How to "Vision Board"

Up on the blog today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the Vision Board.  Interior Designers create Concept and Inspiration Boards for their clients projects to guide the process and bring the vision to life.  But, what about having a vision for your life.  A road map to help guide you to your goals?  What is the vision you have to guide you to your personal goals?  My tool is to use the Vision Board.  The first time I created a vision board, I had images of being an Interior Designer.  While I am still in school, I am on my way to achieving this goal.  It's not the vision board that works.  It's the clear vision plus all of the other things to make my visions a reality.  Because, here is the truth, a vision is merely a dream without action.  So, let me show you how to create a vision for your life so you can take action.  

Benefits of a Vision Board:

Visualization is one of the most powerful tools that is available in everyone’s arsenal to achieve great success in life. And, the use of a vision board has been scientifically proven to be able to increase the activity of visualization through our minds. When we can visualize an event or a goal happening, we as humans are more likely to achieve it because our minds are "tricked" into the laws of attraction. Everyone has big goals and dreams but not many of us know where to start, some may think that their goal is unattainable and others may just think that it’s out of their reach and they’ll never get it. That’s where the law of attraction comes into play. The law of attraction is the attractive, magnetic power of the Universe that draws similar energies together. It manifests through the power of creation, everywhere and in many ways. Even the law of gravity is part of the law of attraction, which pretty much means that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts those positive or negative thoughts will manifest into your life. Therefore, by creating a positive mood board that you can use in your life, will produce positive energy into your life.

Photo Cred

What are your Intentions?

Before you even start creating a vision board, you probably already have an idea of your actual vision and what you’re long/short term goals already are. These don’t have to be concrete ideas, but having a general idea of what you’re interested in to accomplish is a really good start. Setting your goals is a great accomplishment for the first step! Some questions you may ask yourself are:

What do you want?

What do you need?

What do you value?

How do you want to feel when your goals become a reality?

A quick and easy pro tip is to use single emotion words such as: ( free, open, joy, light, etc.) These words will evoke more emotion and are broad terms that can evoke other goals to come up to the surface that you didn't know you had.

Photo Cred

Gather Your Vision:

Once you’ve brainstormed the goals for your vision board, it’s time to start crafting! This should be a fun and exciting experience because soon your goals will start to become reality. I suggest going to a craft store such as AC Moore, Michaels or even your local Target and getting some exciting and fun crafting tools. Scissors, stickers, glue and even glitter will come in handy. The specific supplies you will need be all depend on what kind of look you are going for. Some basic supplies you will need will include:

Something to attach your images to: (poster board, construction paper, cork board)

Something to affix it with: ( glue, pins, staples, clips)

Markers, Paints, Pens

Colorful paper to for extra tough

Magazines that are able to be cut up ( my favorites are: Vogue, Cosmopolitan, People, inStyle, Architectural Digest, and many more!)

Once you have all of your supplies it’s important to go to a quiet and comfortable space. When I make vision or mood boards I tend to go to my bedroom because that’s “my space”. No one can really disturb me, and I find it calming. To keep myself occupied and in a light mood, I tend to play music or even have the TV on for background noise. I think having some type of background noise is beneficial because it makes the experience more fun and you’re not too stuck into your thoughts. When flipping through the magazines, don’t take it too seriously, cut out any image that you like even though you may not use it. A tip would be to look for not only images but also words that speak to you. Having a combination of words and images make your vision board more fun to look at and it shows some character!

Photo Cred 

Place it where you see it:

Once your vision board is complete, it can now be used as a visual reminder of what you’re desired feelings, intentions, and personal core feelings are. It’s important to place the board where you can visually see it. The more you look at the board, the more you will be reminded of why you started it. When you first started thinking about the board you had certain intentions, so when you start to shy away from those feelings, try to remind yourself why it was so important. Personally, I like placing my vision board in two different places: my room and my laptop. As I stated before, my bedroom is my own “safe space” and it’s the one room in the house where I can totally be alone and quite frankly spend the most time in. Because I spend so much time in my bedroom and walk in and out of it constantly, it’s a constant reminder that I have goals that I have set for myself. I place it where I can see it first thing when I wake up really sot that it instantly motivates me! Also, because I am an interior design major, I’m constantly on my laptop doing some kind of work. By placing my vision board as my desktop image, looking at it from time to time really helps me stay motivated. Every time I open my laptop it’s the first thing I see, plus I think it makes for a unique background and it’s your own personal touch!

Photo Cred

Surrounding Yourself with Those Who have Similar Goals

When trying to combat a certain goal, surrounding yourself with people that have the same goals are you can be really motivating! First of all, you can all keep each other accountable and help each other stay on track. When you have people constantly checking up on you and almost in a positive way annoying you, you’re going to be more likely to do that task. Another benefit is that there will always be someone to help you pick yourself back up. Sometimes when we’re trying to conquer big goals it’s going to be hard to constantly stay on track so having a buddy system will make you not ever feel alone, which emotionally is so helpful. It may seem forced when you first start, but having people around will make you more likely to feel confident and more motivated to conquer those goals.

Photo Cred

Making Daily Tasks for Yourself:

Make a list of the things you could start doing to live in alignment with your intention RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait to feel how you want to feel. Put your values and intention into action. That is the awesome thing about living intentionally and being guided by your personal core values. Setting daily tasks that go with your vision board might be an easier way to combat all the goals that you’ve set for yourself on your vision board. A way to keep track of your daily tasks could be by writing them on a post it and taking it with you, or to make sure you don’t physically lose something, write it on your phone! I have a ton of notes on my phone from grocery lists, to personal information but mostly a list of daily tasks that I need to do. Most of my lists include project deadlines or project shopping lists, however recently I started incorporating daily tasks of my own that I try to do everyday. One daily task that I recently started to try reaching is walking at least 10,000 steps a day. Most days I don’t normally hit that goal, but I am usually close to it. Since being more aware of what goal I’m trying to hit, I force myself to get to 10,000 steps as close as possible and so far I’ve been proud of myself. Something so small as a walking a certain amount of steps can make a big improvement in your life. Now, your goals don’t have to be the same as mine but something as small as trying to hold the door for at least two people or doing at least one good deed a day can really impact your overall mood or confidence.

Photo Cred

Remember to Have Fun

The last piece of advice I would like to give you is to remember to have fun! Don’t ever take yourself too seriously and always stay light hearted. The more you may dwell on hitting your specific goals and forcing yourself to hit those when they may not happen overnight. Taking a step back and looking back at the bigger picture can actually be really helpful. Mistakes and hardships will happen during your journey and it happens to the best of us but staying focused, motivated and making adjustments to your plan will really be beneficial. Your goals and dreams do not define you, nor do they make you the person you are, but they do complement you. You decide what you do with those goals, and it’s okay to change your mind at times. We’re all a work in progress with our lives and everyone's trying to reach different goals at different points of their lives. My last piece of advice is to not dwell on your thoughts, fear is only a feeling and should not hold you back and remember to have fun!

Photo Cred

To sum things up, WE ARE ALL A WORK IN PROGRESS. We are all here in this life playing with the highs and learning to navigate the lows. We'll have amazing days...we'll have terrible days... and we'll have days that are just....blah.