The Magic of Vision Boards
When it comes to vision boards, there was no greater skeptic than I. First off, those images in magazines almost never resonated with me. I couldn’t see myself in the scenes of beauty mags. Sure, I loved travel, but stunning imagery didn’t necessarily capture what it is that I love about travel. Long story short, I wrote off vision boards as silly, dumb, and ineffective… until one year I gave it a go, and can’t imagine my life without them.
It sounds crazy to say, but by the end of the year (even mid-way through) I can make sense of everything on my board. It’s not that I predicted my future through cutting up magazines and gluing them to poster board, but in some ways by being open to the experience, I am able to unlock magic.
I posted about how to make a vision board in 2019 after my Mastermind group decided we’d do something different and set one of our meetings with our intention of making vision boards. We gathered our magazines, spread out on a table, and over the course of two hours, put our vision boards together while listening to music and chatting. It’s an amazing way to get in the zone, and a refreshing shift from the digital worlds we’re glued to.
I remember going into the experience feeling overwhelmed and skeptical, but once I was there I remembered how much I loved “make & do” as a kid. The act of cutting up images was therapeutic. I had moved out of doing graphic design work by 2019, but I was still a bit too precious about my magazines. I had given myself a head start by flipping through the magazines I was ready to part ways with and get first dibs at the images I wanted.
That year, my vision board was all words, and not a single image! (Funny, as I was a designer!) Everyone else noticed this before me. It’s funny though, all those words would go on to provide language and inspiration for future offerings. (It turns out ad copy is brilliant for vision boarding!). I was the last to finish and needed more than two hours, but I left happy and inspired. It was fun to vision board in the company of others because you can see how everyone can have their own unique vision. It also was nice to be able to share magazines to find inspiration beyond the worlds I normally “hang out” in.
Looking back I see how my skepticism about vision boards was clouded in limiting beliefs. When you tell yourself, “this is stupid,” “this won’t work,” or “this may work for you, but it definitely won’t work for me,” you’re blocking yourself. This is just one of MANY ways I’ve gotten in my own way in life. Really the more “productive” course of action is being open to a new experience and seeing what happens before I write it off. In the words of Ted Lasso, BELIEVE!
The next year I went into the experience with less baggage and more excitement and curiosity. I also added more imagery, but this time in the form of illustrations. This was 2020, the year that Paris was on extreme lockdown. I noticed my board more than usual as I spent more time in my apartment than usual. And a few months into the year, I started to notice how many pieces “made sense.” I had London on my board, and while I wasn’t physically going there, I joined London Writers’ Salon Writers’ Hour where I’d join a Zoom call every morning to write with the founders who were in London. There were eerie moments to being able to recognize the clouds and the color of the shirt and assign the meaning. This is when I realized vision boards are much more powerful than we think. It actually freaked me out, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The thing about vision boards—and life—is that they’re not about controlling the situation or forcing anything. It’s about letting it flow. I would catch glances of my vision board but it was never a “I’m going to make this happen today.” What the vision board does is allows us to dig into and connect with our subconscious, hence making it an incredible tool for overriding societal programming and limiting beliefs. We don’t have to know when or how something is going to come to fruition; it’s a matter of trust. And while we can have an idea of our desires when we sit down to put our vision boards together, sometimes a different meaning will be revealed. There is plenty beyond our control, so there’s no need to control anything.
The third year of vision boarding (2021) was something my Mastermind group did together over Zoom. I reached out to a neighbor friend for more magazines. Even more than in past years, by the end of the year everything on the board made sense to me. Even if certain aspects were “achieved” I was still able to see the progress towards those goals. The vision board became this incredible support system for me to look towards for guidance during times that were harder than others. I remember the last thing I glued to my board was a small headline that said “London Dream.” I added it almost as an afterthought, but clearly felt the need to include it. Little did I know that the end of 2021 would include three magical trips to London, including treating my dad to an incredibly special ride on the British Pullman that had been sold out, and I managed to make my dream of riding on the Wes Anderson designed car come true!
This year (2022—top image) I started by going through my stack of magazines I’d collected (many from friends) and went through a ton of them during my great “MAKING SPACE” apartment reorganization during the last quarter of 2021. I had far too many things cut out than there was space for, but the first goal was to get the stack of magazines out of my apartment and into the recycling bin. I didn’t need to use everything I pulled for my final board, I’d sort the rest later.
Things also started differently with a “micro” vision boarding session during our Mastermind retreat (more on that experience in an upcoming post). We had fewer magazines this year, but the prompt we went with was to pull the first five images that popped out at us, then stop. Vision boarding is not about crafting our futures so much as following intuitive hits. This is often hard to remember when you’re first starting. Really the goal is to focus on your gut and feel.
I didn’t finish my vision board during the retreat, but it did help me pull some more key imagery (the image of the big heart with people was actually something I ripped out for what was on the other side of the page, further proving that it doesn’t matter if you make a mess—it’s about the process!). Because I find vision boards more fun in the company of others, I hopped on a Zoom call with another friend who I knew also had been pulling from magazines. We caught up on life as we arranged and glued our boards (it does help to have a gluestick). After 3 hours we were nearly there. I had more editing to do than adding. Like with previous boards, I included things that I didn’t really understand why I was putting them on my board, but just trusted it. (That’s another way we can invite magic in!).
At the end of each year, I like sitting down and journaling about my vision board, writing about what each of these little pieces of paper came to mean and reveal in the grand scheme of things. In our Mastermind group we also like to reflect and share as a group and “make sense of things.” It’s a great way to continue to learn and support each other, and more importantly, we can help each other see their strengths and achievements that they may struggle to embrace. (It’s also totally fine to vision board solo. Some people prefer it that way.)
Like with anything in life there’s not one way, or right way to approach vision boards. My best advice is to stay open and see what happens. Make the board. Put it somewhere you remember. Maybe look at it from time to time, and then see what happens at the end of the year. I also recommend putting the year (I always try to find the year in type in my magazines) or date on it and taking a picture and emailing it to yourself so you can find it again later! You never know what is possible, but I fully believe there’s something better out there than we can fully imagine.
If you’re curious to give vision boards a chance, revisit my how to post, or this one from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge. I also loved this vision boarding session from Oprah Daily with Gabrielle Bernstein (a master manifestor), Gayle King, Adam Glassman. (You can watch the replay here).
I’m curious! Share your experience with vision boarding in the chat? And if you give it a go, I’d love to know!
Looking for a vision forward? Mapping Your Path: the way forward, my 3-mo workshop and guided community is now open for enrollment. We’ll dig into limiting beliefs, boundaries, and so much more in a fun and engaging way. It’s the perfect place to help unlock the magic within you! It all kicks off Feb 4th!
** NEW Vision Board Workshop! Sign up and follow the workshop as you create your own **