Making a Vision board: a step-by-step guide

Now whether you are on a journey of personal development or you want to visualize a goal, a Vision board can help you in that.

There is a lot that goes into building a vision board that will really manifest. In this article, I will address the practical steps that I have found the most useful when building a vision board. However, as a friendly reminder that to get the most of your vision, I would recommend checking out my other articles related to this topic. In there, I talk about the "invisible" aspects of building a vision that will really work:

The steps described below are intertwined so you may notice that the topics in the sections overlap.

At the end of the article, I will share my first vision board, for those interested to see the steps in practice.

Step 1 - Material possessions

I find that the easiest first step is to start with the material aspects of your dream life such as dream home, possessions (car, bike, motorcycle, etc.), small or big items you dream of having such as a sound system, and golden cutlery (in my case).

Again this is YOUR dream life, so do not be scared to dream huge (not big, HUGE) and there is no need to judge yourself. These are your desires and wishes, so own them as such.

Think about what do you desire to possess in your dream life, what fills you with joy? If you have completed the steps in my How to build a vision for the future that really works article it might be easier for you to find this out.

Search for images that closely or exactly represent the images in your head. It might take some time for you to find the image that feels right and that's ok. You can get creative with this - draw it, cut it out of paper, design it yourself, find a quote or word(s). There are many ways to find the right image that represents the one in your head. If you search for images online, I recommend having a separate folder on your computer where you can save each picture that speaks to you.

Step 2 - Who do you want to be?

I see this section as multidimensional. I personally used this section to show how do I want to look physically - at work and in my leisure time. But I see this can be displayed in other ways as well. Such as your mental state or your spirituality. There is no one answer to this section.

This section also concerns who is around you, what kind of people do you see yourself around in your dream life? What is the environment you are in? It can be nature, an office, together with your family. It's up to your desires.

What is the image you have of yourself in your best life? Whatever comes to mind, should be on your vision board.

Once again it might take time to get a clear image and then find/create that image for your vision board.

Step 3 - Put the images together

Now you might have gathered a substantial amount of images and you might also have started to put them together on the board.

If you haven't done that yet, it can help to do so as this can give you the perspective of your dream life.

Maybe once you have two images next to each other you get inspired about another piece, or they don't look good together so it is no actually what you would like to have in your dream life. Experiment with placement, sizes, words, and colors.

Step 4 - Personal goals

Here is where you think about your individual goals, what is truly important for you, and what you want to keep and/or achieve. If you have answered the questions from my article How to build a vision for the future that really works, the answers will help you in this step.

I am sure you have a vision of what your goal looks like in your mind. Is it seeing many million dollars in your bank account, having a full family with many children, or traveling the world? Try to visualize your goal once it is achieved.

How are you then, what is around you, what do you possess, what do you look like? What would be evidence for you that you have achieved this goal? Maybe there is more than one piece of evidence.

Now try to find the image that best represents that evidence. An image that when you look at it, you feel that this is what you want to achieve, this is your goal.

Step 4 - Review

If you have collected all the images, it is now time to review them. I recommend taking some time off after gathering all. It is best if you review them with a fresh mind so that you can get the most out of your Vision board.

It took me about three days to gather all images and then a week's rest before I reviewed and made the 2nd draft of my board.

The images that no longer speak to you, can be removed.

After I made the second draft I understood that one board is not enough for me so I made an extension to two aspects of my mainboard. I made one additional board just for my travels and another one for my professional career. Then I took one day off and reviewed it one last time before concluding the version that would be on my wall.