, you can also get markers and stickers to add some flare to your vision board, too.

Images

You can use magazines if want to cut out images or quotes. For those going digital, you can simply find relevant images online to copy and paste.

Time

You’ll be at this for about an hour or two, so make sure you have space where you can do this with no interruptions.

When it comes to the work environment, any will do. However, it’s smart if you mitigate distractions so set up some calm and relaxing music while working.

Making Vision Boards Work for You

While making a vision board is simple, what really matters is ensuring that it works. If you’re sinking an hour or two into this, you want to make sure that it was worth your time and effort.

With this in mind, I would encourage you to consider these pieces of advice before and after you make a vision board.

1. Think About What You’ve Achieved Recently

The first piece of advice is to consider everything that you have achieved over the past few years. Even though days and years are going by quickly, you’d be surprised what you have achieved over the course of a year.

Make sure you pause and consider what you have accomplished thus far in your life. Remember the things that made you proud.

Going in with this sort of mindset allows you to focus on what you can improve in your life moving forward. That way, you won’t focus on adding desires you’ve seen from other people but rather focusing on your own.

The next piece of advice will add another layer to this.

2. Look at the Direction of Your Life

It’s the dreaded question of “Where do you see yourself in five years?” However, outside of an interview, this is a good question to be asking yourself.

Look at the direction that you’re facing in your life and ask yourself if you are happy with it. This is important because we all have the ability to change our lives. So often we forget that we can gain control of our lives at any time.

Keep in mind that with a vision board, you do not want to be changing goals constantly. However,asking this question can influence how you build your vision board.

Again, you’re putting your own desires and goals on the board rather than letting other actions or opinions seep into your goal-setting.

If you’re not sure how to find the right direction for your life, this article may help.

3. Consider What You Want To Change

Goals should be a stage that fulfills something that we lack in life. Maybe you struggle with moving around much. Or maybe you’ve got a business idea you’ve been sitting on for a long time. From desires to improve your marriage to having more vacations, you want to be looking at what you are lacking and how to make that abundant in your life.

The previous pieces of advice allow you to narrow down precisely what your vision is and what sort of change you want to see in your life.

When paired with this, you can focus on what you really want to change right now in your life.

4. Don’t Overstuff Your Vision Board With Goals

Now that you have an idea of what goals you have, the next thing is turning them into visions. While you may be excited to place all of these goals onto your board, it might not be the best idea.

Unless you are someone who is able to focus on one goal at a time, most people will find the influx of goals to be overwhelming. While we all feel excited about it, a lot of that stems from the dopamine high we’re on.

It’s a feel-good drug, and it’s an addictive one. It also clouds our judgement so much that once reality sinks back in, we tend to feel stressed or overwhelmed.

So while you are making your vision board, try to consider alternatives. Here are some ideas:

• Introduce quotes or phrases that excite you and energize you.
• Consider post-it notes and writing down the steps to take to achieve a particular vision.
• Consider having a smaller board or increasing the size of the pictures you’re posting on the board. This forces you to put fewer things and to focus on the visions that matter more to you.

5. Make Your Visions Emotional

There has been an emphasis on caring about these goals and working on your overall mindset, and it’s there for a reason. When working on goals in any way, there is always a mental component to it.

To place more emphasis on it, you want to make sure that every action you do has emotion attached to it.

After you’ve set up your vision board and are looking it over, it pays to ask some questions to draw those emotions out.

There are many great questions to consider, but one to ask yourself is:

Why do I want to achieve this goal?

The idea with this question is to look for a deep personal reason. Some examples could include:

• You want to spend time with your partner because you love them and recently you’ve been drifting apart.
• You want to lose weight and improve your posture because of back pain.
• You want to build a business because you lacked the ambition to start it when you were younger.

It’s important that you find a reason for why you are working towards this goal. Not only that, but you want to use it as a reminder for your work.

This is so important because it gives us an overall purpose. When you have a purpose, you will begin to care more about the process and to hone your skills.

If you’re looking for some concrete examples for making a vision board, don’t miss this article: 6 Amazing Vision Board Ideas To Help You Achieve Your Goals

Vision Board Ideas & Examples

There are several ideas for vision boards that you can consider. Here are some ideas as well as examples of what you can do.

• Dreaming under a pink moon. Developed by Soul Pretty, the concept focuses more on a state of mind. It can infer goals in its own way but it has a more personal feel to it. The board uses phrases or emotions, or lines to create the visioners wants in life. They’re arranged in a fashion where they are placed around the image of a head, like rays of the sun.
• An annual goal vision board. You can always take the literal approach and treat vision boards as goal boards. Listing off the goals that you want to achieve this year, you can get a sense of satisfaction at the end of the year by looking over the board and seeing what you’ve completed.
• Use other materials. People think vision boards are restricted to cardboard or construction paper when it doesn’t have to be. Use a corkboard or in some cases a framed piece of burlap. Different materials can instill different frames of mind.
• Remember your intentions. If you can’t think of a certain goal but you have intentions for what you want to achieve, why not stick with that? There is nothing wrong with using phrases or images or lines to convey what you mean. So long as it helps you to set clear intentions and a goal to work towards, that’s what matters.

Find out more Vision Board Ideas to Visualize Your Important Goals here.

There are several tools that are at your disposal. Consider using some of these tools:

• Canva – to help you develop beautiful vision boards or to make images pop more.
• PicMonkey – An alternative to Canva with a template to create vision boards.
• MindMovies – To turn your vision boards into miniature movies. Consider it “a vision board on steroids”.
• DreamItAlive – A program that lets you select aspects of your life you want to enhance and to help you visualize it through photos and wise quotes.
• Visuapp – An app that can easily turn your vision board into something located on your phone.
• Corkulous Professional – Exactly like Visuapp but the board is on a corkboard.
• iWish – Vision board creator and a bank of ideas for various goals to pick from.
• Hay House Vision Board – Another vision board creator developed by Louise Hay, a self-help movement pioneer.
• Desygner – Another design site that provides tools for professional-looking vision boards.
• Subliminal Vision Boards – Another mobile-exclusive vision board, however this one has a feature to send affirmations and images from your vision board periodically. These brief flashes are designed to send signals to your subconscious, driving you to work towards those goals.
• Pinterest – A site to generate tonnes of vision board ideas.

FAQs

How Do You Use a Vision Board for Goal-Setting?

Vision boards are tools built from our intentions. Goals inherently are intentions as well since we set goals with the intention to accomplish them. Vision boards are a way to enhance that intention as the vision board should prompt you to think and visualize your goal and what you could do to achieve it.

Should My Vision Board Reflect Other Areas of My Life?

Yes it should. While you don’t want to put a lot of ideas into every category, having a vision or two in each area of your life can be helpful. For example, there is nothing wrong with having a vision for better health but also a vision for being more social or getting along with your partner.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Vision Board?

Some distinct advantages of vision boards are:

• You can motivate yourself further.
• Vision boards can reduce stress as they provide focus on goals.
• They’re creative and fun.
• They help you to reassess your life, goals, and more.
• It’s a reminder of where you want to be in life.

Some cons to vision boards are:

• Unless you’re in the room with the vision board, you won’t see it and feel inspired or focused.
• Having it on your phone can lead to you being more distracted than it being effective. It’s easy for someone to open up their vision board, get inspired, and then immediately click on a social media app afterward.
• Vision boards take a lot of time to set up and not everyone has the patience for it. It can also be frustrating if you’re looking for a specific phrase or picture to use.
• Extra steps to making a vision board fancier can remove its practicality. Some can see it as procrastination from one’s goals or visions.

How Often Does Your Vision Board Need to Be Updated?

This depends on you more than the vision board itself. Obviously, if you created a vision board listing off this year’s goals, it’ll need to be updated every year.

But also people change and therefore our goals might change too. If you look at your vision board and feel like those goals aren’t the right fit or don’t inspire you as much, you can update it to reflect something new.

How to Use a Vision Board for Work?

Vision boards at the office work the same way as any other vision board. If you don’t mind it hanging in the office, have it placed there and use it as a reminder of your goals and your vision in life. Paired with the steps above, you’ll be able to use the vision board effectively.

Where Can I Buy a Vision Board Online?

Because vision boards are very personal, there’s no specific spot where you can buy a vision board. There are hundreds of sites and apps that offer vision board templates though. A small number of them are mentioned above in helpful tools for vision board creation.

The Bottom Line

Vision boards are a large mental exercise that demand deep self-reflection and plenty of emotion. If your heart isn’t it, then it’s likely that a vision board isn’t going to help you much.

It often happens that vision boards slowly devolve into collages and mere artwork. Instead, take this advice to heart and work to develop your own mindset. Once it’s stronger, you’ll find that a vision board can be a very helpful tool for you to achieve your goals.

Featured photo credit: Jo Szczepanska via unsplash.com