How To Make Your Own Vision Boards

What are vision boards?
How can they help you achieve your goals?
7 great ways to make your own.
The basic rules you MUST follow.
What you will need.
How to keep it at the forefront of your mind.
Workshops and parties.
Powerful real stories.

WHAT IS A VISION BOARD (VB)?

If you have taken the time to decide what you really want for your life now you need to do whatever it takes to get it!

A VB, is a tool that thousands of people across the world have used successfully, to help them be, have or do whatever they want in life.

In recent years, The New York Times Bestseller “The Secret", popularised this idea throughout the world.

The concept derives from the practise of visualisation – the art of creating a clear, colourful and compelling picture in your mind of exactly what it is that you want.

However, instead of being a mental picture, a VB is a physical picture.

The 'board' as it implies, derived from the popular practise of pinning pictures representing goals, onto a cork notice board.

Today though,there are many other ways of doing this.

Let's imagine your goal is to spend four days holidaying in Paris.

You might start by collecting pictures of the places you want to visit, the experiences you want to have, what you want to eat etc - whatever is important to you.

On the other hand, let's imagine you have a number of goals you want to achieve.

You may choose to create one board to remind you of all of these. Your board may have pictures of where you want to travel, but also what you would like to work at, how much money you would like to earn, what kind of house you would like to live in etc.

HOW CAN THEY HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS?

Your Vision Board will help you achieve your goals in five ways:

It will -

• Serve as a great visual reminder of what it is you truly want.
• Drive the message about what it is you want deep into your subconscious mind.
• Program the reticular activating system in your brain to notice resources that will help you achieve your goals – resources that you hadn't noticed before.
• Attract to you the very resources and people that you need to achieve your goals.

And

• Motivate you to take action to achieve your goals.

7 EASY WAYS TO MAKE YOUR OWN

Here are seven easy ways you can make your own board. Read through all these options and decide which is best for you.

1. Paper and glue

Use a big sheet of paper as the background. Glue the images that represent your goals straight onto the paper. Using a thick pen write appropriate words too eg $50,000 per year salary.

2. Noticeboard and Pins

Buy yourself a cork or felt noticeboard and pin all the images and words that represent your goals directly onto the vision board. (Personally, I like this route as it allows me to update my words and images more easily than when using paper and glue)!

3. Draw it!

Got, paper, coloured pencils and artistic talent?

4. Fridge Door

Buy yourself a bunch of fridge magnets and attach your pictures and words to the front of the fridge door – you will definitely see this every day!

4. PC Screen

If you know how, you can compile images of all the words and pictures that represent your goals and make a screen shot of them. You could then make this the wallpaper for your computer every time you open it up.

5. Powerpoint

Again, if you have the skills, you could compile a collage using microsoft powerpoint to remind you of your goals.

6. Video with music

Make a video with all your pictures and words and have a motivating backing track to listen to while you watch it addictively.

Animoto is the software I use to do this. It's so easy, and best of all, you can create as many 30 second free videos as you wish.

These are perfect for single goals.

7. Vision Book

A large scrapbook where you write your goals, one by one, at the top of a double page and then glue in the pictures and words that best represent that goal to you.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Physical items:

A pile of magazines:- Include magazines from all walks of life – fashion, family, finance, home, travel, nature, hobbies...

Glue:- Either glue or a glue stick if you are glueing pictures to paper.

Pins:- This is if you are using a cork or felt backed notice board.

Images:-There are many free sources of images such as www.flickr.com that you can use. You could also search google images but be aware many of the images are copyright

Make sure you look at the source of the images and only use them if you are allowed.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR VISION BOARD AT THE FOREFRONT OF YOUR MIND

The most important thing to know is that you MUST put your VB somewhere where you will see it every day.

However, do not put it where there is a chance others can see it and laugh about it. This could end up undermining your own confidence and have the opposite effect to what you are trying to achieve.

Where you put your vision board will depend on what kind of board you made and its size, but here are some ideas:

• Put it on a wall in your house that you look at as you pass by.
• Place it close to the bathroom mirror – you stand there for long enough brushing your teeth!
• Put it inside the larder door – away from public view but knowing you'll see it daily on all those occasions you open your food cupboard!

If you have created an online vision board then take time to watch it every day when you start up your computer or smart phone.

If you make a habit of this, then you will be seeing the picture of you achieving your goals very frequently. Every day perhaps.

Dr Joe Vitale likens this process of creating a board to '…having the universe as your catalogue. You flip through it and say, " I'd like to have this experience and I'd like to have that product and I'd like to have a person like that etc ".

A vision board is you placing your order with the universe. It's really that easy.

If this is all new to you, just do it and watch what happens!

VISION BOARD WORKSHOPS

You may find life coaches in your area who will run workshops designed to help you put together your board.

If so you may want to sign up.

If you can't find a workshop you could take the cheaper option and organise a vision board party!

Vision board parties are easy to organise. Just get a group of friends together and ask them to bring along a selection of colourful magazines, a pair of scissors, a large sheet of paper (or a noticeboard), glue or pins.

A thick black pen will also be useful to write down exactly what you want too.

It's fun.

Of course, most people just use their own initiative and make their own.

SUCCESS STORIES

In 1995, John Assaraf – who features in the best selling book 'The Secret' – put a picture of his dream house onto his vision board.

In 2000 he moved house. As he was unpacking his boxes he came across his 1995 board. He was shocked!

He immediately realised that he had moved into the very house of his dreams – the one he had supposedly forgotten about – 7000sq ft , grounds of 6 acres, a 3000 sq ft guest house, a tennis court and orchard – the exact house in the picture he had cut out of the 'Dream Homes' magazine years before.

Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield – created a mock up of The New York Times best seller list and put the book they had just written, 'Chicken Soup For The Soul', at number one.

A year and a half later, their book was indeed number one on the New York Times best seller list and four years later they had seven of their Chicken Soup books on the list at the same time!

The House Of My Dreams

So,back in 1990 I stuck a picture of a house overlooking the sea , with a swimming pool and the words 'five bedrooms' and 'a nanny' on to my vision board. I had just given up my job and was determined to make it as an executive coach. As in most new business ventures, money was short!

In 1996 my husband and I moved in to our new home. Through the large lounge windows, there was the sea and the tiny sailing boats from my pictures.

The house had five bedrooms. Baby number one was on the way and our nanny, who allowed me to travel to work, came shortly afterwards.

Attracting The Car Of My Dreams

At the same time as I posted up a picture of my dream home onto my vision board I also put up a picture of my dream car. The car I wanted was a BMW.(Oh the dreams of my youth).

My new career took off. I got a lot of coaching work through referals and was soon able to buy a car.

I phoned our local garage and proudly told them I was looking for a trendy 'aqua blue' 3 series BMW that was about a year old.( Oh the dreams of my youth!)

A couple of days later the garage phoned me back. Bad news. The colour was so trendy they couldn't find a single one for sale in any dealers the length and breadth of the country.

My heart sank. 'But',they said, 'We have an immaculate silver 3 series BMW which a retired doctor has just sent in because he never uses it!'

Reluctantly I went to look. It was immaculate. It had a top of the range music system and I bought it there and then.

I drove home that night and parked my new car outside our home.

There in my office, for the first time in ages, I noticed the picture of the BMW I had put on my vision board was, horror of horrors, silver.

Not only that but, the car in the picture had a registration that started with the letters J 123 and the registration of the car I had just bought was J 321...

I was entirely stunned.

Vision boards act like magnets helping you unconsciously attract what it is that you want in life.

Make yours today.

But, a word of caution. Whatever you place on your vision board could very well become your reality!! So make sure it's exactly what you want.

Here's What To Do Next

All you need to do now is:

1. Decide what form of vision board you are going to make.

2. Start to gather the images that represent your own personal vision plus all additional materials.

3. Set aside some time, maybe an hour and a half to get creative.

4. Make it!

PS: Your board will never be finished. It is 'work in progress' and you should add to it and amend it over time as you see fit.

Interestingly, if you always think of vision boards in relation to your personal life, don't. They are so transferable into your world of work too.

Check out how some of the leading business thinkers in the world are are using visioning as a key part of bringing about innovation and change. bringing about innovation and change.

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