Karla Tafra
The value of a vision board goes way beyond a scrapbooking DIY hobby or manifesting mansions and expensive cars. It’s your vision for the future, with the smallest and the biggest goals and dreams you can think of. Here’s how to create one.
What Is a Vision Board?
Really simply put, a vision board is a cork or poster board you pin pictures and various other objects to that symbolize your dreams and goals. They are usually cut out from magazines and images, but you can also draw, write, or create your own.
The idea behind a vision board is to create a large object you can always direct your attention to, filled with who you want to be, what you want to achieve, what you’re striving towards, and to make you realize that the steps you’re currently taking are bringing you closer to fulfilling them.
The power of visualization makes it all seem closer and more attainable than you think, and having it in front of you at all times helps you push through hardship and struggle.
You can create your vision board in several different ways, and you can always make a few of them and divide them by themes, or how short-term or long-term your goals are. Sometimes, having everything on one board can be a bit too much, and focusing on one goal can confuse you when you’re looking at 25 of them at once. That’s why you need to have a good preparation before you begin.
Preparation
Once you decide to create your vision board, you’ll need to spend a moment with yourself to figure out how to structure your goals and whether you want to put them all in one place or not. Take a piece of paper and sketch it out, writing down short-term and long-term plans, from your career and financial goals to family and housing.
When you got your list down, it’s time to find the right images and objects to represent them. For example, if one of your goals is upgrading to a two-bedroom apartment, find a picture of a nice layout or the building you’d like to move to, or if your goal is a bigger paycheck, write the number on a piece of paper in a bold color.
Some goals will be easier to find pictures for, while others might be better represented with an object like a postcard to a place you’ve always wanted to visit, or a bib for a half marathon reminding you of your dream of completing a full one.
Now that you gathered your board, your pictures, and other objects, it’s time to prepare your pins, glue, and scissors, and get ready to pin!
Pin It!
There is no specific order you’re supposed to pin your vision board goals, so treat it as your blank canvas and listen to your heart. Try not to clutter it too much and have one goal overlap over the other, as you’ll have a much harder time figuring out what you decided to place where.
If you end up with too much stuff and not enough room, it’s always better to create a new board than take down images from the first one. There are no rules to this, and if you think all of your goals equally deserve to be there and for you to focus on, there’s no reason to filter them out.
Some people like to leave the center empty and post a picture of themselves where they look happy and radiant, so that even on the cloudiest of days, they can look at the vision board and see themselves smiling, reminding themselves that this too shall pass.
Place your board somewhere where you can see it daily and remind yourself of what you’re striving towards. You can hang it in your bedroom and address it every morning when you get out of bed to set the tone for the day ahead, above or close to your working space so that you can gaze at it when the work gets overwhelming, or even near a mirror so that every time you visualize your goals you can also see yourself and envision them manifesting in the future.
Vision Board Throughout Time
Expect your vision board to change over time, and don’t be afraid to take out goals you don’t want to achieve anymore, as well as those you’ve already crossed of the list. You might also realize you need to rearrange some things even though you thought you “didn’t have a specific plan in mind.”
Vision boards are powerful once you actually start to use them and focus on visualizing your goals, one by one. Once you figure out something is wrong is actually when you know it’s working the most, as you’re connecting with your goals and realizing some of them are more important to you than others, even if you didn’t think so when you created it.
You can even scale it up and add more goals as you go through your days. It’s almost impossible to imagine you won’t form new ones as life goes on.
Vision Board vs. Mood Board
Sometimes, a vision board gets confused with a mood board, as many designers and school teachers use them to draw inspiration for a certain project or direct their students’ motivation.
Think of a mood board as something you’d create when planning to redecorate your apartment or organize a party, and what kind of mood you’re trying to create. You’d think of a theme, a topic, a vibe, or a specific color and add objects and materials that fit your criteria.
If you want to make your bedroom remind you of your favorite Mexican retreat, your mood board will be filled with interior design options from tropical hotels, wooden furniture, and white and beige tones. And if you want to throw the best birthday in the neighborhood by turning your house into a winter wonderland in the middle of the summer, you’ll have plenty of props and white fluffy accessories to put on your mood board, not to mention a fake snow machine.
So, basically, the difference between the two is that you only draw your inspiration and motivation from the mood board, whereas a vision board clearly represents your goals, without unnecessary clutter and repetition. If your wish is to mix the two, you can also do that and get the best from both worlds, just don’t get confused with what is it you really want and what you’re only trying to copy-paste into your life.
Alternative Options
You might be reading this and asking, “This is all great, but I’m not really a fan of scrapbooking and craft projects. How do I do this differently?” And that would be a great question because everyone has goals and dreams, but not everyone is crazy about cutting out images and pinning them to a board they’ll hang above their workspace or in their bedroom.
You can make a visual journal and write everything down in a little notebook, draw on the notepad app on your tablet or laptop, pin it digitally on Pinterest or Instagram, or even record yourself saying your goals out loud and listening to them as your mantras.
Bring your goals and dreams to life by placing them on a vision board where you can see them every day and get reminded of who you want to become and what you want to achieve. In the meantime, you can always make more mood boards for your smaller projects and practice on them.
