How to Make a Vision Board | Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome to our ultimate guide on how to make a vision board. This really does cover advanced techniques that most other guides fail to mention.

If this is your first look at vision boards, you might want to read our introductory article : What is a Vision Board ?

Let’s be blunt though….. Most people fail with their vision boards !!

WHY ?

Because they lack the information which is going to guarantee them success. If you start off in a random way, you’re going to get random results…. NOT what you’re looking for.

Why YOU will succeed

In this article, we will:

• take you through each step of the process – not only the actual creation process but also what needs to go on inside your head
• give you some advanced advice on building your board – telling you what really works
• reveal the subtle tricks needed which will make your vision board a success
• explain why just putting photos on a board does not work…. there’s much more to it than that

If you start off with a positive mindset, then a vision board really will help you to achieve your dreams.

Vision boards have certainly helped us achieve our goals. So we really encourage you to give this process a try.

How to Make a Vision Board from “The Secret”

The following video is just to get your creative juices flowing. We recommend that after watching it you carry on down the page and follow our process. This will greatly improve your chances of success.

nb. If you’ve watched the above video, you need to be mindful of copyright laws when taking images from a Google search.

Focus on “what you want” and not “how am I going to get it”

The problem many people have when trying to manifest their desires is that they are too focused on how they’re going to achieve the outcome. This is where vision boards help to take away some of that ‘mental blockage’.

By having a board you are forced to focus on the outcome. You will be so excited with what you see, that you will override your conscious minds natural inclination to start questioning how you are going to get from where you are now to your ultimate goal.

Mapping the vision board process – Step-by-step

You should start off by asking yourself the question :

“Do I REALLY want to see this xxxxxx change my life ?”

Assuming you do, you then simply ask yourself what it is that you want. Then:

• obtain pictures which accurately represent what it is that you want (from magazines, or the internet)
• put them on your pin-board (or vision board software)
• focus intently on your pictures. Without this intention, and laser-like concentration, these images will just represent ‘wishes’ that will only ever remain unfulfilled dreams
• take this intention to the next level by using visualization.
• form a mental picture of yourself as being part of the scenes represented on your board.
• imagine you are the director of a film and you are directing your part within that movie. It’s up to you how you see the outcome of the movie
• play that movie in your mind over and over again

We will cover visualization in more depth in another article, but for the time being, you need to understand that the stronger and more realistic your visualization is, the better the chance that your dreams will come to fruition.

Let’s continue……

You need to have your board in a prominent place where you can view it every single day – at a conscious, but also at a sub-conscious level.

By all means add more content to the vision board, but we would encourage you not to change your mind every couple of days. You need to give this process time to work.

You certainly don’t need to be an artist, or take months designing something elaborate. Get something up that you feel is right, or simply appeals to you, and take it from there.

If you are still skeptical about this, start a vision board with some little goals that are easily attainable. This will help develop a positive mindset towards this process; and encourage you to visualize bigger items for the future.

Types of vision board

On her website, Christine Kane refers to several different types of vision board.

Having a ‘color themed’ board

There is a certain amount of psychology attached to the colors we surround ourselves with. You may want to consider the following information when designing your dream board :

• red represents energy and vibrancy
• gold or light green represents success, prosperity, and money
• yellow represents intelligence and wisdom
• dark green represents nature and health
• blue represents faith
• purple represents titles, promotion, and even royalty

So if you’re focusing on one particular aspect of your life, for example you want to manifest a million dollars, you might want to make sure that all of your pictures have a light green or gold theme to them.

The ‘I know exactly what I want’ vision board

With this one, you need to be really specific about what you want and display pictures of the exact brand, model, and color of the item. Even better is to have a picture of you with this item.

If it’s a car, then you could go to the showroom and ask if you can look at the particular model you are after. Then take photos of yourself next to, and even sitting in, the car.

Alternatively, if it’s a pair of shoes, then go to the store and try the shoes on. Again, get someone to take a photo of you wearing the shoes.

If it’s the house of your dreams, then see if you can get someone to show you round the type of property you are after. Or visit the street and see if you can obtain pictures. Of course, with this last option, be careful not to invade on people’s privacy.

The ‘opening and allowing’ vision board

With this board you are not so specific with the items you place on it. You might do this for a number of reasons. One of which is that you are not exactly sure what it is you want. Or maybe you do have a vision of what you want, but there are certain aspects of it you’re not entirely sure about.

Many people do struggle to be really specific about what they want and whilst we feel that this puts them at a slight disadvantage, some teachers of this process argue that you should allow the universe to do its stuff and not get too specific. This particularly applies when trying to manifest your perfect partner. Some people mistakenly try to manifest a specific person into their lives, but this is very unlikely to work.

The mere act of creating a vision board, even without specific items on it, will actually narrow down your thought process. So, for people who are struggling with their board, it is far better to create a ‘opening and allowing’ board rather than creating nothing at all because you are in ‘analysis paralysis’ (ie thinking too much about it).

The ‘theme’ vision board

These are very good when you have a specific event coming up in your life. For example, you might be undertaking some home refurbishment or have a wedding to plan. Either way, your board should have representations of all of the elements you want to see in order for the event to pass-off successfully.

Having a gratitude board

As we’ll explain below, you need to show gratitude for the great things you currently have in your life. And we all have great things in our lives. You could have a board which is headed up “Thank you” and then have photos of your possessions or words depicting your success, or the goals you’ve achieved is so far. Alternatively, you could have an empty board at this stage, which you will commit to completing as your newly found successful life materializes and your goals are ticked off.

Here are some vision board examples.

The Attitude of Gratitude

The law of attraction requires us to have a positive vibrational energy. Unfortunately, people are often not in a positive frame of mind when they get told about visualization or the law of attraction.

They will usually say :

“I will be happy when XYZ is achieved”

This is totally the wrong mind-set. You need to be happy and in a positive frame of mind NOW in order for XYZ to be realized.

The attitude of gratitude, states that you need to find things about your life that are positive. You can then feed off that positivity. By far the best book we’ve read on this subject is “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne. This was Rhonda’s third book following the success of “The Secret” and “The Power”.

Let’s take this a stage further…………….

What’s REALLY needed for vision board success ?

Okay, so you may think that you’ve designed an effective vision board. Great.

But you really need to look at yourself again…………..

You must internally change your beliefs. No amount of staring at pictures, or even putting yourself in the movie (as described above), will deliver your dreams. You have got to start believing internally on a cellular level that this really is achievable. There are three ways to help you do this :-

a) The first way is to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This helps to tap out any internal blockages you might have, which has prevented you in the past from sub-consciously believing that your goals are attainable.

b) The second technique is affirmations (linked to the understanding of NLP). This is where you continually repeat positive words or phrases which will override your negative internal dialogue. So you might be thinking something like :

“I’m never going to manifest what’s on that board because XXXXX”

Instead affirm to yourself :

“I now own xxxxx and I’m fully deserving of it”

c) Meditation or self-hypnosis is the third element of this process which is often ignored. When you meditate or use self-hypnosis, your brain goes in to a relaxed state and this makes it much more receptive to ideas and suggestions. This enhances the brain’s ability to focus on your vision. However, students who try meditation or self-hypnosis often say that their mind will wander and they feel that it is not working.

With practice, you will be able to train your brain to focus for a longer period of time whilst doing either of these techniques. This will also make your brain much sharper later, when you are trying to focus on the steps needed to achieve your goals.

You need to be buzzing with excitement as you are creating your board. You REALLY need to be emotionally involved with this process (we can’t say this strongly enough)….. If you’re not in that state, then you are just making an interesting collage of pictures….. And nothing else is going to happen.

It’s not all about ‘wishful thinking day-dreams’

Taking positive action is a part of the vision board creation process that people either neglect completely, or feel is unimportant.

Unfortunately, the film “The Secret”, whilst bringing the law of attraction and visualization to a wider audience, did brush over this crucial element. This has led many people, in the past few years, to think that the law of attraction and visualization can be achieved by simply thinking about what you want. Then you just sit back and wait for the worlds riches to fall into your lap.

It does not work like that !!!

Done correctly, the law of attraction and visualization will undoubtedly speed up the process of turning your goals and dreams into a reality. But, these tools actually serve to make you more aware of the opportunities that are around you, over a period of time.

Whilst miracles do seem to happen for some people who just sit back, the stark reality for most people is that they will have to take some form of positive action in the direction of their goals.

However, if you do this process regularly, you can expect your life to be greatly enhanced and transformed for the better.

Common questions about creating a vision board

What type of images should I use ?

This depends entirely on what your goals are and what you are trying to manifest into your life. It could be :

• something small like a watch or a new pair of shoes
• something larger or more extravagant like a car or a house

You can also use a vision board to :

• attract happy ‘life experiences’ such as holidays to another country
• achieving a fit and healthy body
• attracting love or the right partner

In addition, many individuals just put pictures of dollar bills on their vision board to signify that they want to attract increases in their financial wealth.

If I can’t find appropriate images, can I just put words on the board?

This can work (some boards just contain motivational quotes).

Remember though, this process is very closely linked to the law of attraction. The way to see the greatest success is to increase the positive vibrational energy within you. If words do that for you then that’s fine. However, most people see better results with images.

Are there any benefits in adding music to a vision board ?

Most definitely. An advantage with having your vision board on your computer, or mobile device (as opposed to a pin-board), is that you can have background music to complement the images. For example, if you are looking to take a vacation in Greece or Spain, then you might want to have Greek or Spanish music playing in the background of your presentation.

So I just need to put a few photos on a board and then I’ll get whatever I want?

That’s where many people go wrong….. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as that.

The way to see positive transformation is to completely immerse yourself in the thoughts and feelings that these experiences – represented by the images – will give to you. This is a key ingredient which is the difference between success and failure.

Creative internal visualization does take a bit of work (re-read what we’ve said above), but the rewards can be very exciting.

This is actually starting to sound like a lot of work !!

Yes, you will need to put in a bit of effort (sorry).

And it’s this effort which is the primary reason why most people fail with their vision board. They either just don’t appreciate what’s involved….. or try to ignore the hard work bit.

BUT, if you take action on the steps we’ve outlined here, then you won’t be one of those people who throw away their boards in 2 months’ time.

You should also be aware that you might run into a few problems when creating your vision board. We’ve explained the potential issues in this article.

Final thoughts

We hope that you enjoyed this vision board guide. Whatever you end up creating, we hope the process:

• helps clarify your vision and goals
• intensifies your dreams and life ambition
• drives you on to success
• brings lasting positive change
• gets you the results you desire
• leaves you feeling fulfilled

Please help us reach out to other like-minded people by sharing this article, using the social media buttons below. And let us know your experiences with vision boards in the comments section below.

Many thanks.

Images credits :  pakorn(Paper Note On Cork Board)/arztsamui(Hand on pics)/SweetCrisis(multicolor)/stockimages(man in car)/renjith krishnan(neurons)/Stuart Miles(time for action)/artur84(water bungalow)/twobee(woman&pics) all at FreeDigitalPhotos.net