Let’s be honest—New Year’s resolutions never work. The motivation of kicking your old habits to the curb inevitably fizzles out a few months (or weeks, even days) once January passes. Luckily, there is something you can do that might help to accomplish your goals.
Vision boarding is exactly what it sounds like: a creative, hands-on method that puts all of your ambitions onto paper, serving as a daily reminder of your goals. It can be as simple or extensive as you’d like and it only involves a few easy steps.
Why Vision Boarding?
Day dreaming isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, visualization is a mindful power that shouldn’t be overlooked when you want to achieve something. Some of the world’s most reputable people partially credit this practice to their own success, like Jim Carrey who used visualization and wrote himself a $10 million cheque before getting famous. There’s also Michael Jordan who would imagine being the basketball star player he wanted to be prior to stepping foot on the court.
You can follow their lead by manifesting your own goals with a vision board. All it consists of is transferring your mindful imagines onto a physical canvas. This way, it’s no longer a daydream and is now physical proof of the things you want to get done. It’s a creative way to hold yourself accountable, and a constant reminder not to forget your goals throughout the year. There’s a spot-on quote that basically sums up the vision board’s purpose: “Until it’s on paper, it’s vapor.”
Here’s how to get started on a vision board of your own.
Set Your Intentions
Before actually making your vision board, you have to think about what to put on it! This is the fun part where you envision where you want to see yourself at the end of the year. For example, place a photo of the Earth if you’d like to be more eco-friendly. If you’re looking to travel somewhere new, paste an image of that destination onto the page and set the scene. No milestone is too small, so don’t be afraid to put anything from day-to-day short term goals to ones that can take longer.
This is also a good chance to start thinking about how you want your board to look for aesthetic purposes. Make a mental note of where you’ll place certain images and wording, or even draw a sketch to draft the final product. There’s no wrong way to do it, which is what makes this project fun and productive.
Grab Your Supplies
There’s a few decisions you’ll have to make once you’re ready to create a vision board. Think about the size, how much material you’ll be putting on it, and what materials you’ll be using to collage it together.
Magazines and newspapers are great resources to find any images and words to paste onto the vision board. Feel free to get as personal as you want by printing your own images if it relates to any of your goals. Jazz it up with glitter, colors, stickers, and literally anything else. This is also a great arts and crafts option to do with kids. Not only is it a screen-free activity, but it will introduce younger people to the concept of healthy goal setting habits.
For the tech-savvy, there’s also the option of building your vision board on the computer. It can still have the same impact and purpose, just with a virtual construction. If you go this route, Google Images and screenshotting webpages are easy ways to find appropriate elements to design it with. There’s plenty of collage websites you can use like BeFunky, PicMonkey, Adobe Spark, and more. When you’re done, you can either print it out or use it as a screensaver to see it every time you log on the computer.
Don’t Forget About It
Once you’ve crafted your vision board, try and find a place to put it where you’ll see it every day. If it’s hidden behind a door or stack of things, then your board won’t be sparking the inspiration you want it to. You could frame it and hang it on a wall, put it on your dresser, the fridge, or basically anywhere you will be at least once a day. As long as it’s somewhere that will subtly remind you of your goals, it’s where it belongs.
Ones the following new year rolls around, you’ll be able to reflect on your vision board and see what you’ve accomplished. Plus, this activity doesn’t only have to be done at the new year. You can do it each year for your birthday, when the seasons change, or whenever you could use a boost of motivation to get started on your plans. If there’s something you can’t check off the list just yet, simply re-paste it onto your next vision board and keep at it. As long as you’re inspired, the vision board is doing what it’s supposed to do.