Vision Board Ideas: All You Need to Know to Make One

There are a lot of questions surrounding vision boards. What are they? Do you really need one? How do you make one?

A great vision board doesn’t have to be a mystery. We’ve got some powerful vision board ideas that will help you lay out a successful path for your goals!

What is a Vision Board?

First, a vision board is a physical representation of your desires, dreams, and goals. It offers a clear picture of the changes you want to make and where you’re headed. It’s usually a collage of words and pictures cut out of magazines or printed out from sites online.

A vision board helps you imagine what the future could look like. It takes vague ideas and turns them into real action steps. A vision board helps you self-reflect, get excited about the future, and empowers you to take action on your goals. If you feel positive about the future, the odds of you achieving your goals increase.

How Can Vision Boards Help You Achieve Your Goals?

As human, we are visual creatures. A picture truly is worth a thousand words, as they say. Professional Sales and Leadership Coach Kitty Barrow of Southern Consulting put it this way:

“Who do you want to be? What do you want to do with your life? And what do you want to have in your life? When we have our vision in pictures in front of us every single day, those dreams come true.”

The truth is, visualization works. Professional athletes have known this for years. Visualization is essentially the process of creating a mental image of what you want to happen or feel in reality. By imagining being at bat for instance, a hitter in baseball would imagine the feeling of responding to a pitch a certain way. They’d picture themselves hitting the ball and even hearing the roar of the crowd as they head for first base.

Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “You must see yourself winning before you win.”

A vision board is a powerful way to see yourself winning. With a vision board, you’ll see clearly what you’re after. It will help you to believe in yourself and remind you to keep working, day-in and day-out.
Listen to professional Sales and Leadership Coach Kitty Barrow talk about the power of vision board for everyone in Why Real Men Do Vision Boards.

How to Create a Vision Board

The good news is, it’s pretty easy to make a vision board. Start by taking a strong self-assessment and explore your goals. List your priorities over the next 1-5 years. Write them down. The things that matter the most to you should wind up in the center of your board or take up a greater portion of real estate. Your goals should line up with your values and motivators. That will ensure that you reach your destination quicker, and that you’re even heading in the right direction.

Once you have the heart behind what you’re creating, you’ll need a few supplies and an empty table or desk. Here are a few things  you’ll need.

1. Board

For your vision board you’ll need an actual board of either traditional poster board or foam board.

2. Supplies

Gather a pair of scissors, pins, glue sticks, tape, and possibly even markers. Don’t be scared to get creative with it. You can write your thoughts out or add quotes…the opportunities are endless.

3. Images

You can cut images of people or objects and quotes out of magazines, as well as print off images that speak to your desires and goals. These can literally be anything that represents what you’re trying to communicate. And remember, words are important too! Glue or tape them to your board.

Additional Vision Board Ideas

Here are some additional vision board ideas to help get the ball rolling when creating your board.

Achievements

What are some specific milestones you want to achieve?

Weak areas

What needs to change? Take a serious inventory of those areas of your life that need adjustments. Then think hard on what it would take to BE what you want to be in that area and make sure it’s represented on your vision board.

Include goals, but not too many

Having too many goals can be overwhelming. Narrow your list down to the most important. That makes each goal on your board more achievable. Your vision board should insipre you and push you but not cause extreme stress. Consider using a smaller board that forces you to include fewer things and focus on only those goals and desires that truly matter.

Make sure you include images and sayings that motivate and energize you. Make sure your goals contain emotion. They need to strike a chord and make you care.

Get specific

Instead of: “I want to lose weight,” try, “I want to lose weight to decrease joint pain in my legs and to look better.” Or, instead of “I want to grow closer to my spouse,” go with, “I want to grow closer to my spouse by having a date night each week and spending fewer late nights at the office.” Think of the tangible action or goal behind each picture and what it will realistically take to get there.

Use quotes

We mentioned quotes above, but they can make a tremendous impact and inspire. Choose quotes that reflect what you’re feeling, and choose them from role models, favorite authors, or even song lyrics.

Affirm yourself with quotes of your own

Open yourself up to changing “I can’t” thoughts to “I can.” Reverse beliefs that have limited you in writing and put them on your board. The effect of positive self-talk is powerful.

What to Include in Your Professional Vision Board

Business vision boards are one of the most common types. Know what you want going forward and get it out there in visual form.

Day-to-Day

Think about what your perfect workday looks like. What images need to be on your vision board to help you get there?

Long-Term Goals

Why did you start your business or get started in your field in the first place? Revisit your motivations. Include some long-term goals for your business and for your career. Maybe it’s growing your customer base by 10,000. Maybe it’s leading a team or starting a new division for your department.

Who is the ideal client? Who are the customers that are the right fit for your products and services?

Products and Services

What do you offer now that works? What would you like to offer someday?

What to Include in Your Personal Vision Board

To include your personal life in your vision board (or make a separate board), you’ll want to touch all the bases of a healthy life. Here’s a brief look at some key areas of life to include:

Spiritual/Life Philosophy

Start off at your core. Why do you believe what you believe? How will you work to strengthen that aspect of your life.

Family/Relationships

Your success as a spouse, parent, son, daughter, friend or mentor is more important than your success at work. How will you specifically grow the key relationships in your life, or forge new ones?

Mental and Physical Health

We can’t stress how important it is to take care of yourself. What can you do to help improve both your overall mental health and physical health?

Academic

You don’t have to go back and get a master’s degree to improve intellectually. It can be as easy as reading a book a month. What will you do mentally/academically to challenge yourself and help yourself grow? Some people choose to learn a new language. Others take a course on investing. It’s different for everyone, but don’t neglect this area.

Financial

What goals do you have financially and are you on track to hit them? Take a moment and take a look under the hood. Are you spending more than you should? How can you improve your financial life? Put some specific goals on your vision board to motivate you.

How Often Should You Make a Vision Board?

Here’s the thing. Your vision board is your vision board. You can revisit it and make changes or rework it any time you like. A good rule of thumb is a 1-5 year timeline for your first board, although many people decide to re-evaluate or create new vision boards every 18 to 24 months. There’s an old saying, “We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year and underestimate what we can accomplish in 5.”
If the content on your vision board no longer inspires you or the majority is becoming quickly outdated, it’s time to consider making a new board.

Get Serious About Hitting Your Goals with a Career Coach

We all need extra help from time to time. For more on the power of vision boards and help with goal-setting, consider 1:1 coaching with Southwestern Consulting. We help people get from where they are to where they want to be – it’s our specialty. Our professional life, career, and leadership coaches can help you reach your personal and business goals faster than you thought possible. In a recent survey of  those who completed 12 months or more of SWC coaching, clients reported a 58% increase in time management, 49% increase in goal-setting, and 44% increase in productivity.

To see if coaching might be right for you, get a free consultation from Southwestern Consulting today!