What's a vision board? Why should you make one? How do you make one? I cover all that here in ASL! For more content, go to my IG: @todayiawaken.

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Vision board. What is that? Why should you make one? How do you start? I will cover all of that here.

A vision board is simply a visual reminder of what you want out of life. Your true desires. Your goals. All of them are in a display on a visual map.

The map can be tactile, like on paper with pictures or drawings on it. Or it can be digital on your phone or as a computer background. Something that you can frequently look at as a constant reminder.

The vision board can be set up for the next three months. It can be projectbased. It can be a yearly theme such as “My 2020 vision board”. It can be for as long as five years or your entire lifetime. It can be your ultimate vision board for your life.

Why do people make vision boards? The fact is because it works. Often, successful people like Olympic athletes do use that tool. They visualize themselves doing that sport, and in their mind they think, “I see myself doing it.”

Or presenters will visualize seeing themselves standing on a stage and talking to an audience.

Or a hiker will visualize seeing themselves standing on the top of a mountain.

It works. Do you know why? Our brains are powerful. Take the opportunity to use the brain as a tool to apply that towards our lives.

There are many amazing stories of people making vision boards and then successfully achieving those visions. There are many. I even have my own stories.

For example, before my first career I had written down on paper that I wanted to work in that type of career and left it alone. Then a few years later, I found myself in that exact same job that I had visualized about.

One of my friends printed a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. She put it up on her vision board. Then over time, she packed up and moved, got a job, and then she moved into her new apartment. As she was unpacking, she found her vision board and she realized that the bridge in the picture was now her bedroom window view. She could look outside and see the Golden Gate Bridge. Amazing. There are so many stories like that.

I usually tell people that their lives are like a blank canvas that is waiting for them to paint it however they want, with colors, with pictures. It’s truly up to you.

The fact is all of us have 24 hours in a day. What will you do with those 24 hours? How will you use them? What will you spend them on? On who?

Those 24 hours a day may seem like nothing, but as they pass by each day, those hours accumulate and end up being your whole life. Your identity. So, do you really know what you want? Do you know what it looks like? The shape you are molding your life into? Do you really know?

Often, we are all distracted, busy, going through the motions and living day to day. We are often nearsighted with our lives and only living in the ‘now’. We need to stretch our vision further to be able to visualize what we want our lives to look like in the future. Often, people tend to struggle with that. I get it. I am the same.

Having a vision board is the activity, the exercise, the experiment for you to really look beyond and determine how you can shape your actions, your decisions, and time so that you can form a path to get there. You can live with more intention. That’s really the bottom line of a vision board.

How do you start? There are good and bad news for this. There are no rules. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. This may seem like bad news for some of you as you are probably waiting for direct instructions, to give you structure and guidance. But it’s actually good news because you can’t mess up your vision board. You really can’t. It’s impossible. Vision boards are one of those activities where you learn through the process itself. The process teaches you to look within and to learn how to adapt.

I do have my own tips that I’ll offer you based on my few years of experience and experimenting with my own boards.

First, I think it’s important to start with the right mindset. For example, do you think it’s a good idea to be lounging around on the couch playing on your phone and then getting up and going straight to running a 5K? No. You need to warm up first, right? This is in proportion to making a vision board. You need to warm up your mind, your emotions, and your soul for this type of mental and spiritual exercise.

So how to do it? Personally, I like to start with a bit of yoga, stretching, listening to your body and recognizing where you feel tense. Then you stretch out those tense areas. At the same time, quieten your mind. Make sure your phone is put away. Make sure you have a good chunk of time – I like putting aside three to four hours.