Whether you have read about it, heard about it from a friend or seen it on social media, vision boards have been finding their way into modern society quite a bit over the past few years.
While the concept behind vision boards has been around for decades, it wasn’t until the book The Secret reached the New York Times Best Sellers list that vision boards started making their way into popular culture.
Whether you are intrigued by the idea or not, if you haven’t given vision boards a chance, there is no better time to dive in and start learning more about all of the hype behind these simple yet effective goal setting tools.
Why should you take the time to create these vision boards?
Because, when executed and utilized properly vision boards can actually help manifest your dreams into reality and help make all of the goals that you have for your future come true.
While it may sound too good to be true and while vision boards aren’t a replacement for hard work and dedication, these visualization tools are extremely powerful and they have a great deal of research and success stories behind them to prove they are no joke. While the boards themselves, filled with positive affirmations and photos from magazines aren’t going to magically make your dreams come true overnight, they can help you mentally visualize a future where your dreams are a reality and help keep you focused and putting the right energy into what you want most in life.
What Exactly Are Vision Boards?
One of the best things about vision boards and one of the reasons that they work so well for so many people, is that they can be completely different from person-to-person. Vision boards are all about putting images, positive words, feelings and affirmations in one visually enticing package to help you visualize your future.
What inspires you, motivates you and makes you feel a certain way, may not have the same effect on someone else. You may post a picture of a home that represents the million dollar dream home, spouse and children that you want in the future, and it may be a really emotional photo for you that keeps you motivated every day. However, someone else may glance upon that same photo and only see a building.
When you start creating your vision board, you need to make it as personal as you can. It doesn’t matter if the dreams that you represent on your board may not be someone else’s dreams or that they may not seem important to your friends or family. Your vision board should be all about you and what the images and words on the board mean to you. This is how vision boards are able to be effective.
How Do They Work?
Creating a vision board is a very personal process. It shouldn’t take long to create, you simply need to cut out images and words from magazines and arrange them in a way that is visually appealing to you. Every vision board is going to look different.
There are some who may even prefer to make digital vision boards. There are apps, programs and websites all designed for those who wish to create their boards online and who want to be able to access their vision boards on-the-go from their handheld devices.
From there, you want to make sure that you look at or at least reference your vision board daily. This will help bring clarity to the goals that you have for yourself and your future, help you reinforce your daily affirmations and help you bring attention to your intentions.
The key to actually helping these vision boards “work” is all in actually using them. There are some people who prefer to look at their vision boards in the morning before they get started with their day. You don’t have to look long, just give it a few minutes. Perhaps you put your vision board in your closet or bathroom so you can look at it while you get ready for the day, or where you prefer to enjoy your coffee in the morning. The key is putting somewhere that you can look at your board every day.
This is the key to bringing attention to your intentions. Simply creating the board is half the battle.
There are others who prefer to look at their vision boards right before bed. There is a school of thought that looking at your vision board before going to sleep will cause you to let your visions slip into your subconscious and encourage you to unintentionally think about your visions as your drift off to sleep.
Either way, it is important that you take the time to find a system that works for you so that you can make viewing and reviewing your vision board part of your daily routine.
Attracting What You Want Most
So much of how vision boards work all has to do with your own mental state. You still have to do the work, vision boards won’t do it for you, but they can be extremely powerful in helping you manifest your dreams into reality.
First and foremost they help you focus your attention on the specific things that you want for yourself and for your life in your future. You may go through life claiming, thinking or even dreaming about “finding success,” but what does success mean to you? Is it a certain amount of money? Is it fame? Is it a position at work? Is it having a nice home or a nice car?
If you go through life just wanting to be successful, you will never reach your full potential of success, because you aren’t putting your energy specifically in to what it is that success means to you.
This is why vision boards need to be specific, and include visual cues, feelings and positive words that you can focus on as it will help you both intentionally and unintentionally put energy into making those things part of your future.
For example, say you really want an expensive designer handbag. It is all you can think about and you really wish you could afford it. Chances are, everywhere you go and every magazine you flip through you are going to automatically notice people with that handbag. In fact, it’s probably going to all of a sudden seem like everyone on every reality show and in every magazine is carrying that handbag that you want.
This is because you have put your attention on something very specifically, and whether you realize it or not you are scanning the world around you for these handbags. The bags have always been there, you just haven’t noticed them before.
Think about how often this has happened in your life, even if you found it frustrating. Think about how much those things seemed to wander into your life, even if you weren’t consciously trying to make it happen. Now, think about a vision board, and how if you purposefully put your attention on these items each and every morning when you woke up, how much more do you think you would attract those things in your life?
It is a simple concept, but it is all based on attention, intention and energy. If you put your attention on something intentionally and start focusing the right positive energy towards it, it is much more likely that these things, goals, dreams and ideas will come your way.
The key to making all of this work is of course to start with a positive, focused, intentional and specific vision board. Remember the positive part too, because energy works both ways, if you focus on negativity in life, it can also find its way into your life.
Once you have the right vision board, you need to make it part of your everyday life, you need to give it the attention that it deserves. Maybe you start your day by looking at your board, or end your day with it. Either way, giving your board this attention will be your key to manifesting your dreams into your reality.
Recently I was asked to guest blog for Finerminds a personal wellness blog that is about " the commitment to fostering a thriving community of people who want to better themselves and the world around them." So from time to time I will be posting guest blogs from the Finerminds team, like the one above.
Here is a bio on it's founder Vishen Lakhiani and the Mindvalley team.