Visualize Your Goals with a Vision Board

Do you have a vision for what you want your life to look like?

There are two sayings that mirror each other, both of which are true:

“You’ll believe it when you see it,”

and

“You’ll see it when you believe it.”

In other words, it’s easier to realize a goal that you truly believe in, and THAT’S easier when you can picture it in your mind’s eye.

But what if you’re mind’s eye needs prescription glasses? You might need a little help to see your way to your goals.

This week’s post will give you some great ideas about how to do that.

It’s an excerpt from Paula Rizzo’s new book, Listful Thinking: Using Lists to be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed.

Full disclosure: Paula and I share a publisher, which is how I came to learn about her book.

Take it away, Paula…

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 Visualize Your Goals

I’m not arts-and-crafty, but at the beginning of every year, I make a vision board. It’s my one craft project for the year, and it’s so much fun.

Reading magazines is my guilty pleasure, and it comes in handy for this task. I rip out pages of pictures and words that speak to me, and then I glue my favorites onto a poster board.

What is a Vision Board?

A vision board is a place for all the things you’d like to accomplish, places you’d like to go, and things you enjoy. If you use this tool as a jumping off point for your goals, you are more likely to achieve them.

I use it as a reminder of my goals, like having a three-bedroom apartment or going to Venice. I also put photos of people I admire, things I enjoy such as drinking tea, and other ambitions, including writing this book.

It’s imperative to be able to visualize your goals, even if only on paper. This all goes back to the credo, “You become what you believe.”

There Are No Rules

Your vision board can include photos, drawings, or inspirational words. If you are super crafty, you can use fabric and other textures as well. There is no right way to do it.

The photos can be places you’ve been, places you want to go, outfits you like, things you’d like to buy, kitchens you want to model yours after, or anything else that makes you smile.

You can be literal or creative with your choices. I’ve included photos of champagne because it’s one of my favorite drinks, but also, it symbolizes celebrations. I’d like to have a lot of things to celebrate.

Along that line, my vision board includes a photo of someone filling out thank-you cards, not because I particularly like writing thank-you cards but because I’d like to have lots of reasons to say thank you.

I purposely leave some white space on my vision board so that it can evolve throughout the year. Whenever I see a photo that catches my eye or I think of something I want to achieve, I add it.

My vision board hangs inside my closet door. This way I’m sure to see it every morning when I get dressed.

You can make your board by hand, the way I do, or you can make one digitally on your computer.

Here are some places where you can keep your vision board:

1. On your desk in a frame
2. Pinned up on a cork board
3. As your desktop wallpaper
4. In a book that you carry with you
5. On your phone in an app, such as  Vision Board Deluxe by Happy Tapper
6. On Pinterest.com
7. On Dreamitlive.com

I think this would be a fun activity to do with friends or even with kids. Kids can make their own vision boards with activities and places they want to go throughout the year. You’ll be surprised how much of an influence these vision boards can have on them.

You can even make it a tradition to check out last year’s vision board on New Year’s Eve to see how much they’ve done in the past year. Then make a new board on New Year’s Day.

But you don’t have to do this at the beginning of the year; you can make a vision board at any time!

Remember, though, that just having a vision board isn’t enough. We must actively work toward our goals.

Paula Rizzo is an Emmy award winning television news producer in New York City.  She’s also the founder of the productivity site ListProducer.com and author of Listful Thinking: Using Lists to be More Productive, Highly Successful and Less Stressed.