It’s the time of year when people start thinking about using a vision board to begin to make things happen in their life. Or maybe your life has been challenging this year and you’re wondering if you might be having a midlife crisis (even as a millennial) and you’re finally ready to have a clear vision for your future. An excellent vision. Clarity of vision. A reimagined vision. Moving forward to create the path to your future…that works. Throw in some arts and crafts? Really, what could be better than learning about creating a vision board? RELATED: How To Create A Vision Board & Use The Law Of Attraction To Manifest Your Best Life
Why learn about creating a vision board?
A vision board is basically a visual tool to help you focus on what you want. They are personal in that they’re filled with images and words that depict what you want to focus on and create in your life, on purpose. Pause for a second and think about how this might actually work. Vision boards actually set your intentional life in motion because they remind you to think about what you want more often. But it’s not all about just thinking about what you want.
Here’s the 6-step secret to creating a vision board that really works in 2022.
1. Think through your vision.
Spend some time thinking about what you want your future to look like. What is it that you dream about happening or creating? It’s OK to want what you want. Think about your vision for your contribution, that is, your work. Your vision for your relationships with others. Your vision for your relationship with yourself. Your vision for new skills, experience, and travel that you want in your life. Your ideas for things that you want — for no other reason than because you want them. And finally, your keywords for the year. What words do you think really sum it up for you? The words you really want to have top of mind more often?
2. Notice themes.
Now that you’ve done the first piece of work, look to see what themes are emerging. What’s really important to you in terms of goals, values, principles, and concepts? It’s quite common to see patterns. This bit of structure from the worksheet will help your brainstorming and insight.
3. Pause and notice how you feel when you think about what you want to create in your life.
Thoughts create feelings. If your thoughts need some work, you can also decide how you want to feel and then think a thought that creates that feeling. You can feel, intentionally. So when you check into your emotions, you can decide if you are feeling the way you want to feel. Don’t skip this step.
4. Prepare to create your vision board.
First, start the hunt. Collect images that reflect what’s most important for your life in the future. You may want to include photographs, graphic images from magazines, small objects, you get the idea. Second, you also need to make a decision about how you want your vision board to look. You have a few options — poster board, canvas, or wood panel. If you use a poster board, you can use glue. If you want to use canvas or wood panels, you can use a decoupage glue like Mod Podge. So ask yourself, what kind of look do you want? And how big do you want it to be? If you want something larger and less expensive, go for poster board. If you want something smaller and easier to display, go for canvas or a wooden artboard. RELATED: 6 Reasons Why Vision Boards Work, With Vision Board Examples
5. Include a picture of yourself on your vision board.
A great way to add a connection to your vision board is to include a photo of yourself. Many people forget that they’re at the center of making their dreams come true. You can choose any picture that resonates when you think about your priorities. It can be just a headshot of you, you doing something you love, or perhaps even one of your family. That doesn’t matter, but what does matter is how you feel when you look at it. One other tip is to use a current photo. Avoid the temptation to focus on the past. This is the present, so be in the present.
6. Actually make your vision board.
Put it all together. There’s no right or wrong way to assemble your vision board. By now, you’ll have a pile of images that you want to include. You can make a simple collage or you can make more of a design. Whatever you do is okay. You can find tons of cool ideas on Pinterest. The sky really is the limit. Trust me, you can have a lot of fun with this! So take yourself on a field trip to Michaels (or your local equivalent) and get started. A vision board is an awesome way to say goodbye to feeling stuck and take a step in the direction of being more intentional. I like to call it “regret-proofing your life.” The problem, however, is that vision boards don’t always work. You might go through the motions. Collect the magazines. Cut out the pictures. But, you find that all of this effort doesn’t always work to create the future you want. There are a few key reasons why your vision board hasn’t been that successful in the past. You can’t just do an arts and craft project. You’ll also have to take real action. You’ll have to actually do something, and not just think about what you want to do. If you’re ready to embrace that, you’ll be setting yourself up for success. One thing that may help you set the right attitude for building your dream board is reflecting on the year. The past two years have been stressful and uncertain, and remain so today. Vision boards help you think about the future. Check in with your attitude as you think about the upcoming year. Are you hopeful? Are you positive? Are you still thinking about what’s possible? What do you really want? Do you feel stuck in negativity? Is the uncertainty really getting in your way? An intentionally positive mindset will help you create a vision board that’s really reflective of what you want to create in 2022, even as the pandemic continues. Creating a vision board helps you get clear. When you set out to complete a vision board, you allow yourself to have specific thoughts about your purpose, goals, desires, and dreams. When you intentionally choose images to include on your vision board, there are particular thoughts behind each image. And finding the images and figuring out how to include what you’re thinking about takes time, time that you’re really focused on what you actually want. This is a very good thing. RELATED: How To Use A Vision Board To Manifest Your Career Goals & Land Your Dream Job Suzy Rosenstein, MA is a master certified life coach and host of the popular podcast for midlife women, Women in the Middle. She offers a free podcast bundle, Get Unstuck in Midlife.
