Vision Board: The New New Year's Resolution

If you’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution, you know how hard it can be to stick with your goals. How do you know if you’re making progress toward your goal? You don’t… that is, until the end of the year, when it’s too late to change course. If you want to make your goals tangible and put them in perspective, vision boards are a fun and visual way to do just that.

A vision board is a tool that uses the power of positive thinking to help you achieve your goals. Think of it as a giant collage made up of pictures and words that represent aspects of your life you want to change –or even just things you want more out of life.

How to make your own vision board

Creating a vision board will help you visualise what your life will look like when you achieve them, thus, making them more tangible. Need proof? Here’s YouTube influencer and gal-about-town Lily Singh swearing by how vision boards have completely changed her life:

And because Lily Singh is magic, here’s everything you need to know about how to create your very own vision board and how to make it work for you.

#1 Gather some art supplies.

Grab a large piece of poster board or foam core from your local arts and crafts store, but if you don’t have time for that, there are plenty of other options. Any kind of lightweight cardboard will work well.

Next, choose your marker colours. You want at least three different colours with different tones – yellow, green and purple would work nicely, but it’s up to you how many you get! Just remember that too many colours can be distracting or difficult to read in poor lighting conditions.

You can find the rest of your supplies in your craft kit:

• A glue stick to keep everything together once all your ideas are on the board itself
• Scissors for cutting out pictures and words
• A ruler to helps keep things neat when adding lines between images
• A pencil to write notes on your vision board

#2 Make a to-do list

Write down all the things you want to accomplish in your life and narrow them down to a few key goals that can help you achieve your overall goal in your professional life and personal life.

Next, organise your to-do list into different categories. For example, if you want to explore your passions, write down ways to do so in the following categories:

• Career
• Hobbies and other interests
• Personal relationships
• Travel and adventure
• Finances
• Health and wellness

#3 Get your priorities straight

Once you’ve organised your list into categories, take a look at each one. Ask yourself how much time you spend on each category and whether that’s what you want or need in order to explore your passions. Is one or more categories taking up too much of your time? Consider making some changes.

For example, if you want to travel more but don’t have the funds for it, then consider saving up before booking a trip. Or maybe you want to learn a new skill but don’t know where to start with that goal in mind.

You can start by asking yourself what you truly want. You might be surprised at how many things you have on your “hobby list” that are just not a good fit for who you are and what makes you happy. If this is the case, then consider dropping those activities or hobbies from your list altogether.

#4 Choose your theme

This is the underlying idea that will guide you as you create your vision board. For example, if you want to get more organised, your theme might be something like “Minimalist”. Or if you want to focus on travelling more this year, your theme might be “Adventure”. Or if you’re hoping to get fit and healthy again, a theme like “Move” would work well.

Next, the look and feel. Start by choosing a background colour. You can choose any colour you like, but it’s best to stick with one that doesn’t clash with the other colours in your board. For example, black may be a good choice for dark themes like “Dance”, whereas white can work well for lighter themes like “Discover”.

How about the border of your board? It will help frame your images, so it’s important to choose one that complements the theme and colour you’ve chosen. For example, if you’re using a dark background colour like black or navy blue, try using a light or neutral shade for your border.

Finally, settle on a font colour that complements your board’s theme and colour. For example, if you’re using a light or neutral background colour, try using black or another dark shade for your text.

#5 Draw a grid on your board

Creating a layout for your board is easier to do with a grid, which will make your board look more organised. Just be sure that you’re using a grid that looks good and makes sense – don’t just throw random images on the board without any rhyme or reason behind it.

To mark your grid, all you need to do is to section your board into equal parts – like 3 x 6 or 5 x 7, it’s all up to you – then perhaps, you can use stencils, stickers or adhesive letters to create your pattern.

#6 Add words that inspire and motivate

Now, you’re ready to add text to your board. Add something to describe what you want, like affirmations or goals, but try not to make them too long. A few words are better than a paragraph, as they’re easier to read and will fit better on your board.

For example, let’s say your theme is “Organised”. You can simply write down “I am organised” or “My home is simple but elegant”. The more specific you can be, the better. Want to add a quote? Make sure it’s something that inspires you and is relevant to what you’re trying to achieve. For example, you can say something like “Organisation is freedom” or “A place for everything, and everything in its place”. These are short, powerful quotes that will help keep your motivation up.

You can also make up your own, but make sure they’re not too long or complicated. If you’re struggling with coming up with a few words, think about what is stopping you from achieving this goal and then write down how it will be solved once it’s achieved. For instance, it can go something like “I am so organised that I can find anything in my house in seconds!”

#7 The fun part: Decorate your board!

Cut out pictures from magazines, print out graphics from websites, and so on. A tip for adding photos: Let your grid (see Step #4) be your guide. If the images are too big, they’ll look awkward and out of place, so make sure that they’re small enough to fit. You can use a photo editing program like Photoshop or Gimp to resize and crop your images before printing them out.

Next, place your photos inside of the squares you marked earlier. You’ll want to leave some space around each photo so that it doesn’t look like they’re stuck together.

If you want to go all out with decorations, try using pictures that represent different aspects of your life. For example, if your board has themes like fun time with friends, put some pics of friends on there too. And don’t forget to add embellishments like markers, paint, glitter glue and stickers too!

Finally, don’t forget to add a picture of an item that represents your goal, make sure it’s something you can buy or find. For example, you want to be more organised, then maybe add a picture of a planner or calendar.

A vision board is a fun and creative way of turning goals into reality, and it’s not hard to do at all. It can be done in just a few hours with items you probably already have around the house. The key here is visualising those things so they seem real enough for you to reach out and grab them!

The final product may look like it came straight from Pinterest or Etsy – it’s all about presentation! Remember: it’s almost the new year now, so everything, as in life, needs sparkles. :)