Vision board creation is a fun project that appears to have powers to help you focus on where you want your life to go. It is a wonderful art project as you really can’t make a mistake, and the supplies you need are probably readily available.
The goal of this project is to create a vision board of images about the way you would like your life to be. It can be as fantastic and amazing as you want, or very down to earth and practical – it is entirely up to you to decide what you want your board to look like.
The first step is to find a bunch of magazines – or if you can bear the thought, coffee table and photo books – that you have enjoyed reading. Go through the magazines and rip out any picture or words that you are drawn to. Don’t over think or analyze, just look and rip or move on. When you have run out of magazines, pick up the pictures you have torn out and look through them.
To begin with apply the gut test. Is your gut response positive when you see the picture, or does it feel nothing? If it feels nothing, add toss it aside. If you still have a good reaction, keep it.
Now start to sort through the pictures and words, and put them in piles of similar images. For example, if you have lots of images of beaches and blue sea, put them together. If you have lots of images of furniture or people, put them into separate piles.
Pick up a pile and look at all the images in it. Assuming you tore them out because you liked them, it is reasonable to also assume that this is something you want more of in your life.
Start to notice the patterns that are coming out from your piles. Does it look like you want to have a more comfortable and personal home? Are there lots of people, beaches, fast cars? Is there anything you know you want to bring into your future life that you don’t have pictures of? If so, go back and look through the magazines and see if you can find something to represent this, or go online and print out a picture. Are there any phrases or words that you have picked out that seem very meaningful? Trim off any paper that you don’t want and move all the waste into the recycling bin.
Find a piece of sturdy paper or sheet of poster board, and start to lay out the images for your vision board in a pleasing way. Remember that this is entirely your project, and that there is no right or wrong way to do this. You might find you have a very focused set of images about a project you really want to work on, such as a room redo, or it might be a vision of your larger, more distant future. It may include people you want in your life, places you want to visit or images of your ideal house or car – or absolutely none of these!
When you are happy with the layout, start to stick the pictures down. If you use a glue stick, be lavish with the glue or you may find them dropping off in a few days! Now place your vision somewhere that you will see if frequently. If space is an issue, you can also take a photo of it and use it as a desktop background on your computer.
Each time you go you see your vision board, look at the images and the overall picture. The idea is that by seeing it often, you create a strong visual ‘memory’ of your hoped for future so you are more focused in making it happen.
To help this process along, you can keep a record of when things from your vision board appear in your life – a gratitude journal in effect. You can also create affirmations for yourself about your goals to help you remain focused on finding and taking the steps you need to do to reach your goal. It is entirely up to you how you use it, and what you choose to visualize!
You can read about my efforts in this blog post about how I learned about creating a vision board.
