How to Make a Kickass Vision Board that you ACTUALLY Manifest
Your wildest dreams, beautifully visualized.
Creating a vision board is a beautiful process in which you listen to all the things you want (which you think are crazy), and put them on paper anyways to inspire you and keep you focused on working towards what you really want.
It’s meditative, it’s vulnerable, it can feel daunting, but in the end, it’s incredibly rewarding.
If you take your time, and if you fill your vision board with the dreams and desires that are 100% true to you (and not what anybody else wants of you), you will be left with a tangible and real representation of your goals and visions that will keep you authentic to yourself, and will leave you clear, focused, and inspired to take action on your dreams.
If you’re ready to make a kickass vision board that will actually manifest into reality, then strap in and let’s have some fun!
Before getting started:
Gather your materials:
- A poster board – Pick a size that works for you, preferably one that can be hung over your desk or somewhere you can easily see it every day.
- Beautiful words & images – Grab some magazines, postcards, and other material that inspires you. I also like pulling affirmation cards, using Instax photos that I’ve taken, and using lots of pretty stickers.
- Crafting materials – Paper-cutting scissors, glue sticks, washi tape, etc. – you just need to be able to cut & paste.
- Pen & paper – Make sure you have some paper (could be your journal!) and a pen or pencil that you love.
Set aside some time
- You’re going to want to give yourself between 2-4 hours to really allow yourself to do this process mindfully, thoroughly, and without being rushed.
- You don’t have to do everything in one go – you can start your vision board one day and come back to it another. However, try to finish it within 7-10 days, so you can keep the momentum going, and get your vision board up in front of you!
Get in a quiet place with no distractions
- Pick a place that is clean, that inspires you, where you can have space to spread out and craft and feel like you can truly be yourself, where no one is watching you or going to distract you.
Let’s get started!
1. Prepare Your Mindset – Tap, Meditate, Vizualize
To create a vision board that you are actually going to want to look at every day, and that will truly inspire you and keep you clear and motivated throughout the year, we first must get very clear on what we want to accomplish this year. Everything that is going on your vision board needs to be something you are 100% aligned on and excited about – no wishy-washy dreams!
So – let’s get into the mindset of being honest with ourselves, and really letting ourselves dream, no holding back.
Here’s how we’re going to do this:
Tapping
Tapping is a process called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which can be used to work through emotional or physical distress or pain. It is a self-sufficient process that you do by yourself, which consists of tapping on specific points on the body while talking through emotional issues, problems you’re working on, or anything you want to improve.
We are going to use tapping to get into the mindset of trusting ourselves, listening to our inner voice, and setting the intention for creating clarity, vulnerability, and moon-shots for our vision board goals!
To begin, play and follow along with the tapping video below:
Meditation
When you’re done with your tapping, we’re going to go right into meditation – close your eyes and breathe. Relax your jaw, your shoulders, your neck, your face, your mouth, and anything that is tense. Whatever you felt come up while you were tapping, sit with it now. Your goal with this quick meditation is to get silent and start looking inside yourself.
Be here for a few minutes, feeling for body sensation, looking for emotional cues in the body, and just breathing.
Visualization
After a few minutes of meditation to integrate all that came up for you during the tapping session, you’re going to start to visualize your goals.
Begin to intentionally daydream: What are you excited about this year? What dream gets your heart rate going whenever you think about it? What have you been wanting for a while now, but haven’t let yourself actually go for?
You want to start thinking about all of your goals, all the things you want to achieve, and most importantly, let yourself truly believe that you can accomplish them. Visualize yourself at the finish line of all those dreams – what does it feel like? What do you look like? What are you doing? Where are you? Who are you with? Vividly create your perfect life to every last detail.
Optional: You can use the first two songs on the playlist below for your visualization. After you’ve finished songs #1 and #2, that’s your cue to move onto Step 2 of this process: The Brain Dump!
Once you’re done, you should be feeling so good, so excited, and so clear on what really lights you up!
This process isn’t the easiest for everyone, so give yourself a high five for letting yourself be real with yourself. If it was challenging for you, feel free to try other tapping videos (again, look at Gala Darling’s High Vibe Honey series!), search for a guided meditation (try to choose one that’s tailored for goal-setting), and be gentle with yourself.
This is 100% about letting yourself dream your wildest dreams. Enjoy it!
2. Brain-Dump Your Dreams – None are too big or too crazy!
Here’s where your pen and paper that you grabbed earlier come in: write down everything that came up for you during Step 1! If you’re using the playlist, the lovely Jap Man Sat Nam should be playing now, which is a wonderful song to write to.
This is a brain-dump – a.k.a., a not-perfect, quick jotting down of all the thoughts in your head. There is no format, no right or wrong way to do this. You can use bullet points, write in sentences, doodle, whatever captures your goals the best.
There is one very important thing to keep in mind: no dream is too big, too crazy, or too much for you!
No one benefits from you holding back here – not yourself, who isn’t going to get to accomplish what you really want; not your friends and family, who even though they might have doubts at first, just want you to be happy and fulfill your potential; and not the rest of the world, who is 100% going to benefit from your creations, your joy, and your energy.
Write it all down!
3. Organize Your Brain-Dump – Pick your top 5-7 areas
By now you should have a piece of paper (or many) full of all your brilliant ideas and visions for yourself. Before we try to find a way to visualize this on a vision board, we’re first going to organize your thoughts into 5-7 key areas.
Potential areas of focus:
- Relationships – This encompasses romantic relationships as well as relationships with your friends, family, coworkers, community, and yes, even your self!
- Career – Anything that has to do with your work and your business ventures goes here. Maybe you want to take the next step in your career, or you’re excited about launching your first company – all things career are valid!
- Money – Whether you want to make more, save more, or just manage your money better, financial health is incredibly important, and if you’re wanting to improve it this year, put some goals down here!
- Health – This is all about your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. This could include transforming your relationship to food or exercise, creating a magical morning routine, investing in better skincare, and getting all of your check-ups done consistently.
- Hobbies & Fun – Have you been wanting to learn to speak a new language or play a new instrument? Do you want to travel the world? Put anything that has to do with your passions, hobbies, and ‘extracurriculars’ here!
- Other – Maybe you have some projects or interests that are so big that they require their own section! This could include things like faith or spirituality, renovating to or buying your dream house, moving to a new city, going back to school for something specific, or anything else that lights you up!
4. Craft Your Heart Out – This is the fun part!
Now is where all this work gets put to work – making the actual vision board!
Setting the scene:
- The things – Pull out your poster board, your magazines, pictures, affirmation cards, washi tape, stickers, scissors and glue. Make sure all your materials are easily accessible!
- The snacks – Fill up your water bottle, make some tea or coffee, and set out some yummy snacks to keep you going while you work!
- The smells – Grab a candle or diffuser and your favorite essential oils, and make the room smell nice!
- The tunes – Choose some music that inspires you and lights you up. I personally like this playlist from Spotify below, called “Deep House Relax” – keeps it fun but focused!
Creating the foundation:
Roughly divide your board (use pencil if you’d like) into the general sections you chose earlier. It could be an equal 6-part pie division, or you could have the center be the biggest section (and the most important), or however you’d like it to be divided. The goal is to create a rough wireframe to help guide your collaging later when we have images.
Choosing the images:
Keeping your goals and your key areas in mind, start choosing and cutting out all the images that inspire you. We’re not going to paste anything on the poster board just yet. So go through your magazines, your personal photos, and whatever other materials you brought, and roughly cut out anything that feels good. Your goal is to create a stack of images that inspire you; not all of them will end up on your final product, but all of them should feel true to you and your dreams.
Putting them on your board:
Now you get to paste (finally!). There’s no right or wrong way to do this. You can start with images or words that feel representative of each area, and paste them in the center of each section, and you can branch out from there. Or you can go by the sizes of your pictures and play it by ear to see what fits!
As you’re doing this part of the process, stick to what I’ve adopted as my personal rule of clarity: Fuck Yes or No.
The rule of Fuck Yes or No states that when you’re considering something you want – a relationship, a career change, a house, anything at all – if the immediate response to that consideration isn’t “Fuck yes, I definitely want this!” then it’s a hard N-O. Remember when I said earlier “no wishy-washy dreams!”? This is what I meant. For you to put something on your vision board, your goal must be a “Fuck yes I’m super stoked and can’t wait (even if I’m scared).” If not, then it’s a “No, it’s not actually that important to the real me, and it’s not going on my vision board.”
Do not put something on your vision board that you aren’t fully aligned with and 1000000% excited about (again, even if you’re scared), and never put something on your vision board that is something that someone else wants for you, but you don’t.
Adding the finishing touches
I like to pull affirmation cards for specific areas that are very important to me. In 2019, my main goal was to meet the love of my life and create the relationship of my dreams. I worked on every part of the vision board first and left the relationship section last. When everything else was done and I was ready to fill in that last section, I took out my deck of affirmation cards, shuffled them, took a deep breath, and pulled out a card that said this: “I silence my mind & listen intently” with a beautiful drawing of two closed eyes. Perfect. A card to remind me that love is not in my mind, but in my heart, and I get to listen to who my heart wants and what my heart wants when creating my relationship. So feel free to do this for yourself – you might find that it’s the most powerful part of creating your vision board (and of course, your actual life!).
Once you’re done with everything, give yourself a high five and celebrate your beautiful new vision board! Now, let’s make sure everything on that vision board comes true!
5. Keep it Close – Let's make it actionable
You’ve put all this work into creating a stunning vision board that truly reflects who you are, who you want to be, and what you want. Make sure you can see it every day! Here are my suggestions:
- Hang it somewhere special – I put mine on the wall above my desk, which I can also see from my kitchen/living area. I see it when I walk into the living room and when I sit down to get my work done. This is especially powerful, because when I work I have inspiration and clarity right there to keep me motivated and on track!
- Take a picture of it – Make it your desktop background, your phone background, and/or your tablet background! If you want to see your vision board as often as possible, this is a foolproof way to keep it top of mind.
- Scan & copy – Make copies either by scanning it or taking a high quality image and printing it out. Then, take these copies and put them in places like your weekly planner or on your cubicle or above your desk at work.
And if you want to be super hardcore, then follow a tip from a good friend of mine who was trying to memorize bible verses: laminate your copy or put it inside a plastic divider and put it inside your shower. Daily inspiration, served warm and soapy! I can’t imagine a better way to add some motivation to my day.
In closing...
You are a total badass who is 1000000% deserving of whatever it is that you want. Nothing is too much or too crazy for you. You are capable, you are powerful, and you are worthy. Remember that, and I’ll see you next year, where you tell me excitedly about how everything you put on your vision board actually came true.
Enjoy!
Want more?
I lead Vision Board Creation Sessions here in Houston, TX for companies, non-profit organizations, and private parties of friends or family.
In these sessions, we go a lot deeper and incorporate a few more processes to make each participant’s vision board even more clear, actionable, and geared for success.
If you’re interested in learning more about these sessions & booking one for your group or organization, fill out the form below and I’ll contact you! You can also email me at maria@mariahenning.com.
ღ Maria
