Creating Your Vision Board

A Personal Development Plan in Pictures

A vision board (sometimes also called a soul collage, creativity collage, life map or a visual explorer) is simply poster board on which you paste, glue or tape images that you've collected from various magazines, or photographs you have taken. Another version of this is called a vision book, which is numerous pages of collages put together. This is a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on general or specific goal settings or your vision for your life. Put more simply, a vision board is any sort of background on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life. Does this guarantee that you will get whatever you paste on to it? No, the law of attraction doesn't quite work that way. It is however, an wonderfully delightful and illuminating process that can open your mind and senses to new possibilities!

Example of a Vision Board

The basic idea behind a collage is that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what is the point of making a collage - didn't I get enough of that in primary school? Let's face it; many people are constantly in "busy" mode. We are constantly bombarded by obligations and other distractions which can take our focus away from what we want. Images that we look at often are a powerful tool. Using a vision board can help you to:

• Slow down to identify and clarify your vision.
• Visually reinforce your verbal positive affirmations.
• Keep your attention and focus on your intentions for making life changes.
• Envision your life purpose through a collage.
• Stimulate your creativity in a fun and relaxing way.
• Add clarity to your desires and feeling to your vision.

Steve and I have created these kinds of visionary collages over the years and have found it to be a delightful process. Sometimes we create them alone, sometimes together with a common purpose. Even our kids get inspired to make them once in awhile. When we make them together (each doing our own collage), we try to create a light and playful atmosphere. It's usually not helpful if we are "trying" to "manifest" something in our lives. Instead, I want it to feel more like: "Isn't this fun to sit down and focus on what we are inspired to create in our lives?"

When the boards are done, we hang them on our walls someplace where we will see them often, and then let go of forcing some outcome from it. I quite enjoy looking at my collages over time because they inspire me and remind me to keep my focus on what I envision for my life - and that simply feels better to me! Visualization puts me in the right frame of mind so that I am prepared and able to act on my inspiration when the opportunities arise. The great thing about vision boards is that they are fun, cheap and easy to make.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• Poster board or large thick paper.
• Rubber cement or glue sticks (work much better than tape).
• Magazines - lots of them and of all different kinds. "O" magazine has some great quotes. Out door magazines have great nature pictures. Travel magazines and "National Geographic" have lots of international culturally related pictures. You can get old magazines from friends, thrift stores, yard/garage sales and sometimes at public library book sales.
• Scrap booking supplies (optional) can add some artistic flare and neat borders.
• An hour or two of uninterrupted time - or you can break up the time into smaller bits if it works to leave the materials handy.

Types of Vision Boards:

There are several methods you can use for creating your vision board. You can choose whichever one works best for you, depending on what you are envisioning for your life. Some people like the focus of their vision board as a type of personal development plan. Or you could choose specific topics for your collage such as pictures of your dream house, or images of enjoying life with your true love, or pictures that represent financial freedom to you. Alternatively, you could make it just for fun with some subtle pictorial hints of some life changes you want to make.

There are at least 3 different types of vision boards or vision books such as:

1. Clear and Specific
   This kind feels like: "This is what I want to be, do or have". This is a more specific way to go about the visioning process for the person who has definite clarity on what they want to attract into their life. This person will pick a very specific theme and focus on that.
2. General and Open
   This kind feels like: "I'm not sure what I want but I'm going to be open and let it emerge naturally". On this type of collage, the person would start without a pre-conceived idea and simply follow their instincts and inspiration, to feel which pictures speak to their heart and soul. I had a friend put together a vision board collage like that and a year or so later she moved to Arizona. Later she realized that her collage had lots of desert type colors and photos, even though at the time she didn't know she was going to move.
3. Special Event or Time of Year
   This kind might be done around a certain holiday like New Years or your birthday, or maybe before having children. The pictures you choose would be focused on whatever event you want to envision and create a themed collage to envision whatever the event represents to you.

Getting Started

Take a few minutes to decide what kind of board you want to make. Do you want to focus on a certain theme such as happiness, relationships, financial freedom or business success? Or would you rather just create a more general vision with all kinds of things that make you smile on it. Some people make each corner of their board focus on a different theme and they put their photo in the middle. There are no rules, just let your intuition guide you. The only important thing is to only put pictures on there that accurately represent what you really want. For example, if you want a red car, then don't paste a yellow car on your board.

After you've decided the type of vision board you want to make, just start cutting out pictures. Some people like to cut all the photos, lay them out and paste them on all at once. Other people like to cut and paste as they go. When you are finished, make sure you hang your collage in a noticeable place where you will see it often. It is such a delight to see your vision for your life in vivid pictures.

Remember to create your vision boards as a light and playful activity. Let go of the outcomes. There is no wrong way to do this - have fun as you envision your future!