How To Make a Vision Board

A vision board is a way for you to visually see your goals and can provide motivation that will help you achieve them. This post should shed some light on how to create your own.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't typically go in for hoogeley boogeley like "find your inner swan and let it squack to the world!" I have a very tenuous relationship with Hollywood's latest obsession "The Secret." Sitting in my apartment thinking of Lamborghinis will not result in me magically owning a brand new Lamborghini at the end of 6-months. It just won't. Period.

That said, thinking about what you want to achieve and having a positive mindset about it can only help. It's very easy to get caught up in the daily grind and lose track of why it is you're doing what you're doing. A vision board serves as a constant reminder of what each step along the path is brining you closer to.

Here's my vision board, feel free to click on it to get a larger image:
"Wait!" you might say, "You wrote an entire article on how to make a collage that looks like it came off a 14 year old girl's bedroom wall?!" To which I reply: Yes, yes I did. Those 14 yr old girls had the right idea, I can almost guarantee you Katie Holmes had pictures of Tom Cruise plastered over her bedroom walls when she was a kid. Note: The artistic merit of a vision board is secondary to its content.

How to Make a Vision Board:

Planning
This is probably the single-most important part of this whole affair. Find some time and a place where you can sit down and comfortably think about your life. Put on some mellow music and put on a tie-dyed shirt, you're about to go on a vision quest.

Think about your life as it currently stands, which aspects of it make you most happy? This may be time on stage, or lazy afternoons shared with friends, or a check for 10 million dollars. What aspects of your life are you unsatisfied with? Where do you want to go? What do you want to see? Basically, try to come up with a list of qualities, people, places, and things that you would like to see in your life in the future - don't neglect to include those things present which you already enjoy.

Supplies
Poster Board or Canvas Board
Lots of Magazines
Photographs of yourself
Glue Sticks or Paste
Scissors

Procedure

1. Divide your board into sections by theme. Mine is divided into: Career Success, Craft Success, Relaxation, and Travel. These themes are meant as a guide and don't need to be strictly adhered to.
2. Flip through your magazines and tear out any images or text that jump out at you. Include people you'd like to meet or emulate, striking images, adjectives that describe your future life, and locations that resonate with you.
3. Sort the torn pages and images into the themes you picked during Step 1.
4. Paste large simple colors into each of the themes. This is to prevent unsightly gaps in the background (notice the ugly white section to the left of Ellen Page and the other above Robert Redford, avoid this).
5. Cut an image of yourself and paste it in the center of your board, this will later help you imagine yourself in this life - otherwise it all seems a little too distant.
6. Cut and paste the most significant images onto your board into the various quadrants. Continue to do so until your board is full and represents what you want your life to be.

Well, that's pretty much it. Basically, you're making a collage that serves as an actual physical artifact of the life you will lead. Have fun, and if you do make one I'd love it if you posted a link to it as a comment to this post.