Over the summer, I read a book called You are a Badass by Jen Sincero. I used to see it stacked up at the very front of the Barnes and Noble I worked at every day and had so many customers purchase it, especially around the holidays. So when I was looking for self-help books, I decided to give it a shot. Sincero gave very lighthearted and funny insights on how to realize your greatness and manifest your goals into reality. Part of the manifestation process included an idea I had never heard before, which was making a vision board.
A vision board is essentially a board you hang up in your room, dorm, or office with your goals and intentions plastered onto it. The idea behind it is that when you put your goals on this board and hang it in a place you can easily see it every day, your goals will manifest into reality. Basically, by constantly reminding yourself of your aspirations through this mini display, you subconsciously and consciously do things that will put you closer to achieving your goals until you eventually reach them.
So, after finishing the book, I decided to make my own vision board. Here is how to make a vision board and tips on how to make it effective.
Step 1: Get a Board
The first step is to get some type of board to put your goals upon. You can use basically anything as your board, from cardstock to wood boards. Corkboards seem to work best, as you can use push pins to put up your goals easily. If push pins pose a hazard, using tape to put up your aspirations works totally fine as well.
Step 2: Cut/Print Out Your Goals and Put Them on the Board
When choosing images to represent my goals, I first turned to magazines. I cut out many images I found throughout different magazines to represent my aspirations. For example, I cut out pictures of healthy foods to represent my goal of eating healthier. I also cut out text that said, “Healthy Eating,” on it to further remind myself of my goal. I also cut out the words, “Get a Good GPA,” from a teen magazine to remind myself of my goal of getting good grades this semester.
In general, the more specific you get on the board, the better chance you have at achieving those goals. This is where printing comes in handy. Printing allows you to look for specific images, and therefore, it makes your board more effective. For example, even though I had the goal of eating healthier on my board, I also went online and printed out the phrase, “Becoming a Vegetarian,” in order to first, set my goal of becoming vegetarian or at least less reliant on meat, and second, to set a specific goal in order to train my brain into striving for it.
Step 3: Hang the Board Up Where You Will See It
This is key to making your vision board as effective as possible. Being able to see your board every day trains your brain to focus on those goals, and therefore manifest them into reality. So the more visible it is to you, the more you will strive to accomplish what you have set out to do.
Step 4: Change it Up!
Don’t always keep your board the same. Change it up from time to time! People change and therefore goals change, so your board should always be reflecting your current goals. If there are still goals up there that you either successfully manifested into reality or no longer necessarily want to pursue, revamp it to reflect new aspirations.
Since hanging up my vision board over the summer in my room back home, I have been able to accomplish multiple things I have put up there. I scored an internship, I cut back on meat, and I am getting the grades I want to get this semester. Vision boards are, in the end, a great way to map your goals and are extremely fun to make and update. Have fun manifesting your dreams!