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How to Create A Vision Board for 2021

A new year is upon us and I for one am ready to be done with the shit show that was 2020. 

Whenever a new year happens many of us set New Years Resolutions i.e “eat healthier, work out more, meditate every day” and while these are well-intentioned many of us fall off the wagon by late January, and if your lucky maybe early February. 

But what if there was a way to help keep these intentions in mind? Possibly even program them into your subconscious so that you have a much higher chance of sticking to them?

This is where a vision board comes in!

While the term “vision board” can seem “woo-woo” to many of us it is actually one of the best ways to program your goals and ideals into your subconscious.

By seeing images of your goals and desires you have a much higher chance of sticking it through until these goals become a reality! 

My 2021 Vision Board!

Why Should You Create a Vision Board?

Reason #1: A Vision Board Brings Clarity

When you create a vision board you first have to go through the process of figuring out what the heck you want to put on it!

By asking yourself  “What kind of person do I want to be? Where do I want to live? What do I want to manifest in my life?”

You consciously decide what you want your life to look like. 

 You take yourself out of the passenger seat and step into the driver seat. 

After setting your goals you can find pictures that represent these goals- the vision board then becomes a clear picture of the kind of life you wish to live and helps you to stay motivated towards making it a reality.

Knowing what you want is essential to getting it, without the knowledge of where you want to go, how do you expect to end up there? 

Reason 2: A Vision Board Can Help Program Your Subconscious

Your mind is like an iceberg, the conscious mind (your thinking mind) is the top of the iceberg- the 5% you can see, while the subconscious mind is the 95% below the surface. 

In fact, around 95% of the decisions you make every day are due to the subconscious. 

The beliefs, biases, and habits that are programmed into the subconscious work to guide our life from the inside.

One author described it as “the silent pilot” 

The subconscious mind runs the show.

Maxwell Maltz, the author of the widely successful book “Psycho-Cybernetics” believes that our brain works much as a computer does.

The subconscious mind, when implanted with an idea or goal, will seek out and start to notice all of the things in the surrounding environment that will help bring about this goal to reality. 

Have you ever noticed that when you really want a car you start to notice on the road everywhere?

Or when you start getting into a hobby you begin to notice people all over doing the same hobby? 

These people and cars were always there, you just weren’t focusing on them. 

When you begin to consciously focus on something with enough desire and frequency you translate this desire into your subconscious and it unconsciously begins to seek out ways to make this desire a reality. 

This is where a vision board comes in!

When you focus on what you want, translate it into images that make you feel happy, and put it in front of you frequently, you begin to program your subconscious mind to search for ways to make these become a reality!

You utilize that 95% of your brain to work for you, not against you! 

Reason #3: A Vision Board Makes the Dream Real

The final benefit of a vision board is something I briefly noted in the last section, visualization. 

Olympic athletes around the world use the technique of visualization to prepare mentally for the task at hand- winning the Olympic medal!

This technique has been studied extensively on downhill skiers.

When sports psychologist Richard Suinn asked his skiers to simply imagine their routes he found that the same electrical signals were being sent through the body as when they were actually running the route! 

Another exciting example comes from an experiment that was done at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. 

Participants were asked to simply imagine flexing their biceps as hard as possible.

After only a couple of weeks, there was a 13.5% increase in strength! How amazing! 

It turns out that the body cannot tell the difference between what is being experienced in physical reality and what is being imagined!

If you can begin to “see” yourself as the person who already has everything on this vision board, and “feel” the way you would feel if you already had everything you desired you begin to physically and mentally form into that person.

This helps you take the action necessary to turn the vision board into your personal reality.

My Fall 2020 Vision Board!

How to Create A Vision Board

Step #1: Get Clear on What Your Goals Are

When beginning your vision board it is essential that you have already written out your goals for the year or season!

You want to have a clear vision going into collecting images so that you can accurately paint a picture of what you want your life to look like.

Make sure to focus on not only number type goals but also goals on how you want to feel!

Your subconscious reacts to images and feelings- these are what cement the goals into your subconscious mind as it essentially conveys “this is important”

Personally, I like to create goals for a couple different parts of my life, these include: 

1. Financial- Where do I want to be in a year? How much money will I be making? What type of lifestyle do I want to have? What does success mean to me?

2. Career – What career am I building? What would bring me joy in my career? Where do I want to be in a year? What does my ideal job look like? What does success feel like to me?

3. Relationships- Who do I want in my life? What type of feelings do I want to get from my relationships? What do we do together? How are my friendships? My family relationships?

4. Health – What is my goal body image like? How do I feel in my body? What kind of food do I want to nourish myself with? Do I have a specific exercise or activity goal? (i.e climb Mt.Hood, do 5 pull-ups etc.)

5. Creative – What do I want to create this season of my life? Are there any skills I want to learn?

6. Travel/Activities- Where do I want to see this year/season? Any new activities that I want to try out? What about local activities and travels?

7. Spiritual- Do I have a spiritual habit I want to implement (i.e meditation, prayer) ? How do I connect to my intuition? What brings me joy- and how can I do more of this?

Step #2: Collect Images for Your Vision Board

The next step of the process is one of my very favorites, collecting the images!

As you can see from my vision boards I try to collect not only images but quotes as well.

I love how words can invoke so many different feelings- from motivation to love the opportunities are endless.

My favorite places to search for images and quotes are:

1. Instagram- I save a ton of photos throughout the year so I just go through my saved folder and screenshot.

2. Pinterest- I have an inspirational quotes board here if you want to check it out!

3. Tumblr- While tumblr is pretty outdated at this point I always felt that it had the artsiest photos and was where I initially got the idea to create a vision board. You can check out my tumblr here.

I personally like to save all of my images and quotes in a folder specifically for my vision board.

This allows for an easy process when I am creating the actual collage.

A question my friends used to ask me when I was helping them create their vision boards (we would have fun nights creating them together!) was, “how do you know which images to choose?”

I think the best images and quotes do 1 of 3 things:

1. They help you feel the emotions you want to evoke from a certain goal

2. They help you visualize yourself in that position (try using an image of someone that looks a bit like you!)

3. They feel possible for you- a good goal is something that will stretch you but not be completely out of the realm of what you believe to be possible for yourself.

Make it believable and it will work so much better!

Step #3: Make the Collage!

Yay! You made it to the best part of the process, making the collage!

I love this part as it is when you get to see your dream reality come together into one image.

There are two ways to make the collage:

1. Physical- by either printing out images or cutting them from a magazine you can make a physical version that you glue together or pin to a cork board!

Pinning it to a cork board gives you the flexibility to change the board whenever you like.

2. Digital- this is my favorite way. I personally use Canva or Indesign to create my vision board and size it so I can use it as my laptop wall paper or phone background.

By using a digital platform you are able to draw from any image source you like and you are saving paper!

How to Create A Vision Board Using Canva

Here is a step by step explanation on how to create a vision board utilizing the free tool called “Canva”

1. Go to the website www.canva.com

2. Click the purple button “Create A Design” in the upper right hand corner

3. Type in what you want to create in the search field. Canva already has preset dimensions for you to use for “phone wallpaper” and “desktop wallpaper” but I find that the desktop wallpaper is too small for the size of my laptop! I prefer to go to “create a design” and then custom size at the bottom of the list and use the pixel dimensions below!

Phone: 1080×1920

Desktop: 4500 x 2460

To make sure the desktop size will fit your specific laptop go to the bottom corner after choosing your size and click the expand button next to the percentage- this will show you if the size will fill the whole screen or not.

4.Once you have picked your design size you can begin to upload your images. On the far left hand side, under “templates” is an “upload” tab. Click on this tab and click “upload media”

5. Once you have your images uploaded simply click on them and they will appear on the document– from here you can resize, crop and organize as you please!

I personally like to space quotes out evenly, spread out colors evenly and image types.

6. Once you are done filling your board you are going to want to export it. The download button is in the upper right hand corner. Click this button and change the suggested file type to “jpg”

7. Add to your background!

On a windows computer simply right click on your wallpaper, click “personalize”. Under “choose your picture” click browse and find your image. It should now showcase as your background!

On a mac computer go to the apple menu, system preferences, then desktop and screensaver and click desktop images (make sure your photo is somewhere on the desktop so you can access it) Choose your image and there you go!

Step #4: Display it Where You Will See it All the Time!

This is one of the most important steps!

While the process of simply creating a vision board can be hugely therapeutic, one of the biggest benefits comes from seeing the board every single day!

In the book “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill speaks about the concept of “autosuggestion”.

Auto suggestion is essentially self hypnosis and is the #1 way Napoleon Hill recommends infusing information into your subconscious.

Through studying the most successful people on the planet Napoleon came to the conclusion that one of the things they did the best was infuse themselves with their own consciously chosen beliefs and goals.

By exposing yourself everyday, multiple times a day to your vision board you are essentially infusing yourself with the reality you want to create!

I would recommend putting this vision board somewhere you see everyday.

For instance, I use my laptop screensaver, some of my friends use a phone screensaver, and others print it out and tape it to their mirror in their bathroom.

My Winter 2020 Vision Board!

When to Create A Vision Board

Annually

One of the best times to create a vision board is at the beginning of the year!

Similar to New Years Resolutions, this sets off your new year on the right foot and allows you to reflect on and visualize everything that is possible in the coming year.

Seasonally

My next favorite time to create a vision board is by seasons!

I will usually do this a couple of weeks before the season is beginning so I can get excited for the next chapter of the year.

This helps me decide on locations I want to adventure to, the types of photos I want to create and the goals I want to accomplish that season.

For Goals!

Finally, anytime you have a new goal! 

I love creating a vision board for different aspects of my life, especially if I am kicking off a new habit.

This process helps me visualize who I will be with this new habit and goal, why I want to achieve it and motivates me to begin!

Below you can see my vision board I created for health and fitness this past year.

My Health 2020 Vision Board!

Conclusion

A vision board is one of my favorite forms of goal setting, it helps you not only visualize and clarify your goals but gives you the ability to embed a vision of your new self into your subconscious mind.

By utilizing the website Canva anyone can make a vision board that can make an amazing desktop background, phone background or printable for their room.

Let me know if you have ever created a vision board before or plan on it! I would love to see what you create 🙂

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