Vision Boards are not dumb.

Several years back, I started working with a coach and one of the first things she had me do was create a vision board. I am talking magazines, scissors, glue and poster board. When I saw she wanted me to do this, I rolled my eyes so far in the back of my head they almost got stuck. A vision board? Magazines and scissors and a glue stick? What am I, 10 years old?

But my coach told me to do it, so I did.

I collected magazines and cut out all the words that I connected with. I got a glue stick and a piece of poster board and some markers. I turned on some music and spent some time by myself thinking about the words and images that I was deciding to cut out of the magazines. Once I had a ton of things cut out, I went through them and discarded what wasn’t resonating with me on second glance. Then I started organizing the images, words and phrases on the board, gluing them down one at a time, thinking about what each word meant to me and why it had made the cut to my very first vision board. As I went through the process, I started to become invested in the experience and the result. What was my vision? What did I want? How was this all relating to my goals and hopes for that year?

In the end, I had a board that represented me, both as I was and as I wanted to be. Words like strength, patience, forward, commitment and connection were sprinkled throughout pictures of the outdoors and travel and sunrises. It was bright and colorful and had phrases such as “I can” and “leading into the future” alongside pictures of mountains and smiles.

I took that board and hung it in my office above my desk where I could see it every day. It was a reminder of what I wanted without having a bullet pointed list of my goals for the year. I still had that list of goals with the steps I wanted to take to get there but this board represented something different to me. It represented hope, vision, dreams, plans, feelings and intention. It complimented my list of goals and my to-do list with a reminder of how I wanted to show up in the world.

I have done a vision board every year since then and have facilitated vision board workshops with teams that I have coached. Each year it is a little different- sometimes it is a handwritten board, sometimes it is all pictures and words from magazines and sometimes it is a mix of the two. No matter what the process is or how the board turns out, it is always a reminder of who I want to be.

So I encourage you to unroll your eyes :) Go get some paper, magazines, scissors, glue, tape, markers, glitter and anything else that you want to create a vision board for the upcoming year.

I would love it if you would share your masterpiece with me!