Vision Board – Mapping Your Goals

2009 is almost upon us and many people have already started drafting their New Year resolutions. Whether it’s losing weight or getting a raise or promotion, everyone has goals they want to achieve. Creating a vision or dream board can help identify and clarify your goals. Using a vision board to focus on your goals is a simple technique to help you achieve them.

A vision or dream board is a visual representation or collage of the things that you want to become or do in your life. It is a simple, yet powerful, tool that activates the law of attraction to begin manifesting your dreams into reality. The idea is that when you surround yourself with images of what you want out of life, your life changes to match those images and desires.

The idea of the vision board has been around for decades, but interest in the concept was renewed after talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey acknowledged that she collected pictures and created a vision board showing Illinois Senator Barack Obama winning the Presidential election.

A vision board is typically a large poster board with a collage of images, drawings, and/or writings pasted on it. By selecting pictures and writings that you are passionate about, you will begin to manifest those things into your life. Vision boards make your goals visible and remind you of what you are working towards. They also allow you to choose your purpose in life.

Before you create your vision board, sit quietly and ask yourself what it is you really want. With a clear vision in mind, turn on some soft music and begin creating your vision board.

Creating Your Vision Board:

Supplies Needed:

1. Poster board or foam core board

2. A large assortment of magazines (If you don’t have any, ask your friends, family, dentist or doctor for old copies)

3. Scissors

4. Glue stick or rubber cement

Step 1: Compile your pictures. Go through your stack of magazines and cut out images relevant to your goals. Don’t glue yet. Simply select images, phrases, and headlines that excite you at the mere sight of them.

Step 2: Sort the images. Sort through the pile of images and select the ones that have the deepest emotional impact.

Step 3: Arrange and paste. Paste a radiant picture of yourself in the center of the board. Arrange and glue your images creatively on your board. Feel free to paint or draw on it with markers if you want. Leave room to affix two labels on the bottom of board that read: “Date created: ___________” and “Date Manifested: ___________.”

Step 4: Hang. Hang your completed vision board in a strategic location such as an office or bedroom; somewhere you will see it often. This will keep your goals in front of your eyes.

When creating your vision board, it is important that you not only create it, but actually use it! Don’t just look at the pictures on your vision board, take a minute and really FEEL the images. Think of what it will feel like when the pictures on your vision board actually become part of your life. FEELING is what makes vision boards work.

Vision boards are inexpensive to make, but their potential value to you is immeasurable. With the new year upon us, I encourage you to take the time to figure out what you want in your life and then create a vision board to help turn your dreams into reality.

To quote Mark Victor Hansen, co-founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.”