Create a meaningful vision board for the new year with my step-by-step process for setting goals, choosing themes, and aligning with real life.
Why I Create a Vision Board Every Year
At the start of each year, one of my favorite activities is creating a vision board. Not only is it a great way to kick off the new year with some creativity, but it is also a simple opportunity to intentionally set your goals, and for lack of a better word, your vision for the new year.
I find the process of setting goals, searching for inspiration, printing my favorite images, and turning them into a collage relaxing and exciting. A vision board symbolizes possibility and hope for all the opportunities that lie ahead. It also serves as a visual reminder every single day what you are working towards. In the past, I would simply write down my resolutions, which I still recommend doing, but the added layer of assembling a collage of inspiring images ensures that, even on your least motivated day, you are reminded of your purpose.
For the last three years, I have diligently assembled a vision board for each new year. I have found this to be effective in keeping me focused on my goals.
What a Vision Board Means to Me (And What It Doesn’t)
Creating a vision board for the new year extends beyond simply goal setting. Yes, goal setting is the first step in the process, but a vision board is an elevated view of your goals. Primarily, it speaks to the themes of your goals, rather than an item-by-item list. This allows for a bit more flexibility and enables you to view the big picture. Where I have faltered in the past with fulfilling my resolutions is struggling to see how the day-to-day actions build to the broader vision. However, with a vision board it feels more tangible to envision how the actions I take everyday help me work towards the big picture.
The vision board process also enables you to create clarity for your lifestyle. I feel that my vision board truly reflects not only who I am, but who I strive to be. Your vision board should tell a story about who you want to be in the new year. While I do value lofty visions and goals to push yourself, I staunchly believe that a vision board and resolutions are much more effective when your goals and resolutions are grounded.
Reflecting on the Past Year
A crucial step in the vision board process is to reflect on the previous year. Some key questions I like to ask myself are:
- What did I do well?
- What were areas that I did not do as well?
- What patterns did I develop that were positive?
- What habits would I like to break? Or introduce?
These are just a few prompts to help you get started, but the overall goal of this exercise is to think about your achievements and your gaps. This reflection will help you uncover the patterns, habits, and goals that you want to continue, break, or add.
Choosing Themes Instead of Just Goals
After years of creating vision boards, I have found that the best approach is to compile your goals into themes. Then, leverage these themes to create your vision board.
Themes that consistently surface for me are:
- Personal Growth & Learning
- Health & Wellness
- Financial Intentionality
- Relationships
- Creativity, Curiosity & Hobbies
- Career Expansion
- Routines & Self-Care
These are actually the themes I used for my vision board this year. In years past, I was much more specific, resulting in twice as many themes. While this can be effective, it can also feel less focused. Therefore, as you are building your list of themes try to think about how you can sort your goals into high-level themes. I would recommend using tools, such as ChatGPT, to help you place goals into related themes. For example, I used to have separate categories for Lifestyle, Routine, Self-Care, and Mindfulness. However, once I wrote down all of my goals and asked for ChatGPT to sort all my goals into themes, it identified that all of these items were related to one another and could be encompassed under Routines & Self-Care.
By focusing on themes, searching for visual inspiration on platforms, such as Pinterest, will become purposeful and narrowed.
Gathering Visual Inspiration
I search for all of my aesthetic pictures for my vision board on Pinterest. The process is as simple as searching for pictures that speak to you, saving them on your device, then sending them to your local drugstore or printing shop. This should not be an expensive activity so be sure to look for promo codes for reduced photo printing prices.
Personally, the closest drug store to me is CVS so I just upload all of my pictures to CVS photo and print. There are frequently 50% off promo codes for photo prints, so be sure if you are using CVS that you wait for the discount. This is similar for Walgreens.
When searching for pictures, focusing on the themes you selected is very helpful to ensure alignment between your goals, themes, and vision board.
Assembling the Vision Board
Putting together a vision board is very simple. There are a few ways you can put your board together, including arranging them in a frame or gluing them to a poster board. However, I recommend buying a cork board. I bought one from Target a few years ago and it makes it super easy to replace my vision board year-over-year. Once you have your printed pictures, I recommend clearing a countertop or table so you can place the cork board and images on the surface. This should be a relaxing, creative process, so I like to set the ambiance with a candle, make a cup of tea or coffee, and play low-key music in the background. This helps me center and focus on the project at hand.
I recommend sorting the images into themes and laying all of the pictures out on the counter so that it is easy to see all the images. Next, I pull the pictures that inspire me the most and start arranging them on the cork board. I do not pin them on the cork board yet because I want to remain flexible until I am certain of the layout. While this process is very unique to each person, I tend to group images by theme. While this is not necessary, I recommend grouping by theme to keep the board focused and clear.
Tip: You may need overlap or cut some of the images to ensure that the pictures fit on the board.
Placing & Revisiting Your Vision Board
I recommend putting your vision board in a location that you look at every day. For example, I hung my vision board in my office because I sit at my desk every day which means that I look at it constantly. Wherever you hang or prop up your vision board, just ensure that it is in a spot that you know you will see every day.
The daily visual reminder is part of what makes a vision board so effective in maintaining motivation. My vision board inspires me to keep pushing towards my goals and to not give up, even when I feel tired or unfocused.
How I Use My Vision Board Throughout the Year
My vision board tends to stay the same throughout the year. While the cork board approach most certainly allows for flexibility, I like to think of it as permanent so that my focus doesn’t waiver. This is why I highly recommend your goals and themes being realistic and grounded so that your vision board is both aspirational and attainable. Approaching the vision board with this mentality will make revisiting the vision board throughout the year focused and fun. Each month, I recommend checking in on your vision board and accompanying goals to reflect upon what is going well and what needs to be improved.
Tips for Creating a Vision Board That Actually Feels Aligned
The fabulous part about creating a vision board is it is entirely yours. From the goals you write to the themes you select to the images you print, every single aspect should speak to you and inspire you. Therefore, if you are true to yourself throughout each step of the process, then your vision board should feel aligned to your resolutions. To ensure this alignment, just remember that from beginning to end it is important to truly focus on you and what you want to achieve. Misalignment will happen if you make comparisons to other people or use themes that do not feel personal to you.
It is also helpful to allow for flexibility to update your vision board if you ever feel like your goals have changed and your vision board no longer aligns with your goals. This is why I love using a cork board so that if you ever need to make a change, it is fairly easy to rearrange and exchange images. While I tend to set my vision board for the year, I also believe it is important for your board to evolve with your needs. This is why the monthly check-in is so valuable because it sets aside concentrated time to evaluate where you are and where you want to go.
Final Thoughts: Let Your Vision Board Support You, Not Stress You
Your vision board should be fun and inspirational! It should not be a source of stress. Rather, the vision board should be leveraged as a visual reminder that holds you accountable to the big picture. If you ever find yourself looking at your vision board feeling guilty or stressed because you are struggling to live up to the vision, just take a deep breath and reflect upon why these feelings are surfacing. It may be a sign that your goals are either not attainable and should be adjusted or you need to reevaluate your routine to enable you to fulfill your vision.
Just remember, your vision board is not about achieving perfection. The vision board should provide clarity and focus on the big picture to inspire you to fulfill your goals.
Additional Notes:
Pair the Physical Vision Board with Digital Collage
This year I decided to experiment with creating a condensed version of my physical vision board into a digital board. To do this, I simply utilized the same images that I printed for my physical board and arranged them in Canva on a single page to create a collage of images to form a digital vision board. I then downloaded it as an image and set it as the background on my laptop and added it as a widget on my phone. By having both a physical and digital version of my vision board, I am consistently reminded of my goals no matter where I am.
Separate Board for Focused Interests
While this is likely not necessary for everyone, I have one separate vision board specifically for travel. Travel is a huge part of my life so I decided to extract my travel inspiration images from the main vision board to make room for images that speak more to my daily routine. On the primary vision board, I still pin an image to symbolize travel, such as an airplane, but for pictures specific to the travel destinations I have a separate board for that collage. Again, this is likely excessive for most people, but if you have a theme that you feel needs its own focus this may be an option to consider.
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