For many around the globe, January represents a fresh start and a new chapter. While you can certainly make a goal for yourself any time of the year, now seems to be the time when people do it the most.

Today I want to talk about something called a Vision Board. It is an easy activity and daily practice to help you stay focused and achieve your goals for the year ahead!
If you’ve read the book The Secret or seen its film adaptation, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

What is a vision board?

A vision board is a collage-like poster, that can be either physical or digital that you put images and text of goals you’d like to achieve and things you want to attract into your life.

For example, if you’re looking to buy a house – put a picture of your ideal home on the vision board and maybe a few bold keywords around it related to your goal (house specs, preferred location, etc).

Similarly, if your goal is to get a new job, place an image of the industry you want to work in, or even the exact job title on your board, surrounded by other details like your ideal pay, job location, or company.

A vision board can also be used for self-improvement as well such as having a goal to feel more balanced, or to begin some kind of daily practice (meditation, running, etc).

There are no *real* rules for this. The point is to fill your board with images or words that depict what you would like to attract to your life.

Where do you put a vision board?

The key with a vision board is to place it somewhere that you will see it every day. This will vary for everyone but for example, you could place your vision board near the desk that you work at every day. Or if you do a digital vision board you could make it the background of your phone or computer – which is what I’ve done for the past two years!

What do you do with a vision board?

Each day, spend a little bit of time looking at your vision board and envision how you would feel if your goals were to come true. Focus on that feeling for a few moments – then simply go about your day.

There are a few different ways a vision board can help you to achieve your goals. One way is by creating one and being intentional about looking at it every day, you are forcing yourself to keep your goals in mind.

If you are reminded every day that you’d like to go on a certain trip by the year’s end, you might be more keen to think twice before spending extra cash that you could put away for your trip. The vision board is a subtle, daily reminder of your goals, keeping them fresh on your mind.

The other way that many people vision boards work, is because of the law of attraction. The law of attraction says that whatever you focus on you attract more of.

Does it work?

The answer to this question can be found with a simple google search: “Vision board success stories”.

My personal belief is that the key to success with a vision board truly lies within :

The consistent daily practice of viewing it every single day, even if passively.

Taking a little time each day to sit with your board and really meditate on what achieving your goals would feel like is also important.

Trying to keep your mindset around your goal/s positive and that of gratitude. Focus on the feeling of already having what you want, rather than the feeling of wanting it.

My Story

In 2020 I returned to the vision board practice after not having made one in many years. I really wanted 2020 to be the year that we purchased a house. We had been looking for over two years, our living situation had become a nightmare with new tenants below us, and the housing market had continued to snowball out of control. I was starting to feel like if we didn’t buy a house that year we would end up being priced out of the market or end up in a location that we did not want to be in.

I decided in January of 2020 to do two things:

make a vision board for my desktop background on my computer (which I use daily)

and to do a manifestation practice as part of my daily journaling.

In March of that year, the Covid pandemic hit, affecting the number of houses getting listed, and my hopes of homeownership started to plummet again. But I kept the faith. I kept the practice. I continued envisioning just how wonderful it would feel to finally be in our own home before the end of 2020. I kept the faith. And in the fall of 2020, it happened!

After over nine months of using my vision board and doing manifestation journaling – we finally found, put an offer in on, and purchased our home.

Not only did it check off the boxes on our list, but we were selected over another buyer who had offered the same amount of money but to also forgo the inspection (something we were not willing to do but which is common in this crazy market because it will almost always guarantee that the seller takes your offer). The sellers picked us! I will never forget the level of gratitude that I felt when everything was finally set in stone and our home was signed over to us.

In 2021, I had one main goal of getting pregnant again. After our loss in the winter of 2020 things were difficult. I had what is called a “missed miscarriage”, so my body took a few weeks to even begin to realize that my baby had died. On top of this, the actual process of miscarrying was very drawn out for me. I thought that it was over. Only to start bleeding again a month later. It was a very emotionally difficult time. I felt extremely out of control when it came to my desire to expand our family – something we had already waited a long time to do. I just wanted things to work out and I kept having roadblocks set out in front of me.

A couple of months into 2021, I decided to try the vision board approach again. On my 2021 vision board, I made the main focus to be getting and staying pregnant. In my two previous pregnancies, getting pregnant had been so easy. I got pregnant within three months of trying both times. But this time it wasn’t working out that way. By the middle of 2021, I decided that I needed to really let go of my desire for another baby and just let life happen. I was focusing so much on my want that I felt like maybe I was attracting “wanting” a baby and not necessarily attracting actually being pregnant. I needed to let go of the feeling of desperation and focus on the feeling of gratitude that I would experience when I finally became pregnant. After all, when I had made the goal to finally buy a house in the middle of the crazy 2020 real estate market combined with the pandemic which affected the number of homes available, I had somehow managed to keep the faith, and the universe provided. It took patience and many months but the goal was achieved. I tried to keep this in mind – and I let go of the desperation. A couple of months later I was finally pregnant. It had taken a whole nine months since my miscarriage and six months from the creation of my vision board. But my goal had finally come to fruition.

Have you ever made a vision board? Did you feel like it helped you achieve your goals? I would love to know in the comments below!

Sending love and light,