Do you set goals for yourself, either in your personal life or for your business?
If not, how do you know you’re growing or making progress?
When was the last time you allowed yourself to daydream about the type of life you want?
Do you know your WHY—the reason behind all the long hours you spend on your business?
You may realize that creating a vision board will allow you to do all these things, but you might be wondering: do vision boards work?
What is a vision board?
Vision boards—also referred to as dream boards, goals boards, or manifestation boards—have become more popular in recent years. To put it simply, a vision board is a collage of things you want to manifest into your life, usually by using Law of Attraction techniques.
People create vision boards especially around the New Year, but you can (and should!) create vision boards anytime you want and for more than just your New Year’s resolutions.
5 Ways Vision Boards Help You Achieve Your Dreams
A vision board is one effective tool that helps you visualize your dreams and your goals. If you’ve ever placed an inspiring image on your desk, as a phone background, or even taken a reference photo to your hairstylist, you’ve used the power of visualization.
Vision boards just turn this power up to 11.
This is especially true if you do more than just setting up a pretty picture of an ideal lifestyle. Vision boards are best used to frame your mindset and inspire you to take the necessary steps to achieve that lifestyle.
How so, you ask? Let’s take a look!
Build focus on what’s actually important
Vision boards force you to think about what’s most important to you. Whether you combine a personal vision board with a professional one or keep them both separate, thinking about what you want in life or in business forces you to prioritize what’s important.
Do you want to buy your first house or move to a warmer climate? Putting a photo of your dream location by the beach will inspire you to work harder and remind you to not undercut your prices. If you want to move, you alone can make that happen and you’ll make better business decisions based on that desire to move.
Improve your creativity
Visualization stimulates the creative side of your brain. Placing your vision board in clear sight of your desk, computer, or other workspace serves as a daily reminder of what you want to achieve.
I’ve found that this helps me a lot because I often catch myself becoming distracted or daydreaming while I’m working. The vision board serves as a reminder of what I can achieve if I get back to work.
Some believe keeping it open by your nightstand also helps stimulate your subconscious before you go to bed, making you more motivated when you wake up. You can give this a try and see how it works for you!
With your creativity soaring, remember to keep a notebook handy to jot down any notes and ideas you have to help you continue working towards your goals.
Recognize opportunities
Visualizing yourself working towards and living the life your primary goal creates will motivate you to work harder towards that goal.
Focusing on this goal helps you recognize new resources or opportunities. These are opportunities and resources that can lead you towards reaching your goal.
You may notice that some things may have in front of you all along, but you now see them in a whole new light. You’ll finally realize their potential as a way to help you reach your end goal.
Expand your comfort zone
Are you stuck in a rut because taking action would be uncomfortable?
Do you have a dream life that’s way different from how you currently live?
You can use a vision board as a way to broaden your horizons. Break out of your comfort zone by creating a vision board around a big, scary goal.
Acknowledging big goals—even if they seem scary and outrageous—will help you step out and take on new challenges. All in the name of reaching that scary goal!
For example, if your goal is to speak in front of an audience of 5,000 at your favorite conference, then you’ll start to seek out more opportunities for smaller speaking engagements.
These smaller gigs will give you lots of practice and build your name recognition. When the organizers of your favorite conference advertise they’re looking for speakers, you’ll be well prepared to submit your name! You’ll feel like you’ve worked to earn your place and suddenly that “big scary goal” isn’t so scary.
Become inspired to take action
Finally, this last benefit of using vision boards is that you’ll be inspired to take action. You’ll not only have a clear picture in your mind, but also a physical (or digital) representation of your action plan and the desired result.
Seeing this helps you move your efforts out of the daydream and into action. Nothing is going to happen without some action on your part.
Vision boards are not magic. They are a visualization tool that spurs you into action because you finally know what you want out of life.
Start your own vision board
It’s time to start your own vision board! Visualize your ideal life then approach each day with action steps that will lead you toward that ideal life.
Aside from these reasons, creating a vision board can be a relaxing and fun activity for yourself or your family as well. So grab some glue and some old magazines and start daydreaming!
