How to Create a Vision Board
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 20 years, you are probably aware of what a vision board is. You take a board (or any flat surface) and add pictures and various other design elements to have a visualization of what you want, hope, dream, and strive for.
So, what’s different now? The “vision” of a vision board has changed dramatically since its original concept. Now, people don’t just use them as a means for the Law of Attraction, but more as a way to visualize what they are working toward or what needs to get done.
What Exactly is a Vision Board?
To simplify it, a vision board is a type of visual tool that allows you to focus on a specific type of goal in your life. This can be a personal goal, a financial goal, or a professional goal. Many different people create vision boards for many different reasons.
In this report, you are going to learn all about vision boards, the different categories you can include, how to create and achieve goals with them, and of course getting your vision board all set up.
You will also get instructions on creating a vision board every month of the year, which works great as a more visual representation of your planner or goals worksheet.
Keep reading to learn all about creating vision boards!
1. Why Create a Vision Board?
The first thing we would like to go over is exactly why you might want to create a vision board, or multiple vision boards for each area of your life. These are some of the primary benefits of vision boards, though you will find many other benefits as you go along with creating your own and discovering exactly what it can do for you.
You Can Visualize Your Dreams
First is the benefit most people think about when they think about vision boards – you are visualizing your dreams. This is when you use pictures and images of anything you want to have someday, whether it is money, family, recognition, success, or something more specific like a vacation you want to go on or type of home you want to live in.
Visualizing you dreams through a vision board takes all of those thoughts and fantasies in your head and puts them right in front of you. Visualization is a very powerful tool that takes thoughts and allows you to see what they would look like.
The great thing about visualizing your dreams with a vision journal is that it can be done for every facet of your life. It doesn’t have to be all about a car you want to drive or buying a big house someday, but things like having the career you are working hard toward, or pictures to represent personal health goals you have.
It Helps You to Prioritize
Another great reason to create a vision board is that you are able to prioritize. This works in a few different ways.
First of all, just setting up your vision board and choosing what you want on it gives you an idea of what is in the forefront in your mind. This doesn’t mean other items you didn’t choose right away aren’t important to you, but that you have certain priorities. It gives you an idea of what you might want to start working on first, since that is what your imagination is currently focused on.
When you made a list of what to include in your vision board, did you immediately think of a personal goal, a health goal, a business goal, or a financial goal? This is the start to finding out what your priorities are.
Another way the vision board helps you prioritize is by letting you see what areas to focus on first. You have a great visualization of your different life goals, and can then organize your time and create task lists to achieve your goals.
They Work Great for Goal Setting
Speaking of goals, this is one of the best benefits of creating a vision board! Everyone has goals, whether small or big, short-term or long-term, personal or professional. Think of what you want to achieve someday, where you want to be, who you want to be surrounded by. These can give you an idea of what your goals are.
Set Goals with the Vision Board – You can start by adding pictures of where you want to be or what you want to accomplish, which allow you to see what your biggest life’s goals are.
Visualize Your Goals – Vision boards provide amazing ways to actually visualize your goals, including what tasks you will complete to achieve it, and what the results will be. You can visualize how your life will change after you accomplish those goals.
Use the Vision Board for Tasks – You can also use the vision board to have an idea of what is needed for your goal. You can have a vision board specifically for one goal in your life, then have each section be a picture or text representing what you need to get done to achieve that goal.
You Have Better Incentive
Think about when you look at one of your Pinterest boards, and how you feel different emotions and even motivation while looking at it. This is similar to a vision board, though a digital version of it. In fact, this is likely where Pinterest got their idea from!
With a vision board, you have better incentive. It lets you see what you want out of life, gives you clear goals you want to achieve, and helps keep you motivated and on track.
You Gain More Focus and Intention
As you might have guessed by now, the vision board is also a wonderful tool for having more focus and acting with intention. You look at your board every day, and have a better understanding of what your priorities are and where your time and attention should be focused.
You act with intention and purpose, by completing tasks related to these goals you have on your vision board.
2. What You Should do Before You Get Started
With a better understanding of what a vision board is and how ti can help you with your life goals, let’s go over the planning stage. While you can definitely just find pictures that represent your goals and aspirations and put them on a board of your choosing, it does help to do a little planning beforehand.
Here are some tips for choosing what you want to include on your first vision board:
Decide What Type of Vision Board You Want
Before you do anything else, you need to know what type of vision board this is. If you want more of a classic vision board, it can represent the different areas of your life, like family and relationships, work or school, finances, personal or home life, and anything else that is of importance to you.
However, you might also want to have a more topic-specific vision board, such as if you have one big goal you are trying to reach, or you want to focus more on your professional life after college.
To start figuring out what type of vision board you want, here are some quick tips:
Look for online inspiration – The first thing you can do is perform a simple search for vision boards and get a good idea of what others do. Some will look like the more traditional vision boards, while others are specific to just one thing, such as the future, a dream life, planning for college, saving for a vacation, and so much more.
Make a list of your biggest priorities in life – You can also get out your journal or notebook, and just make a list of what comes to mind first when you think about who you want to be or where you want your life to go. Do you notice any type of trend in this list? That might be a good place to start.
See what you pin the most on Pinterest – As we have mentioned before, Pinterest is a great way to see your vision board in the digital space. Look at what you have been pinning lately or the most often, and that is usually a good indication of what your life priorities and ambitions are.
What is the Purpose of Your Vision Board?
Next, the planning stage includes figuring out what to add to the vision board, not just in choosing the type of vision board. You want it to have purpose, whether that is to help you focus on your goals, plan better, organize your time, or just act with more intention.
Think of WHY you want a vision board and make a list of your top reasons. This is good to do during these early planning stages as a way to figure out which direction to go with your vision board.
Think About Areas You Want to Improve
If you are still a little stuck about what to include on your vision board, don’t just think about what you want to accomplish, but where you want to improve.
Is there an area of your life where you feel you are falling behind? Something you aren’t doing, or a goal you can’t seem to wrap your head around? Do you feel like you have no motivation for advancing your career or feel a little stuck in your personal life?
These are things to keep in mind when figuring out what to put on your vision board and which direction to go with it. It can help you get unstuck and figure out areas of your life that need the most improvement.
Include Small and Big Goals
Remember that goals don’t always need to be a major life change that takes years to complete. There are many different types of goals people have, both big and small. Maybe you have smaller goals that will only take a few weeks or months to complete, and a couple BIG goals that will take more time and dedication.
Include all of them! These are all important to YOU, which makes them a priority and something to focus on. When you achieve them with the help of your vision board and other tools you plan to use, you feel more accomplished and like your life has more meaning.
Decide How You Want to Set it Up
We will go more into creating the vision board later, but while in the planning stages, consider how you want to set it up. Things like what sources of pictures you want to use, the size of the vision board, and materials you would like to use.
3. Ideas for What to Include in Your Vision Board
In the next section, you are going to get some tips for setting up your vision board, but first, let’s discuss some different areas of what to include on your vision board. This gives you even more ideas for what you might want on the board, or where to get your inspiration from.
Business and Work Goals
The first idea for what to include on your vision board has to do with your professional career. This can be about your dream career, finishing college or planning for college for the career, changing jobs, getting a promotion, or related more to your financial future.
There is so much that can be added in this category! But here are some ideas:
Dream career
Getting a promotion at your current job
Reaching a goal income level
Visualizing your life after getting your dream career
Working through CHOOSING the career you might want
Personal Life Goals
There are also some personal life goals you can include on your vision board. This covers just about every area of your personal life, and is sometimes combined with other categories, like health or business. For example:
Where you want to live
Places you want to travel
Your dream vacation
What your lifestyle will be like
Family goals and aspirations
Starting a family or lifestyle blog
Becoming a social media influencer
There really is no wrong way to do this! The personal life vision board is all about you, what you want, and what personal goals you have in your life.
Health Goals
There are also some health goals you might want to plan out on your vision board, either on a health vision board, or just on your personal vision board. Remember this can be both your physical and emotional health, as both are equally important.
Physical Health – This is a very common category to include on a vision board. Your physical health can start with your physical appearance, such as losing weight or toning your body. You can include images that show the type of body you want, or younger pictures of you when you had the figure you are trying to get back.
It can also be about general health issues you have, or visualizing what it can look like when you heal certain aspects of your physical health. Maybe you just want to focus on eating better or exercising, so those are good images to include on the vision board.
Emotional/Mental Health – There are also ways to include your emotional or mental health on the vision board. Maybe you have been suffering with anxiety, and want to visualize what life would be like after you treat it, or you want to express your emotions about your depression or stress. This is just as important as improving your physical health, so it is worth exploring.
List of Priorities
Finally, we want to talk to you about other ways to use your vision board. It does not always have to be about goals you have in life! Vision boards are for you and whatever purpose you want to use it for.
Instead of goals, you can simple use it to show your biggest priorities in your life. Things that matter to you, reasons you wake up in the morning, the main sources of your motivation and inspiration.
Visualization is a powerful thing, not just to accomplish something, but to have more gratitude for what is already in your life.
Use your vision boards as a gratitude visualization tool, by including images of what you appreciate, love, and cherish, such as:
Family
Friends
Your Home
Your Health
Your Job
.. anything else you care about!
4. Getting Your Vision Board Set Up
Finally it is time to actually create your vision board! You should be fully prepared by now, since you already know the main theme of your vision board and what you want to include. However, if you have not done it yet, you want to take this opportunity to make a list of what you want on your vision board. This helps a lot when it comes to finding the right images.
Choosing Your Poster Board
The first thing your vision board needs is the actual board, though you can decide on any type of flat surface you want. Poster board is recommended because it comes in a larger size that you can keep as-is or cut down, plus it provides a solid surface that won’t bend or roll up when you are working with it.
You can also choose any other type of hard paper or board that you want to use – it’s totally up to you!
Selecting Images
Once you have decided on your poster board, you will then start finding your images. You have many different options here, from using digital resources to good ole’ fashioned paper.
If you have a color printer, then you can definitely find all the images you need online. Look anywhere and everywhere you tend to go for inspiration, such as Pinterest, social media (use caution when saving images from here), your own social media pictures, Google image search, online magazine sites, fitness sites, and so many more.
You can print any picture you find online, or even create a collage with programs like Photoshop or Paint, then print that to add to your vision board.
Another option is to get some magazines that reflect your theme, and start flipping through for images to use on your vision board. This actually makes it a lot of fun!
Other Material and Design Elements
The last thing you will need is a way to attach your images to the vision board. Many people will use glue sticks since putting paper on poster board doesn’t need much else aside from glue. However, if you want to get more creative with it, you can use Washi tape or other patterned sticky tape to attach your images.
You might also need some other materials such as:
Pens and other writing utensils
Colored pencils or markers
Scissors
Decorative elements
Setting Up the Vision Board
When you are ready with your materials, it is time to put the vision board together. Here are some tips for getting it all set up:
Lay out your images before attaching them. The best advice we have for setting up your vision board is to lay out all the images and text on the board before attaching them. Don’t glue anything down until you work out how you want the layout to be on the poster board. Once you do this, you can start gluing them down one at a time.
Use thin layers of glue. If you are using glue, make sure you are using thin layers. A glue stick works MUCH better than a bottle of glue, since it goes on thin and even. If it is too thick or clumpy, the thin pages will show the glue through and it will become a bumpy mess.
Get backup images in case you need them. Finally, you might accidentally wrap or crumple an image, so it helps to have backups. When you are adding one type of image, like one to represent your fitness journey, get multiple images you can use. That way, you have others to add to the board if one of them gets ruined.
5. How to Use a Monthly Vision Board
Before you get started on your new vision board, there is one last thing to talk about – using a monthly vision board! This is a really great idea if you are using your vision board to complete goals or get stuff done. It is a great alternative to using a bullet journal or planner, or can be used in combination with them. The vision board will provide more of a visualization of each month.
Creating a New Vision Board Every Month
The basic method is that you create a new vision board every month. You can use smaller pieces of poster board for this, or even a printable that you create online with programs like PowerPoint, then print out to use.
Each month, you will make a list of what needs to be done, tasks to reach your goals, and anything you are looking forward to. You can then add it to the vision board and stay on track all month long.
Include Goals and Tasks for That Month
If you are using your vision board for certain life or business goals, this is a great use of your monthly vision board! Make a list of all the tasks and to-do lists you need to do for the upcoming month.
Once you have that list, you will then find images or phrases that describe what the task is, and can add it to your board. This might include running an errand, paying a bill, signing up for a gym membership, scheduling a meeting, attending a conference. There are so many options here.
What Plans Do You Have This Month?
It can also be used for more personal goals, such as appointments and events in the upcoming month. You can add images for pumpkin patches, party images to represent the holidays, or champagne glasses clinking for New Years’. Get creative and have fun with it!