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Create a Vision Board of Your Future

Use a Vision Board to Focus Your Dreams, Your Goals, and Your Future

The term “Vision Board” has been floating around the health and wellness community for a while now so maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you’ve even made one before, or maybe you don’t understand the point. First things first, what is a vision board?

A vision board is a physical representation of the life you want to create.

It can be a collage, a sketch, or even just a list of your dreams and goals. Typically, though, they’re designed to be visually appealing to catch your eye – and more importantly to catch your attention.

What’s the point?

No matter what our goals are, a vision board that we see every day can keep us focused. It will make us accountable to ourselves. And according to psychology studies, visualizing the results we want can enhance our motivation, increase our self-confidence, and improve our performance. Meaning that if we see it often enough, we’ll start to believe it’s possible and therefore work toward our dreams and goals.

Start Gathering

To get started, collect images, words, quotes, and small objects that speak to you and represent your goals. Cut things out of magazines. Print things from your pinterest board. Gather pictures that make you feel happy, confident, and inspired.

Want to travel more? Find pictures that represent the places you want to see and the things you want to do while you’re there.

Ready to improve your relationships? Look for images of people having fun together or old pictures of yourself in happy relationships.

Want to get healthy? Print some yoga pictures that will motivate you to get on your mat. Gather some pictures or quotes about the kinds of foods you want to eat and how they will make you feel.

Ready to boost your self-esteem? Find words that represent how you want to feel: kind, upbeat, important, enough, fun, etc.

You get the point.

It’s amazing what you’ll find when you start looking. Give yourself a few days or a week to find things that really resonate with how you want your life to look and feel.

Make it big!

You want your vision board to grab your attention every day so in this case, size matters. 😉 You can make yours as big as a standard posterboard. That’s what most people I know do. For me, that’s too big. I don’t have a private space big enough for one that size so mine is about half that size.

Make your vision board on a posterboard, on a corkboard, or even on a piece of cardboard covered in fabric you love. Just pick something that makes you feel happy when you look at it. Mine is on a cork bulletin board because I like that it’s framed.

Once you have the supplies, ask yourself how you want your future to look and feel.

Start designing your vision board with that in mind. Avoid glue, tape, or pins at this point. Simply layout what you like. Then move things around… and around… and around. Remember is about how you want your future to look and feel.

You might notice that you’ve collected more images and words than will fit on your board. That’s great! Pick the ones that make you happiest and work around them. If you have the word “healthy” cut out five times, pick the one you like the best. It doesn’t matter why you like it – maybe it’s the biggest or your favorite color or you love the font – it just matters that it makes you feel happy and motivated. Save the rest in case you want them later.

You may want to group goals together. Health goals might be on one side while career or financial goals might be in a different corner. This can help give your goals a little more focus, which will help focus your mind on what you want to manifest and create.

Try to leave some blank spaces. Then if a new goal or dream comes up, you have space to add it later.

Make it stick.

Once you’re happy with the way it looks and the way it makes you feel, stick them onto your new vision board. Remember that this is your vision board. It will not look like anyone else’s. It won’t even look like one you created in the past. This is the current representation of how you want your life to look and feel.

Once you’ve created a vision board that makes you feel motivated give it a home. Put it somewhere you will see it every day. Give it a place of honor. Above your nightstand, in your home office, by your back door. That’s your decision. Personally, mine is with my yoga mat and other props because then I know I’ll see it at least twice a day.

Give it a try.

Studies have shown that visualization works. Elite athletes have been using visualization for decades to improve their games. Plus, the same brain patterns are activated when people visualize themselves doing something that are activated when the actual activities are performed.

The important part about creating your vision board is that you want it to represent how you want to feel.  It’s not about how your body or bank account will look. It’s about how your body or your bank account will make you feel. Focus on the feeling you want to create.

How do you want your future to look and feel?

Make your vision board represent that. Now focus on that feeling. Let those feelings bubble up every time you look at your vision board. That will motivate you to keep focused and working toward your dreams and goals.

You got this! Let your vision board represent it.