How to Make a Vision Board
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ What a vision board is
⋒ How to actually make a vision board
⋒ 5 tips to make the most of your vision board in 2023
I get questions about this topic all the time during the Best Year Ever Workshop because something we do together during that is create our vision boards for the following year. First and foremost, I don’t have a vision board template because I create mine from scratch every year BUT in this blog post, I am going to take you through how I do that, step by step, so you can create your own for 2023!
What is a vision board?
I used to think that a vision board was a mystical thing that was woo-woo and a waste of time. But then in 2018 or 2019, I decided to make one and found out how much I loved it, and what great tool it was so I’ve made one every year since!
Now I know that a vision board is a tool to help you keep what you’re working toward in life front and center. It’s a tool to help you stay focused on what you’re doing so you don’t get distracted. It’s a tool to help you stay connected to your values and your why behind pursuing certain goals.
Creating a vision board should be fun! There are so many different ways to create them. They can be the size of a poster board or a piece of paper. You can cut out pictures from magazines, you can print photos off of Google or Pinterest, if you love to draw you can doodle your vision board, etc. Your vision board is a visual reminder of what kind of life you are working toward. When things seem mundane or like progress is slow, you can peek at your vision board and be reminded why the moment that you’re in right now matters.
There’s not one right way to make a vision board – if you look at your board and it reminds you what you’re working toward and why it matters to you then you’ve got it!
I feel like so many of us (shout out to my fellow anxious, overachieving, firstborns, lol) get stuck in this weird pressure-filled mindset when it comes to doing things like this. We want the validation that we are doing something right. Well, I challenge you to stop seeking that validation here and trust yourself – trust that you are doing it right, even if it feels a little messy or clunky at first.
Oh and pro tip: if you end up hating your vision board…you can toss it and start fresh. No one will ever know. 😉
Okay so let’s get into some action steps, shall we?
How to Make a Vision Board:
So before I get to work on my vision board, I have a few things already mapped out: my word for the year and my goals for the year. If you need help with figuring those things out, you definitely want to get in on the Best Year Ever Workshop, which I’ll be talking about later on.
Step 01. Choose a timeline that works for you.
I personally prefer to make a yearly vision board because seeing the big picture at once really motivates and inspires me. However, that can send some people into a tailspin of overwhelm – if that’s the case for you, consider making a quarterly vision board (maybe one for each season) or even a monthly vision board if you feel like that would support you better.
My bestie likes to make a digital monthly vision board and set it as the background of her phone or laptop – that works for her! The thought of making a new vision board every month stresses me the eff out so I know that isn’t going to work for me.
So again, step 01 – choose your timeline – do you want a yearly vision board? Quarterly vision boards? Or monthly vision boards?
Step 02. Decide how you want to make it.
Do you want to make your vision board as a hardcopy on a giant posterboard by or do you think you’d rather make a digital version that you can use as your desktop background?
I personally like to make my vision board in a digital format (I use the website Canva), print it out, and then laminate it.
Now the rest of these steps follow how I make my vision board because this is what works for me. Feel free to mirror these steps exactly or take the fish and spit out the bones aka do the parts that work for you and toss out what doesn’t align.
Step 03. Add my word of the year with a definition.
It’s a word that I want to represent the year and I tend to put this pretty large in the middle of my vision board. I use this word as a sort of anchor throughout the year – something to come back to if I’m feeling a bit scattered.
Here are some examples:
2016: DO
2017: SAVOR
2018: INTENTIONAL
2019: ABUNDANCE
2020: SURRENDER
2021: NURTURE
2022: EXPANSION
I use my goals for the year to help me come up with my word. I ask myself if I see any themes or patterns in the goals. Then I ask myself how I want to feel working toward the goals. Those 2 questions usually help me choose a word.
But real talk – a lot of the time, I don’t even get to that stage because typically around September-October the Lord puts a word on my heart for the following year. So yes, I do already know my word for 2023. I’ll be sharing it in the Best Year Ever Workshop.
Step 04. Add my anchor verse for the year.
Next, I like to choose scripture from the Bible that I want to speak over my life for the year. The verse typically has some sort of correlation with my yearly word. To find this, I do some googling and I get my eyeballs in my Bible.
So for example, my verse for 2022 is “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ~ 2 Corinthians 9:8”
Step 05. Add categories to my board.
I am not a very abstract kind of gal when it comes to visuals… the thought of looking at vision board that is a collage of random images gives me actual anxiety. I like to look at my vision board and easily be able to see what I’m working toward in each area of my life so having category headings works really well for me.
Here are the headings I used on my 2022 vision board to give you an idea:
~ Finances/Giving Back
~ Personal (I use this for like hobbies and faith-related things)
~ Family
~ Business
~ Health
Step 06. Add my goals in typed format.
Again, I know myself well enough to know that just staring at photos (even ones organized into categories) isn’t motivating enough for me. When I see my goals typed out in words, that breeds action for me. That’s what helps me tap into discipline. So under each category, I type a condensed, bulleted version of my goals for the year.
Step 07. Finish by adding in photos that represent my goals.
Now don’t get me wrong, just because pictures only don’t do it for me, I still appreciate a beautiful image. My 2022 vision board had 6 images sprinkled on it that lit me up. So I don’t choose a photo for every single goal because then the board would feel very busy to me and my brain doesn’t like that.
I just know that I prefer a good balance of text and images so that’s how I build my vision boards. I like them to feel calm so I typically choose photos with neutral color vibes.
Then I save, print, and laminate that baby!
Now that I’ve walked you through my process of physically creating a vision board, I want to share some tips I’ve learned over the years to help make the most of a vision board.
5 Tips to Make the Most of Your Vision Board:
01. Instead of putting the end goal on your vision board, consider including pictures of the actions that will get you to the end goal.
I have to give credit where credit is due and I’m pretty sure the person who I first heard this from was the co-founder of Trades of Hope, Elisabeth – she’s actually been on the podcast before!
So an example of this: let’s say one of your goals for the next year is to write a book. Instead of putting the New York Times Bestseller logo on your vision board, consider having a photo on your board that shows you writing.
Seeing an image of you sitting at your beautiful workspace writing is something tangible that you can grab onto and easily make a reality…whereas if you stare at the NYT bestsellers logo, that might feel a bit daunting or out of reach.
You’ve got to first write the book to have it be a bestseller.
02. Inject emotion into your vision board.
What are ways you can do this? Use pictures from your real life! Yes, I love a great aesthetic pic from Pinterest but sometimes they can be hard to connect with and visualize as your own life, you know what I mean?
On my 2022 vision board, I have a photo of Adam and I traveling in Hawaii from 2021 to represent going on a vacation in 2022. Seeing him and I together on a trip, motivates me more than seeing some random landscape of a place we want to visit.
03. Keep it somewhere you see it regularly.
This is kind of a no-brainer – we’ve all heard the saying, out of sight, out of mind. I keep my vision board right on my desk so that I can see it every single day when I sit down to work! Like I mentioned earlier, your vision board is a visual reminder of what kind of life you are working toward. When things seem mundane or like progress is slow, you can peek at your vision board and be reminded why the moment that you’re in right now matters.
04. Use it during your monthly and quarterly prep meetings.
I always have my vision board handy during my monthly and quarterly prep meetings so that I can make sure that the goals I set at the start of the year are still relevant to my vision and align with my season of life. It’s also good for accountability because if it’s June and you haven’t touched a single goal that you said was important to you back in January, your vision board gives you a place to dig in and assess the goals and ask yourself why you haven’t made any moves toward any of them.
True story: I will not be accomplishing all of the goals on my 2022 vision board because when I brainstormed my goals and created it in December of 2021, I wasn’t pregnant and didn’t know I would be pregnant for most of 2022. That big life change forced me to nix some goals and to create some new ones that aligned with my new season. I didn’t feel the need to create a new vision board but if you do have a big life change and need to alter a lot of your yearly goals you totally could make a new/updated vision board anytime!
05. Take aligned action.
Making your vision board is just step 01. It’s a tool, and in order for a tool to benefit your life, you have to use said tool. A hammer doesn’t build a piece of furniture just sitting there. You’ve got to pick it up and use it for the furniture to come together.
Just like a vision board won’t make your dreams a reality – you have to look at your vision board and take aligned action for that to happen. Like I mentioned in the last tip, use your vision board to help you set intentions and create habits every month so that before you know it, you’re making the things on your vision board happen!
That’s it! That is how you create a vision board! If you are reading this blog post before December 7th, 2023, I want to invite you to our Best Year Ever Workshop we are hosting Dec 7th-9th! Together we will map your goals and intentions for 2023 and start creating your own vision board using these steps!
And even if you don’t join us for the workshop, I would love to see the vision boards you create so if you decide to share them on Instagram, feel free to tag me @jessmmassey and @hustlesanely!
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