So this school term I’m making a ‘vision board’. It’ll be a visual representation of my goals, and I hope it’s going to motivate me more than goals written down in a notebook that I barely look at have been. I’ve made this post partly as a plan of how I want to make my board, partly as a tutorial of how you can make your own. Once I’m done I’d also like to film a video showing you what the completed board looks like, so keep an eye out for that! I’m pretty excited to do this project :)
To get started you’ll need a place to put your vision board, a board of some sort that you can stick stuff to, and a bunch of paper clips / tack pins / washi tape / anything else you can use to secure a bunch of paper onto your board.
Since the point of the vision board is to be something that you see / check in with regularly, it’s good to put it somewhere that you will naturally pass by a lot. I’m putting mine above my desk, but other places that’d work include a closet door or just inside the entrance to your house or room.
For the board itself, you could get a cork board, a magnetic board, a big piece of cardboard, or even a picture frame with string across it. Whatever you choose it’s best if you can easily add and remove things stuck to it.
who you are (personal image/‘brand’)
How do you define yourself? What ideas guide what you do? What are you good at? What are you not-so-good at? I’m a super self-reflective kinda person, so I think the best way to start thinking about who you want to be is to have a good idea of who are are now. Some things you could put on your vision board related to this include:
SWOT analysis - often used to evaluate organisations/businesses, but is a useful technique to study yourself personally too. It involves reflecting on your strengths, weaknesses, future opportunities, and threats to success. You can find plenty more specific advice for doing these if you just google ‘SWOT analysis’.
Your most important values. I was super extra doing this and made a list of about 20 traits I value before narrowing them down to my top 15 values using an online round robin tournament simulator. You don’t have to be that extra though. That’s just me.
Images (and objects if there is somewhere near your board that you can place them) that represent your hobbies, interests and identities. For example a hobby of mine is running a study blog, so I might include images of pretty notes and planners. An identity of mine is that I’m gay, so I might include a mini pride flag
Collage of images that represent your personal style. Could do this for clothing, makeup, your art, your room/house, and so on. Eg. For clothing you could include colours, textures, patterns, cuts, feature pieces, etc. This isn’t a super important thing to have on your board but I care a lot about being mindful of what I buy/use so I find having some guidelines for products that work well together to be useful.
Keep this updated as you change as a person! Who you are age 12 is way different than age 16, and again from 16 to 20 and 20 to 24 and so on!
aspirations / where you want to be
Next you can begin adding to your board things that represent changes you want to make in life, things you want to do and things you want to achieve. I think it’s best if these are your bigger / long-term goals - not just short-term tasks you need to get done. Things you might want to include are:
Mission statement - an explanation of how you want your values to actually be reflected in your life. Eg. if you value compassion, a part of your mission statement could be “I will try to understand how others feel and will act with sympathy towards these feelings”.
Mind map of key words that describe the things you want to be central to your self, lifestyle and career. You could even make seperate mind maps for each if you like. These should play to your central strengths and values. Eg. because I value authenticity to my identity, I want creative expression of who I am to be a central part of my lifestyle, and because I am good at staying organised, I would like a career where this skill can help me excel.
Images and quotes that visually represent a life that you would feel happy with - could be images of places you enjoy being, inspiration for hairstyles you want to try, anything that paints a clear visual image of where you want to be.
IMPORTANT: What I like to call ‘end goals’. By that I mean they are things you want to do/achieve in and of themselves, not because they will help you to achieve another, bigger goal. They are your main aspirations, NOT the steps to getting there. There are lots of ways you can set goals - you could organise them into short vs. long term goals, or by area of your life (eg. career, friendships, etc.). However you decide to do it, make sure you base them on your previous exploration of what you more widely want your life to be like.
how you’re going to get there
Here is where you outline the smaller goals that will bring you closer to achieving your ‘end goals’. You might want to include shorter term goals that are ‘milestones’ towards your larger ones, and/or you might want to get as specific as including tasks lists and habit trackers. However you may prefer to include the latter in a planner instead.
Once you’ve done this you should have a clear ‘action plan’ to guide how you spend your time. Of course you should be flexible with this - it’d be silly to restrict yourself to only doing things on this list, as this’d stop you from exploring potential new goals! However it can be a useful tool to help you keep in mind where you should be investing your energy.
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