Vision Boards. Are They Magic or Something?
I was in grade 8 when a classmate showed me her vision board. “Everything came true,” she said while pinpointing and explaining every story behind every picture. She had cut out and pinned photos from magazines on a corkboard. “I will try this,” I said, and I lived with this thought for 15 years.
How to vision board?
I would like to say that there are no rules because — to each their own, but in this case, I think I now know where the magic lies — so I would suggest you try out the steps I've mentioned below. I've tried multiple things myself — I've written things down, I've collected magazines, and I've saved photos on my phone, Pinterest, and Instagram. But none of these have worked out in my favor. I think the only two most reasonable and effective options are to create an actual vision board — physical or digital, that you can save as a PDF and keep on your phone or print out.
The magic
Well. Magic? Really? Nope. “How does that work, then?” you might ask. It's easy. Just you — doing the work. What I believe is that while you are sitting down, devoting your time and attention, you are forced to make decisions. You can't fit the whole, wide everything on your physical or digital artboard — the space is limited, and, that matters because you have to decide, decide what you want. And that, my friends, is the only magic here.
My story
It was like that for me. I kind of knew what I wanted because of all the liked and saved photos I mentioned earlier. But they were all over the place — just like my thoughts and wishes. One can’t set a goal without a goal. This made me stressed out because I wanted it all. I wanted what that girl on Instagram was wearing or what my friends and family wanted for me. I wished to go to places where my boyfriend wanted only because I never devoted time to thinking about what I wanted. Until I sat down and made some life-changing decisions.
Did something come true?
Yes! I started therapy which was my number one goal. I started going to dance class, and I joined a gym (I had pictures of girls dancing and working out on my board). I met quite a lot of new people this year. Although we didn't do some of the friend-like activities that I added to my board, they still might happen because now I know some active people. Career must be the biggest one — before creating my board, I wasn't even sure of what I wanted to do with my life, but then, searching through a bunch of pictures, I realized that the ones showcasing photo studio and retouched images spoke to me the most. So I added those to my board, and this helped me to focus on vacancies in this area. Guess what — I work as a photo editor now. :)
Here's how to do it:
1. Start now. Creating a vision board might seem easy, but this takes time. I mean, it's your whole year we are talking about, so make some time for this.
2. Write down categories where you would like to see change happen. Write down categories like relationship, house, fitness, style, profession, money, travel destinations, or friends. You can choose as many or as few, as specific or as broad as you like.
3. Find inspiring images. Print some out or find old magazines and cut them out if creating a physical board. Or surf through the web (Pinterest, Instagram) for your digital images.
4. Collect the most fitting images for each category in piles or on Pinterest boards/computer folders.
5. Choose how and where to create your collage. Creating a physical vision board can be either on a wooden or a cardboard board, in a notebook, or pinned to a wall. I created a digital board myself, and I created it using artboards in Adobe Illustrator. But you can choose anything — Canva, Photoshop, Word Doc, or Google Docs. This is your vision board. The main goal is to create it for you, so choose a place convenient for you.
6. Choose a system. You can devote a page or a column, or an entire board for each category. Or you can put everything together and add notes next to images as a reminder of which category this is about. In Illustrator, I created an artboard for each category.
7. Create your final selection. You won't need all of your photos, and this is a good thing. While creating your vision board, you will realize that you don't have the space for everything you thought you wanted. Just choose the most important things.
8. Pin it. Save it. Live it. This is it. Your vision board is done. Keep it close, so you can check it out once in a while. Or don't. I didn't view my vision board for a year since I created it. The thought of having it and having gone through these steps just left an impression on me and stayed with me throughout the year, I guess.
Just remember who you are doing this for. And don't get discouraged if this takes multiple days. I started mine one week and finished it a week later. I almost didn't do it. Learn from me. This is worth your time and effort. You are choosing your future.
Good luck!
G-night
