Reflect and Nourish

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey lists “begin with the end in mind” as the second of seven foundational habits. 

I believe this principle is key when it comes to goal-setting. Being able to visualize exactly what you want is half the battle to getting what you want. 

One activity that can help with the visualization process is creating a vision board. I love vision boards because they serve as a visual motivator for me to keep working toward my dreams. 

Here are five steps you can take to create a vision board that will grab your attention and guide you in manifesting your desires: 

1. Write out 5-10 goals and desires you have. 

It might sound obvious, but if you don’t know what you want, how will you know what to put on your vision board? Get clear on what you want by narrowing down your desires and/or goals to just 5-10, and be specific about what those would look like.

How far ahead you want to plan is up to you. You could write down a mix of short-term and long-term goals, or choose to focus solely on either the short-term or long-term. It all depends on what purpose you would like your vision board to serve. 

2. Search for images that represent those goals and desires. 

This is the fun part! Pinterest, Creative Commons, and Google Images are all great places to search for images to put on your vision board. 

Feel free to go a little crazy with this step, but remember to keep your desires in mind as you’re browsing through images. 

In addition to searching for images that represent what you want, you can also search for images of people you admire, quotes that inspire you, or even images of things that you’re grateful for.

3. Select 10-20 of your saved images to put on your board.

Before making my vision board, I watched a few YouTube tutorials on how to make a board that works well and is visually compelling.

One tip I learned from a tutorial by Clark Kegley is to simplify your vision board. He explains that having a ton of images on one board can be distracting and confusing; however, having just a few specific images can really draw the viewer in. He recommends including about 10-20 images on a vision board. 

This is a helpful tip because a clear, simple visualization gives you a direct path to walk down while working toward your aspirations.

4. Compile the images. 

Once you’ve chosen your images, you can arrange them however you’d like on your board. You could make your board digitally on a layout and design site such as Canva or PicCollage, or you can print out your images and pin them on a physical board. 

I prefer to make mine digitally so that I can easily edit my board whenever I want. This brings me to my next point …

5. Update your vision board from time to time. 

As humans, we’re constantly growing and evolving. As we change, our goals also change. 

Don’t be afraid to change your vision board to match your new goals. You may decide you don’t want something anymore or that you want something new. Honor these changes by giving yourself a new visualization to aspire to — you will be all the better for it. 

The main idea I want you to take away from all of these steps is that homing in on what you want is the key to effective goal-setting and visualization. 

Of course, simply setting the goals and making the vision board isn’t enough — you must take the appropriate action(s) to get what you want. But by creating clarity and focus for yourself, you will make it much easier to a) know which steps to take and b) feel motivated to actually take those steps. 

I hope you will keep these tips in mind as you think about your aspirations. Happy vision-board making!