How and Why You Should Create a Vision Board

This post is for you if you have ever set goals and not followed through and what you can do to solve this problem. I’m going to share with you how and why you should create a vision board to manifest what you want and benefit you in all walks of your life.

Have you ever had a friend who always seemed to have their life all figured out? From the moment you met them, they could always answer the hard questions in life, like “What do you want to become when you grow up?”

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information read full disclosure.

As a child, I had a friend exactly like that. I’ll never forget how in awe I was when she’d began to discuss her life plans with me. She’d say things like, by age 20 I’ll finish my degree and by 25 I’ll marry my celebrity crush.

At the time, I did think she was a little delusional in her thinking.

One day, however, upon entering her bedroom, I saw it. Her very own vision board (granted at that time neither of us had any idea about what a vision board was).

At that moment I realized how truly dedicated she was in bringing the dreams she had for her future to fruition and it inspired me.

You can guess what happened next, right? The minute I left I rushed home got some card, glue, colored markers, couple of old magazines, photographs, some scissors, and I got to work.

First, I gave some thought to the things I wanted to accomplish in life, then I got creative. By the end of the day, I had my very own dream board.

Create a vision board to achieve your ultimate goals

What is a Vision Board?

I’ve been throwing the term vision board around loosely for the last minute but what exactly is a vision board? Simply put, a vision board or a dream board is a physical manifestation of all your life’s dreams and desires.

Vision boards usually reflect short and long term goals visually displayed on a canvas through a combination of pictures and words.

Purpose of Vision Boards

In my opinion, a large part of the purpose that vision boards serve is that they:

Force you to consider what goals you want to achieve in life,
Help you to visualize these goals, and
Hold you accountable to your goals.

For example, let’s say your dream is to start up an online business and become financially independent. Your plan is to find and start your ideal business so that you can work at home and be able to spend more time with your family, clear all debt and become a successful business owner.

Each year you tell yourself that you want to start a business but even after you are able to afford the start up costs, you keep putting it off saying “It’s not the right time to start”.

Now imagine that you were to create a vision board at the end of the year or any time you’re ready, with goals you wanted to achieve in the upcoming year.

On your board, you write ‘set up an online fashion store in the fall of the year xxxx’ (enter year date here) and accompany these words with a picture of someone you relate to with a successful online store. In that year, two things will happen.

First, you will wake up every morning look at your board, and be constantly reminded of your goal especially as the timeline to achieve it draws nearer.

Second, in the true spirit of vision boards, the Law of Attraction will lead you in the direction to make your dreams a reality.

Why You Should Create a Vision Board

I’m not going to try to convince you to go and make a vision board after reading this, but I will ask you a question, in 5 years from now where do you see yourself? Yes, that dreaded question.

If you were able to answer this question without hesitation, well done to you. If you were not let me to share some of the benefits of a vision board, including being able to quickly answer my previous question.

The Power of Vision Boards

1. Vision Boards Give You a Sense of Purpose

When we become comfortable in our mundane daily routines it’s easy for us to lose sight of our why. By this, I mean the reason or motivation behind why we do the things we do.

Having a vision board can help you in reclaiming a sense of purpose in your life because you’ll have a daily reminder that your actions should always be with the intention of eventually achieving a particular goal.

2. Vision Boards Bring Dreams to Reality

Ever noticed how you can dream about something for years but it never happens until you start saying it out loud?

Well, consider this little nugget of wisdom. The longer we keep our dreams to ourselves, is the more we confirm that we believe that our dreams are unrealistic.

While when we make the decision to place a dream on our vision board, we prove to ourselves that this dream is more than that, one day it will definitely become our reality.

3. Vision Boards Teach Us The Power of Manifestation

Sometimes it’s not enough to envision in our minds which dreams are possible. As the old adage says “actions speak louder than words”.

When you create a vision board and place images depicting your goals on to it, the action isn’t just a matter of doing something creative for fun. Instead, it is you speaking into being the achievement of all the goals you have set out to attain.

Steps to Creating a Vision Board

Surprisingly, despite all the clear benefits that can be achieved from creating a vision board, the actual process of creating the vision board is pretty easy. When creating your board here are 4 steps you should bear in mind:

1. Think carefully about the life goals your board will include

I suggest doing this before performing step 2 to ensure that any goals you agree to are those you are actually and totally committed and desirous of achieving.

2. Find pictures that align with these goals using the 80% pictures to 20% words rule

There’s something special to be said about using pictures on a dream board. Pictures tell a thousand words, and can sometimes communicate a message 10 times better than if you had used words.

3. Organize your board into timelines you want to complete each task

To aid in keeping yourself accountable to the goals you’ve set, indicate clearly on your vision board how soon each goal is to be met. You can give a rough estimation in case you’re not quite sure.

4. Once complete, keep your board visible

Make sure that your vision board is placed in a prominent place so that you can look at it daily or at least a couple times a week.

Try not to place it somewhere you will eventually lose that momentum you gained when you finished creating your vision board.

Perfect locations are on the fridge, in the hallway on the notice board before you enter and leave the house just as you do that last look in the mirror. Above your home desk and even beside your bathroom mirror. You can even have it as a screen saver.

Key Things to Make a Vision Board

As stated before, making a vision board is not hard to do and is extremely fun to make. You can use sites like Pinterest to inspire you and create a digital vision board and there are vision board apps, or you can physically make your own which is the more traditional method.

Having a nice big vision board on a wall laying out your plans for the future is the best option. There are vision board kits available but I like the idea of putting your own personal stamp on my dreams and goals.

What you will need:

Foam/Cork/Magnetic Board
Scissors
Glue
Double-Sided Tape
Inspirational Stickers
Colored Markers (love the glitter ones)
Photos
Magazines

You probably already have a lot of items to make your vision board in and around your home but in case you don’t you can get all you need to make your vision board right here.

EXTRA TIP: To accompany your vision board make sure to create an action plan in which you detail how you will achieve each goal

Do Vision Boards Work?

Vision boards are wonderful things to create but most vision boards don’t list out all the steps you must take to achieve your goals.

So once you’ve identified what these goals are be sure to spend some time figuring out how you will attain each goal and write down how you will do this then you can cut, paste and write to create your focused vision board.

Final Thoughts

One thing about vision boards is that they are not just restricted to physical goals like a new car or a house. You can create multiple vision boards for career goals, savings goals, fitness goals, and even relationship goals.

Start thinking about your vision board ideas and what you can put on yours this year.

If you found this post helpful or have friends and family who need help reclaiming their sense of purpose, don’t forget to share it with them.