My First Vision Board

When a friend invited me to her “vision board making” party, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for. I did not.

I’ve always thought that a vision board is a combination of words and pictures that represent all the things you want to manifest in your life. And it is, but the process was unique and eye-opening.

I encourage you to capture the energy of the new year and take some time this month to create your own vision board. Although you can do it by yourself, I found it was a fantastic experience with friends included.

Here is a list of what you’ll need:

– a journal (or a piece of paper)
– pencil or pen
– a stack of magazines (the more pictures the better)
– scissors
– glue stick, Elmer’s glue, tape, or your adhesive of choice (I’m a tape girl myself)
– a poster board, as big or as small as you like (mine was 20 in x 30 in)

1) Make a list of the things you desire in the new year (30 minutes).

This may sound simple enough – but here’s the kicker: you do this with your non-dominant hand. I’m right-handed, so I used my left hand. The process of writing with your non-dominant hand has a way of awakening the more creative part of your brain. I also found it forced me to write extremely slowly, changing the process by which I decided what to write down.

2) Browse through your magazines (30 minutes).

As you’re doing this, each time you see a photo/image/symbol/word that resonates with you, tear out the entire page. Try your best not to think about what you want your vision board to look like, or what you’ll do with these cutouts. The end result is inconsequential at this point. Your only task in this stage is to spot anything you like (for any reason) and tear out those pages, creating a stack. There were many instances during this stage when something grabbed my attention much to my surprise, and I tore it out not having the slightest idea what I would do with it. The answers came later.

3) Review your pages (60 minutes).

After you’ve gone through all your magazines, you’ll have a good-sized stack of pages. As you look over and review those pages, cut out in more detail the items that you want to include on your vision board. I found that some items which initially caught my attention no longer resonated with me, and then some new items jumped out at me which I hadn’t noticed before.

4) Create your board (60 minutes).

This is the fun part. Now that you have all these bits of imagery and words cut out, assemble them in whatever fashion feels right for you, and start pasting them onto your board. My experience was that it just made sense which items belonged together. Remember, there’s no right or wrong. As long as what you create resonates with you and gives you a feeling of hope and possibility for your upcoming year, you will have succeeded.

This experience of assembling a vision board did many things for me. First, it got me excited about the upcoming year and all the great things that can and will happen. Second, it was a wonderful experience to see the vision boards my friends made and realize that of course, no two people’s vision boards will look anything alike. Most importantly, now that I have my vision board hanging on the wall in my office, every time I look over at it, I remember the things that are most important to me. The big picture. And it reminds me of my intentions and what I care about above all else.