At the beginning of every new year (or tail end of the previous year) your social media feeds are probably flooded with everyone talking about their vision boards. This has been a trend that has experienced an upswing in popularity over the last couple of years.
With the way 2020 went, who doesn’t want to make sure that 2021 is hugely better. A vision board is great because it can contain anything and everything you want it to. I always include my word of the year; check out my post here on how I figure that out. Then I’ll put in a few more inspirational words or quotes that align with my main word of the year. I’ll finish it up with a few photos or pictures of things that bring me joy or of what I want to accomplish throughout the year.
What is the point of a VISION BOARD?
First, let’s get into what a vision board actually is. Dictionary.com states that “A vision board is a collage of photos & words that represents a person’s wishes & goals. It is intended to serve as inspiration or motivation throughout the year.”
According to Psychology Today, doing mental exercises (like visualizing or manifesting) can increase motivation and confidence. Visualization and manifesting have been experiencing an uptick in popularity as well and creating a vision board helps you stay focused and accountable.
OK, are you ready to get your shi*t together and kick ass in 2021?
First, figure out what you care about the most for the upcoming year. Is it your health (physical, mental, or financial), building up your business, finishing school, etc. You can include short or long-term goals that you want to focus on.
This next part will be different for each person but the next part up is the arts and crafts part of the project. YAY!
Grab your magazines or pull up your Pinterest.
Personally, this is my favorite part. I’m a digital girl through and through, so I’ll pull up Pinterest and good old Google and start searching for images and pretty pictures to put on my vision board.
If you’re a paper gal/guy, grab a bunch of magazines and start clipping away. Cut out anything that catches your eye. You can always narrow them down before putting them on your board.
Making your board work for you is KEY.
The trick to this is picking/creating words and images that are vivid, attractive and shiny. Once you’re done with your masterpiece, laminate that artwork and make sure to put it somewhere you’ll be able to see it regularly, your fridge, home office, nightstand, bathroom mirror. The key is to make sure it’s seen as often as possible.
If you’ve created your vision board digitally, you can still print it out and laminate it to put it all over the place!
Tools of the Trade
Paper Verison
- Poster Board – this is a 5 pack, and you can go larger or smaller, whatever floats your boat.
- Magazines
- Quote Stickers Book – my handwriting sucks, so whenever I can use stickers is best for me. This is my favorite quote sticker book from Create 365, I used these when I was paper planning.
- Glue Tape – This stuff is AMAZING…again I used this while I was paper planning and it’s super easy to use and there is 0 mess!
- Markers – I love these dual-tipped ones for the hand lettering ladies out there.
- Laminator – this is a great tool to have especially if you have a toddler, you can make homemade activities.
Digital Verison
- Tablet – I am an Apple girl through and through, so I go with an iPad, I just upgraded from the iPad Pro to the iPad Air 4 and I am in LOVE with it. But you can use any type of tablet that can utilize a note-taking app.
- Stylus – I use the Apple Pencil 2 which I highly recommend.
Here is what mine looks like as of right now…I’ll still add to it as this month finishes up and I really get into where I see this year going for me.
Make it a PARTY
Grab your girlfriends and wine & throw on either some music or a cute rom-com movie and get to work. Surround yourself with like-minded people and then when the ‘work’ is done, just chill out and relax with your friends.
This is awesome!! I have been thinking of creating a vision board, especially since, in addition to my new blog, am entering another venture with a lot of possibilities. I need to create a vision board to keep my focus! I will definitely be following your advice!
Thank you!! That is exactly what I did this year too! I have one for personal goals and one for blog/business goals. It helps keep me motivated throughout those discouraging moments!
I like the idea of centering the vision board around your word of the year. Also a great idea to laminate your finished product, I never thought of that.
Yes! Laminating is super worth it, especially if you have littles with sticky fingers that LOVE to touch things!
Where have I been? I didn’t know this was a trend. I’ve heard of vision boards but only in interior design. This is brilliant! I’m a visual person so seeing my goals for the year presented visually (and all pretty) on a poster would be so helpful! Thanks for the tips!
Thank you!! I love doing different ones, for business, personal, etc.! It helps keep me accountable & motivated to keep going!
Awesome! I love doing vision boards and have some friends who I used to do this with, like you said, make it a party! Also, I’ve used a manilla file- you can unfold it to make a decent size board but still fold it (like the file it is) and it’s small enough to carry with you. Just another idea!
OMG! That is a great idea! I hadn’t even thought of that! Makes it perfect to carry with you if you are doing one of these get togethers! I’m going to try this out next time! Thank you!!