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We’re not going to lie. When we first heard about creating a vision board to manifest your dream life, we were somewhat skeptical.

After all, how often did it happen to us that we set ambitious new year resolutions, just to break them not even 2 months into the new year?

Of course, there always seemed to be plausible reasons for our shortcomings.

We didn’t change our careers because our current jobs didn’t seem that bad after all. It was not our fault, but the fault of our boss, social life, etc. that we didn’t hit the gym three times a week as we had promised ourselves to. And the muffin just looked too damn delicious to resist. 

Does that sound familiar?

So how can new year resolution setting work better by creating a vision board?

Let us tell you this.

If you do it right, your vision board will be the start of you living your dreams. Not in 2 months, not tomorrow, but NOW.

Did we build up enough anticipation? Good. Let’s do this!

Get our Freedom Vision Board Ideas Workbook with 4 guided exercises for creating a strong vision board.

 

Since you are here, you might also want to read:

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If you do it right, your vision board will be the start of you living your dreams in 2020. Here's mistakes to avoid and how to change your life in 2020.

What is a vision board & Why should you make one?

A vision board is a visualisation of your greatest dreams. You can see it as a bucket list of experiences, achievements, and gains that you strive for in life. This could be something as big as making millions and retiring on a yacht in the Caribbean, or as small as re-organizing your closet. 

The most effective way is to make your vision board manageable is by zooming in to a set time period. This means envision how your ideal new year will look like. What do you need to have or do to live your dreams? 

Ever heard of the law of attraction?

The law of attraction says that we attract into our lives what we focus our energy on. What you focus your thoughts on, your subconscious mind will work to help you achieve. The secret is to be specific about what you wan’t to attract into your life.

The process of creating a vision board is to very concretely imagine your life dreams and goals and put them down on paper in the form of pictures, texts, or anything else visual.

The outcome is to place your vision board where you can see it every day to have a constant reminder of your new year’s resolutions.

📚 Book tip!

One of our favourite books about the law of attraction is The Law of Attraction by Sonia Ricotti. Sonia explains the law of attraction really well. If you want to make your vision board work in 2021 we highly recommend adding this book to your reading list.

Can you make a vision board on your phone or computer?

Traditionally, you would take a large piece of paper or pin board and stick images on it that visualise your goals. Pretty much like a scrap book.

While we like doing it the old way and placing the board somewhere on your wall or desk to see it every day, you can also do it online.

You can create a vision board on your phone or computer, for example by creating a Vision Board board on Pinterest. Or, if you are a Microsoft Office guru, you can also use Powerpoint.

It’s totally up to you. 

Important! Make sure you at least print your vision board though. It won’t help you if you burry it within one of the million apps on your phone. 

Does it really work?

To be brief, YES and no. It can and WILL work if you do it right.

You guessed it. It won’t work if you don’t do it right. Actually it could do even more harm than good in that case.

We read an interesting case study of psychotherapist Amy Morin in which she saw that vision boards actually stunted the growth of her clients. Rather than getting out there and work toward achieving their goals, clients who created vision boards seemed to be waiting for the universe to do all the work.

So while this one man’s vision board included an expensive sports car and a girlfriend, he didn’t make any changes in his financial matters and haven’t been out on a date in years. He was just firmly trusting that the universe will magically grant him his wishes.

Let’s quickly rewind to what we discussed earlier. In the terminology of the law of attraction, a vision board is a tool that helps you visualise what you want to focus your energy on. This includes not only the ultimate goals, but even more the process of how you get there. 

Here are some vision board ideas for 2023:

  • If your vision board shows you making an income from working from home, include next to it a picture of your CV that needs to be updated for applying for freelance jobs.
  • Is the plan to finally tackle that bikini body, clip your favourite Youtube yoga channel to the board.
  • Dreaming about a new partner? Include a picture of signing up to a new gym, book club, Tinder, etc.

You get the drill.

How to build up your vision board

How to create your vision board in 2023

  1. Select a designated space to place your vision board

    This has to be somewhere where you can see it every day as often as possible. Creating a digital one is not our preference as it can easily get buried away.

  2. Think of the categories you would like to include in your vision board

    Below we mention the most important categories ideas to include.

  3. Come up with attainable goals and targets for each category

    For each category think what you would like to achieve this year. In our free vision board workbook, we provide guided exercises to come up with vision board ideas for yourself.

Get your Freedom Vision Board workbook (incl. inspiring video training and templates!)

 

  1. Visualize each goal on your vision board

    After deciding which goals you are going to go after in 2021, the next step is to create visuals for them. In our workbook, we give you ideas on how you can best do that.

  2. Hang up your vision board in a visible spot

    As mentioned in step number 1, the most important thing is that your goals are visible to you every single day as often as possible. This helps you focus on your goals.

Vision board categories ideas:

Think of the major aspects of your life and reserve some physical space for all the categories of living your dreams on your vision board.

Typically, the main categories are the following, plus any additional ones you would like to add for any specific new year’s resolutions.

  • Health
  • Wealth
  • Love
  • Career
  • Spirituality
  • Family
  • Knowledge
  • Travel

Think of 1 to 10 goals per category. 

Important: This is not a competition!

The idea is not to come up with as many new year resolutions as possible. Think of the ones that truly drive you and give you energy and start working on reaching them.

Make sure to attach also pictures and ideas for how to get closer to those visions. Trust us, you don’t want to look back at the end of your year and feel like the guy we mentioned earlier, without a sport’s car nor girlfriend!

Vision board ideas to start living your dreams

Having trouble to put your highest dreams and hopes on paper? Here are questions to ask yourself to start living your dreams

These 9 questions will help you to find out what you desire most in life and how you can tackle your goals.

  1. What would you do with your life if money was not a factor?
  2. Imagine you were given 3 wishes free, what would they be?
  3. If you had only one day to live, how would that day look like?
  4. If you could write a book about your life, what would you like to read in it?
  5. What would you do, if you had absolutely no fears?
  6. You are 100 years old and look back at your life, what are you most happy about?
  7. How does your ideal day look like?
  8. Imagine you don’t have any limitations, what would you stop doing immediately?
  9. If you had more time, what would you do more of?

Mistakes to avoid when making a vision board?

Do you remember what we said earlier? If not done properly, instead of making you live your dreams, a vision board might do exactly the opposite.

To make sure you’re part of the happy pool of people that use their vision boards to manifest their life, here is a list of no-no’s:

  • Dream big but plan small! Don’t only think about the ultimate goal. Envision how you will reach your goal and include the journey towards that goal into your vision board.
  • Quality over quantity! Your job is not to come up with a long list of new years resolutions. Your job is to listen to your inner voice and visualise your true goals and dreams. 
  • Don’t praise the day before evening time. Only because you put up your goals, doesn’t mean that the universe will magically do its work. Define subgoals and action plans on how to truly reach your goals and live your dreams.
  • Don’t brag! Only because you sprinkled some glitter on your vision board it doesn’t make it a painting for others to admire. This is your intimate reminder of your goals, not a museum for others to look into your soul. There’s actually a study that shows that talking about your goals lowers your chances of reaching them.
  • This is not a rat race against others. Focus on what makes you fulfilled and happy instead of satisfying somebody else’s expectations of you.