Vision Boards Aren’t Just For The New Year—Create One For Fall In 6 Easy Steps

A vision board is simply a collection of images put together in a collage that represents your goals. It’s a beautiful way to keep you motivated. If you’re new to creating a vision board, it’s super easy and fun. Here are 6 steps you can take to make yours:

1. Think about Your Goals and If They Align with Your Values 

As humans, we’re naturally and inherently goal oriented. It’s so basic to us, you probably don’t even realize it. Are you thirsty? Your goal is to find water. Hungry? You’re already acting on your goal of finding food by walking to the fridge. You get the idea. 

But a life worth living is more than just food and water (although those are necessary!), and our goals and desires often reflect that. We might have financial goals, like buying a new car, or relationship goals, like finding our future husband. Maybe we have health goals, like exercising every day, or happiness goals, like spending more time with friends. Perhaps we want to travel more or finish our master’s degree or get that promotion at work.

When we’re reflecting on our desires and formulating them into goals, it’s essential to think about the things that are really important to us and that align with our values – otherwise, accomplishing them won’t fulfill our needs. According to Psychology Today,“If your goals are not aligned with your personal values, achieving these goals won't provide the sense of satisfaction and well-being that you're seeking.” 

2. Be Realistic When Setting Your Goals 

Sometimes we go in over our heads when we start making new resolutions. Change is an exciting thing, and we can sometimes create goals or timelines that are not realistic for ourselves. Instead, take baby steps, and set goals that are reasonable for your lifestyle. Or, break down bigger goals into smaller steps you can achieve over time. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, don’t go from not running at all to running 26 miles. You will simply let yourself down, and this will have a negative effect on accomplishing your goals. Start with one mile, and walk it if you have to. The same goes for everything else. 

3. Once You Have Set Your Goals, Get Creative 

After you have pondered life and its meaning and aligned it with your goals, it's time to actually create your vision board. You will first need images that represent the goals you have. You can find these in magazines, on the internet, or maybe it’s your personal photos. It doesn’t have to be all images of things and people, it can be words too. Use words of affirmation, inspirational words, an illustration of something, or a quote that means a lot to you. I’m personally a big fan of stoicism and quotes from ancient philosophers. They motivate me to look intently at my feelings and emotions to reevaluate my circumstances. 

4. Organize It To Flow Together 

Your vision board has to flow together, otherwise it might feel like a jumbled mess, and instead of motivating you, it might stress you out. If you’re confused about how to make it look organized, think about the timeline of your goals. There are some goals you can accomplish in a shorter amount of time than others, so start with those. Then put the more difficult goals in a separate spot, and organize them to flow together. 

Or maybe you want to organize by category, like career goals in one section and personal goals in another section and travel goals in a third. Basically, do what whatever makes sense to you and gives you a visual impression of organization and direction.

5. The Actual Vision Board Creation 

Once you have all of the images and word affirmations printed and cut out, form them into a collage. You will need a poster board and some glue or tape. Put everything together in an organized but creative way! You can make your board as simple or complex as you want it to be, but have fun with it! Round out the experience with your favorite music and a glass of wine or a mug of tea. The end goal of your vision board is for it to be eye-catching so that when you look at it each day it’s motivating and exciting. 

6. The Follow Up 

Now comes the hard part. After you’ve finished the vision board, put it somewhere where you will remember to look at it like your home office, bedroom, or bathroom, and make a point to reflect on it each day. If you create it and shove it in a closet, it's not going to motivate you in any way. Take some time each day to think about what goals you can tackle that day or week, and be intentional about working on them. 

Closing Thoughts

There is just something about images and power words that trigger emotion and purpose. It lights a spark in us that causes us to want to act. This is the exact reason for the vision board. It allows us to have all of our goals in one organized but fun place and reminds us to stay on track. So this fall, go ahead and make your board so that by New Year, you're already in the process of accomplishing new goals. 

Love Evie? Let us know what you love and what else you want to see from us in the official Evie reader survey.