Vision Board

For some people the thought of creating a vision board may sound and feel a little airy-fairy. However, creating a vision board can have many benefits in business coaching, sports, life coaching, health, education etc.

Some of the most successful people in the world routinely use vision boards to help clarify their dreams and keep their goals at the fore front of their minds. Vision boards are very useful to clarify one’s dreams, pinpointing your real goals, and getting excited about the action steps it takes to achieve them.

That is precisely why vision boards work so well. They allow one to easily see exactly what it is you are working towards. Whether it is to increase profits, buying that new car, moving into your dream home, taking an exotic vacation, etc.

By keeping these visual cues and reminders in plain sight, you are constantly reminded of your “why.” Your motivation to do what it takes to achieve your goals. Your vision board can be a very powerful motivator to help keep one on track. Especially in those challenging times when things don’t seem to be going to plan, or when you are feeling demoralised.

Everyone Faces Challenges

What is it that is really holding you back from achieving your goals? Imagine a business owner who starts to experience burnout, or who has not quite reached their business goals. Maybe they have hit a plateau in growth. The fun and joy of why they started the business might be waning.

This can happen to the best of us. Successful people learn how to overcome challenges, continue to grow and break through their challenges. Learning how to create a vision board can help with:

• Gaining clarity on exactly what it is you want to achieve.
• Getting more focused on taking the correct action steps.
• Building excitement and motivation for the outcome.

Vision boards are fun and colourful tools that will help with each of these. A vision board can be as simple as a few pictures clipped from a magazine and pinned to a board, or as complex as a framed poster with hand-lettered quotes and personal inspiration.

You might even want to have multiple vision boards for various areas of your life and business. You can add to and constantly change your boards as you reach certain achievements, set new goals, or your goals simply change. Maybe you decide you no longer want to bright lights of Broadway, but rather want to live on a farm, or instead of buying a BMW, you decided you want a new Mustang instead. Maybe you have already been on the holiday you had on your board and now you are planning the next destination.

Think about a time when you set a goal. It could be a vision for your business, a weight goal or any other for that matter. Goal setting can seem a little boring sometimes. Now imagine if you create that goal with fun, colourful images, drawings, photos, inspirational quotes and phrases instead.
Rather than just setting a goal to grow your business or to lose weight, you have enticing images of the outcome. What it is that you are striving for? What the outcome will look like? etc.

Imagine what that would do for your daily motivation!

How to create a vision board

Ever wanted to create a dream board, but not sure how? Some people find the very idea of creative goal setting to be so overwhelming they simply don’t know where to begin. For others, it’s the thought of collecting all the pieces that turns them off. For both of these though, the answer is simple; Just start. There are no “rules” when it comes to creating a vision board.
You can use anything that has meaning to you. Including, but by no means limited to:
• Books & magazines
• Inspiring words
• Coloured pens & markers
• Doodling
• Inspirational quotes that have meaning for you
• Note special dates you want to commemorate
• Names of people you admire
• Use stickers, ribbons & whatever art supplies you can get your hands on
• Photos
• Get the kids involved. (They often have plenty of craft supplies and love to be part of this creative process.)

Creating a vision board is easy and fun! You can create yours with paper and other art materials, or digitally using one of many online apps, Pinterest, or even Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. While digital boards are definitely more portable, physical boards are often more inspiring. There’s just something about engaging all your senses that makes a tangible vision board more effective.

What next?

Put your goals on a vision board and put it somewhere where you can see them multiple times every day.

Your vision board should be easily visible to you, e.g. next to your computer, or in your study. Somewhere where you can see it every day and reflect on what you have done that day to achieve them. What will you do next week and the week after? Always move towards your goals. Add pictures if you want. E.g. if one of your goals is a new car, cut out some pictures of the colour, make and model of car you want and add them to your goals.

Make your dream board really stand out. Enticing you to achieve your goals. Keep it positive and fun. You can break it down by areas of your life or make the whole board around a certain subject or goal. Cut out pictures from magazines, get the kids to draw pictures, use photographs or whatever takes your fancy.

You can even keep score of your progress. So, if you were doing something like a marathon, then you could keep track of the days that you have left before the race starts and how far you run each day. Or if it is starting your own business, have a progress bar of things you have done so far, or days before you leave your job.

You can use various options for vision boards. You might have a physical board as per the image above. Or create 3d shadow box. (You buy them from Amazon.)
Or digital boards, like a digital photo frame or a Pinterest board.

Whatever your goal is, celebrate the little victories along the way with your family. This will also get them involved and they will help you to be motivated to achieve your goals as they know it benefits them as well. Having the vision board visible for all to see, also gets buy in from family members who help and support you. My kids now enjoy making their own vision boards as well.

Whatever tickles your fancy – have fun with this. This exercise will also help you with your visualisation and keeping that image your mind.

“A goal that is casually set and lightly taken is freely abandoned at the first obstacle.”
– Zig Ziglar