How you are doing your vision board wrong!
Did you know that so many people that do a vision board do it all wrong? When done right a vision board can leap you years ahead of your journey.
Every entrepreneur I know should have a vision board. If you are a Latina entrepreneur it’s even more vital! Why? As young Latinx children, we are trained not to think big or envision our life.
Consequently, we are told to work hard rather than dreaming. Ironically enough many Latinx parents dream of coming to the United States for a better future. Once here they work hard every day, yet cut off the wings of their children and force them into following their footsteps with school and work.
A vision board not only sets your vision before you but it gives you a clear goal which to direct your steps. Proverbs 23:7 says that whatever a man thinks in his heart so shall he become. What are you dreaming of? What are the desires of your heart?
Why do a vision board?
A man without a vision will perish (Prov 29:18). A vision board provides clarity on what you want to achieve. Similarly, it helps you stay on track and affirm your intentions. Without the vision clearly defined and in plain sight your intentions stay out of sight out of mind.
In other words, they perish! Without a vision, you have no focus. Staying focused helps to keep all your intentions in check and allows you to start making your intentions a reality!
Vision boards are not a cute thing you do with your girlfriends. It’s what the most successful people do to go in the direction of their dreams.
Did you know Arnold Schwarzenegger covered his bedroom walls with images of bodybuilders? He wanted to be exactly those images. Today he is the most recognized, aspirational bodybuilder of all time. Now, those aspiring to become bodybuilders pin pictures of Arnold on their vision boards.
How everyone is doing a vision board wrong?
As I mentioned before, a vision board is not a cute thing you do with your girlfriends at the beginning of each year. In fact, I will be bold enough to say you should only do it on your own or with an accountability partner.
Why? Because receiving premature praises for goals not yet achieved gives us a false sense of accomplishment. Research shows that when you receive praise when proclaiming your goal it makes you less likely to do the work to achieve it.
Unfortunately, the fastest way to lose motivation in accomplishing your vision is to share it with others. What about negative feedback. I remember one time I shared I was going to run for Congress at my 36th birthday dinner. I got a weird look from everyone at the table.
One friend replied, “Really, why don’t you just focus on your business, why do you want it all.” Well, there went my goal. I put it away and to this day it’s no longer a pursuit. However, I noticed in consequent years I wrote out my vision and set goals and didn’t share them with anyone. Next thing you know I completed my second Master’s!
Lastly, people are doing it wrong because they make it as I mentioned earlier cute. The point of a vision board is to be very specific. How much and by when should be answered in the form of pictures. Keep your vision board very simple and make sure it depicts how much and by when.
How to get started with your vision board?
Before you start cutting out pictures, write your vision down. Write out your vision for yourself either for the year or your life. Be clear and specific. Next, find pictures that clearly depict your final outcome.
Now, pin them to your board. I prefer to add them to my daily bullet journal agenda as seen in the video. A bullet journal is handy and can travel everywhere with you. You can take a few minutes throughout the day to see your vision before you and proclaim affirmations as if it has passed.
Instructions on how to create a strategic vision board
Everyone has a personal vision. The vision board shows the target of that vision.
One element of being strategic is having a plan for achieving your goals. Set SMART goals, create strategies to reach those goals and have a plan for measuring progress toward those goals. Vision boards are one way to put these pieces together as you can show your vision, your vision in action, and then the outcome.
For purposes of this article, we’ll refer to vision boards as strategic vision boards because they’re strategic, showing how you want things to be, not just what you want.
Steps for creating a vision board:
– Decide on a purpose:
Why do you want to do a vision board? Is it to relax and have fun, improve your self-esteem, set goals for the future, or another reason?
– Gather materials:
You will need scissors, glue sticks, magazines you want to cut out images from (or print them off the internet), construction paper, colored markers, or crayons. There are also vision board kits available to purchase.
– Choose images:
Decide on what you want to have on your vision board before starting. Don’t just start gluing things down without direction because that can result in a vision board that doesn’t meet your vision. You may have noticed that the vision boards you see online are often based on themes, like one vision board might be about your relationships and another vision board might be about finances. Likewise, the ones you see online are filled with cute quotes, you’ll want to stay away from this and be more strategic.
– Create the vision board:
Decide what size vision board you want to create (most vision boards are 8 ½ x 11 inches, but they can also go larger than that). Place the construction paper on top of your vision board background so it’s flush with the vision board on top. Glue down your vision board background image and then add your vision board title. You can use a vision board kit for this step, which will contain everything you need to create a vision board including a pre-cut vision board background and vision board lettering.
Now I love a big vision board but I started doing them in my yearly planner so I can carry it with me in my purse or satchel and pull it out anytime I have a moment to just look at it. Every time I look at my vision board it becomes clearer to me what my next steps are to accomplish my goals. I started jotting down all the steps that came up and plugging them into my weekly planner. You can grab my planner here.
-Arrange images in an aesthetically pleasing way on the vision board.
Typically I arrange them in clusters of the four vision goal areas in my life: personal, spiritual, finance, professional (business). If you’re using construction paper, cut it to size after arranging your vision board images so everything fits nicely on the vision board background. Glue down your vision board images and use markers or crayons for any text areas to make sure they stand out well.
– Keep your vision board where you can see it every day.
You can put it in your bedroom or bathroom if you want to see it when you wake up or brush your teeth. Or you can have vision boards in each room so you see them throughout the day. If vision board markers aren’t what you’re looking for, use colored pencils or crayons to do part of the vision board, and then paint over it with vision board markers so the color shows through. I have a large vision board in my prayer room so that I see it first thing in the morning during my quiet time. Then, one in my planner so it’s with me everywhere I go.
What to do with your vision board?
Once you have your vision board complete it’s time to put it into action.
Write out affirmations that you can declare when looking at your vision board. Isaiah 46:10 says to declare the end from the beginning. Every time you see your vision board, declare affirmations that speak as if your vision has already come to fulfillment.
Look at it daily. Make this part of your daily routine. The more you look at it the more you go in the direction of your dreams. Take your affirmations and declare them daily.
Go a step further and record yourself saying your affirmations and then play them over and over again a few times a day while you close your eyes and visualize your vision. Finally, take each vision and write it into a goal. Break each goal down into tasks and daily actions.
Habakkuk 2:2 says to write the vision down. Make it plain on paper (tablet). Run with it. Then watch it come to pass.
Clearly, the Bible tells us that without a vision we will perish. It also tells us exactly what to do with that vision. Make this year a year of vision and clarity in your life.
What are you dreaming about? Take The First Step With A Vison Board
Have you considered a vision board? If you have one, have you made it a focus of daily contemplation and creating affirmations to manifest it?
Creating a vision board is just one way of getting clarity on the life you want to create. Adding vision board pictures to your vision board will help you visualize what it means for each vision goal to be achieved. For example, doing a vision board on relationships might include images of new friends or even a romantic partner in some areas.
Creating vision boards is also fun and relaxing and can give you some ideas about how you want things to be. Have vision board parties with your vision board friends, where you do vision boards together and share the vision boards you’ve created. That’s what vision board friends are for!
Vision boards can also help you live life more fully on purpose, which is strategic. If creating vision boards doesn’t sound like something you’re interested in, just remember vision boards can be ditched as well as done, so it’s up to you.
Leave me a comment and let me know if you will do a vision board or if you’ll be approaching a vision board differently this year.