Creating a vision board feels like a fresh start or a new beginning. Brainstorming vision board ideas represents organizing your life by having a conversation with yourself, expressing your thoughts on paper, and bringing them together on a board.
The best thing about a vision board is that literally anyone can create one, and there is no right or wrong way to add ideas to it. The only catch is that one needs to be ready to put in the effort, work on it, and genuinely value and respect the vision board they’ve created. It must include what the person really wants, not just superficial ideas they get from others.
What is in a Vision Board?
A vision board is a collection of images, quotes, affirmations, or words that represent your goals, dreams, and aspirations. It helps bring clarity to your life’s mission, inspires you to stay on track, and ultimately helps you reach your goals.
You can include anything in your vision board-motivational quotes, life lessons you’ve learned, your ambitions, expressions of gratitude, both long-term and short-term goals, things that make you happy and energetic, and words or affirmations that push you forward when life takes unexpected turns.
In other words, you’re creating a visual treat for yourself, a daily reminder of how you want to see yourself in the future and why you should work for it now.
Vision Board Ideas: Elements
First, we will discuss the different elements that can be included in your vision board to help you articulate your goals across various categories, which we will cover afterward.
- Images: Pictures that represent your goals. These can include pictures from magazines, printouts from online sources, or original photographs. Adding original photos adds a personal touch to your vision board, which can symbolize things like gratitude, inspiration, etc. Another important point is that it’s always best to add images specific to your goals. For example, adding a picture of a woman running to represent the goal of losing weight.
- Words and Quotes: You can also describe some of your goals concisely with words. This can help remind you to put in the effort. Another never-miss element is quotes, which can be anything that feels motivating or connects with you, or you can coin your own quotes or add life lessons you’ve learned to push you forward. Next are letters, numbers, symbols or notes, which you can simply stick onto your vision board. This makes your vision board authentic and emotionally connected to you.
- Affirmations: Positive statements to help you reinforce your goals. They can help you feel energized, motivated, and set a positive mindset toward your future.
- Souvenirs: You can also add souvenirs if you’d like, which can help boost your self-confidence, soothe your mind, inspire you to work more, or remind you to be grateful.
Visionboard Ideas: Different Categories
What to include in your vision board depends on your priorities, your life right now, your personal views and perspectives, and how you want to focus on different areas of your life. Some ideas and different categories for inspiration include:
Health and Wellness
- Boost Immunity: Images of healthy habits like eating nutritious food, writings as simple as reminders of hygiene practices like “Wash Your Hands,” or symbols representing fewer sick days.
- Lose Weight: Write your dream weight, pictures of women running, quotes or affirmations like “You can do it.”
- Self-care: Words like “Self-care Sunday,” phrases like “Self-care is not selfish,” or pictures of your favorite self-care routines like listening to music.
- Emotional Regulation: Quotes and affirmations to build resilience and help you work on emotional health, emojis representing positive emotions, and your favorite photo of a happy you.
- Working on a Specific Condition: Reminders like “Cut down sugar for diabetes,” or “Therapy for your mental health.”
- Drink More Water
- Get More Rest and Sleep
- Stay Fit: Regular exercise, more outdoor activities, more protein, etc.
- More Vegetables and Fruits in your diet
- Exercise Routine: Pick your favorite exercise mode and add pictures of that, like Zumba, swimming, or even stick your new routine.
Family Goals
- Family Bonding: Specific areas you want to focus on for bonding, like moving to a new place that’s comfortable for everyone, more vacations, dinner time together, and conflict management techniques.
- Family Activities: Find activities to do together as a family and stick pictures of them to remind you to do them more.
- Family Traditions: Pictures of your family traditions to help establish new ones or prevent the old ones from dying out.
- Better Communication: Words like “Home – Judgment-Free Zone” or “Sundays for Speaking Our Minds.”
- More Celebrations Together: Birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries together, or stick pictures of how you want to celebrate.
- Quality Time: More time for family; “Family is my priority.”
- Personal Touch: Add family photos you want to cherish, pictures of your dream home, dream car, or notes and phrases special to your family.
Personal Growth
- Starting a New Hobby: Images of the hobby you’ve picked.
- Practicing Mindfulness: Words or phrases to inspire mindful living, pictures of meditation.
- Reading More Books: Pictures of books you want to read.
- Updating Your Knowledge and Skills: For example, if you want to update your technical knowledge, write “I am tech-savvy.”
- Working on Mental Health and Personal Development: Include visuals of activities like journaling.
- Becoming More Productive: Be specific and add what productivity means to you.
- Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone: For example, if you have social anxiety, add an image of someone doing public speaking or giving a presentation.
- Confidence: Quotes and affirmations that help boost your self-esteem.
Financial Goals
- Achieve Financial Literacy: Pictures of books you want to read or the person you want to follow.
- Increase Income: Add words or visuals of the specific actions you want to take, like starting a side hustle, freelancing, or advancing your career.
- Achieve a Passive Income Stream: Include words or phrases about your plans, or quotes for inspiration and motivation.
- Pay Off Debts: Add reminders or affirmations related to debt reduction.
- More Investment: Include savings goals, retirement plans, life insurance, and other investments for future security.
- Savings for a Dream Project: Images of the business you want to establish or the dream property you want to buy.
Career and educational goals
- New College or Course: Photos of the college you want to join or the course you want to enroll in.
- Learn a New Language or Skill: Represent it with pictures and quotes for inspiration.
- Work-Life Balance: Visuals that represent a balanced lifestyle.
- Promotion or Job Title Changes: Pictures or affirmations related to career advancement and positive changes in your job.
- Getting Your Dream Job: Images or affirmations related to the type of job you aspire to have, along with steps to achieve it.
Relationship Goals
- Making New Friends
- More Effort with Existing Genuine Friends: Strengthen relationships by being present, making time for them, and showing appreciation. You can add the names of your friends or their photos.
- Regular Dates with Your Partner
- Invite Friends or Extended Family for Dinners
- Plan Meet-ups (Include images of events or gatherings you’d like to organize).
- Engage in Group Activities: Like volunteering, shared hobbies, or sports (Images of activities you enjoy or want to try).
- More Outings (Visuals of the places you want to go together, like vacation spots or local destinations).
Travel & Experiences
- Specific Places You Want to Visit (Add images of those places).
- Stamped Passport (Visuals of passport stamps or travel destinations).
- Special Experiences (Like skydiving or other unique adventures).
- Digital Detox Day (Visuals of unplugging or spending time offline).
- More Time in Nature (Images of nature spots you want to explore or relax in).
Vision Board Questions to Help You Make Use of These Vision Board Ideas
Your vision board will work only when it is inspiring to you. For that, it needs to capture your emotions, your goals, and ultimately, your own vision. This way, it becomes a constant reminder of yourself. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself while brainstorming ideas.
- Where is my life right now, and what aspects do I want to improve?
- What are my top 3 priorities this year, and why are they important to me?
- What kind of person do I want to become in 5 years?
- What dreams excite me the most, and which do I want to achieve as soon as possible?
- What areas of my life do I want to improve or challenge myself in?
- What activities or changes can bring me more happiness and fulfillment?
- What brings me purpose, and how can I align my goals with that?
- What new experiences or challenges do I want to explore?
- What specific steps can I take to reach my full potential?
- What quotes, affirmations, or phrases can inspire me to keep going, even when faced with challenges?
Reflections from Mindful Portrait
Now that you are ready with the vision board ideas, the next step is to start making your vision board. Gather the items, put in the effort, and decide where to display it. This process may take some time, but make sure you don’t rush through it. Take your time, think carefully, and create the final version to make the best out of it.
Always note that the process of creating a vision board is not just about setting it up-it’s about consistently putting in the effort to make it happen. Consider it as a daily reminder of what you want to work on each day. Now, you’ve just planned your route with your vision board, but to reach your destination, you must travel.
