How Vision Boards help me stay focused!

 

I don't know about you but I kept seeing Vision Boards on my feed all over my socials, especially right before the new year. 

I dabbled into their use and into the process of making one 2 years ago and am currently working on my third one! Especially when you are a visual person like I am, vision boards can help you remind yourself of your goals in a very pleasant and cute way. 

In this blog post, I want to show you how I set up my vision boards and how they help me achieve my goals.

 

What is a vision board?

Quite simply, a visualization of your dreams and goals. What the board looks like is different for everyone. And that's the great thing, since it's YOUR vision board, you can make it look however you want. As a collage, a mind map, or maybe even a drawing? As long as it inspires you to pursue your goals and keep working on yourself, it doesn't matter what it looks like.

It also does not matter, when you create your vision board. I like to create mine around the end of the year, some of my friends like creating theirs every month and some need a vision board with every project or new goal they start with.

No matter the situation: If you want to have some sort of visual manifestation of your intentions and goals, a vision board might be a great method helping you out.

 

How do I create a vision board?

Everyone does this differently, so what I am describing is my way of creating a vision board. I also use vision boards for my goal setting and life improvement, so methods on creating vision boards for e.g. project management might look different.
Feel free to copy whatever serves you in the process and leave out whatever does not. 

1. I start off by picking a day when I felt good and have plenty of time. To get into a cozy and relaxed mood, I make myself some tea, put on some soothing music, and light my favourite candle. Of course, cozy clothes are also part of the whole ritual. I make sure to be relax and undisturbed, so that I can fully focus on me.

 2. I reflect on the past year and look at my old writing from the vision board making the year before, so that I can decide which life areas I want to improve, they usually are "body and mind", "relationships and self-love", "career" and "money".

3. After determining the categories, I ask myself what I didn't like about it this year. For "Money", for example, this could be that I make so many stress purchases which are leading into more debt and in turn that stresses me out. 
It usually is also not just one thing for one area, I usually write multiple things down. 

4. Then I, of course, also have to write down, what my ultimate goal in those life areas should be. Sticking to the money example, I would write "Instead of stress buying, I should go for a walk whenever things get too much for me. I also should try to learn, why I keep buying things whenever I am stressed, so I should take this with me to therapy."
While writing everything down, I am extremely honest with myself. Lying to myself or keeping things that don't feel good in my life to myself won't help me improve those things. Since no one will see these writings but me, I can be as honest as I want. 

5. After writing everything down, it usually is pretty clear which points I can summarize to a goal and what the action steps to reaching that goal have to be. I usually write them down in my Notion, since I plan my whole life in Notion but you can write them in a notebook too, which ever helps you for your planning.

6. After I found specific goals and improvements I want to achieve for next year, I try to find pictures that visualize thes goals. They dont have to be on the nose, just images that speak to me and remind me of that goal. Quotes or colors also work for me, so I have some of these on my boards as well. I usually find my pictures on Pintrest, Pixabay or Canva for this. After I found all my pictures and quotes, I form them together in a collage.

7. After creating and putting my pictures together, it is time for the most important step of the process: visibility! The board shouldn’t disappear in some corner, you have to hang it in a place where you walk by every day and see it. I have mine in my every day Notion set up, next to my desk as I spend a lot of time there and a smaller version on my refrigerator.This way I am always reminded of my goals, because I put them in places I see every day.

 

What have I already achieved with my vision board?

Creating a board is one thing but I also want to show you, that I also achieved some of the things I have on my boards. This is my vision board for 2024:

I struggled so much during pandemic times and the years after, that I wanted to focus on myself in 2024 and kinda be "reborn". Things I have achieved on here:

- I wanted to relaunch Story Sketcher after failing at it in 2022. As you can read these lines, it means I successfully launched it. (Image: Story Sketcher Logo)

- I wanted to love myself more and heal my inner child. And I actually started the process: I found a therapist that works with me on my depression and I am in talks with my doctor because I want to loose the weight I gained in the past 5 years. (Images: Hugging woman, teddy, "Love begins..."-sign)

- I also noticed that I didn't have much private life after work. So I started by getting into old hobbys of mine, which was a success. I read almost 60 books this year, played a ton of awesome videogames and got back into drawing and crafting. (Image: book)

- My home away from home has always been the UK and it has been a while since I have seen it's beauty. For a longer period of time. So I went to see my best friend this summer (Image: Tower Bridge).

I haven't been really successful with these other goals in terms of "I have finished them or made them into routines". But most of them I started which means I will continue them in the following year. Goals like launching Story Sketcher or starting my health journey will probably become more specific next year.

I cannot wait to get into the process of making my vision board again and I hope I was able to inspire you too! If you have a vision board, feel free to share it with me, I would love to see it!

 Yours