If you’ve never made a vision board before, let me start off by saying that I’m delighted you’re here! Vision boards have become an essential part of my day to day life, to the point that I have dozens of them, all built around separate timescales and subject matters. For better or worse, I rarely embark on anything without first making a vision board about how I would like it to turn out.
If you’re getting ready to make your first vision board, I have to admit that I’m a little envious. It’s like when someone says they’ve never seen Star Wars (I’ve actually never seen Star Wars) and once the initial shock wears off, the envy comes out. Virtually everyone who loves that franchise will reminisce a little and say how they wish they could go back and see it again for the first time with absolutely no idea of how it’s going to unfold.
Vision boards are similar for me in that they are an essential part of my life, but I might never feel that massive sense of satisfaction again of creating one for the first time. It took a few weeks for the first pieces to fall into place but, thanks to the influence of the board and a few other tweaks to my daily life – mainly based around productivity – I found myself getting closer and closer to what I would consider as being my perfect life. I’m not there yet, but I definitely have a plan – as the numerous visions boards across my walls and electronic devices would attest.
In This Article
Your First Vision Board
One thing I’ve found when it comes to making or creating anything is that the best possible advice is to just start. Assuming that you go on to make more of the same things in the future, the chances of your first being your definitive work are practically zero.
Think about what you have made multiples of over time. For me, I’ve written thousands of articles. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have the first one I ever wrote to hand to compare, but I do have hundreds from over the years where I can see myself improving and finding a style. Nowadays, I concentrate less on sticking to the rules and more on speaking in my voice. When I write here at Widibi, I’m writing for you. Yes, you! There are no clients, no proofreaders and no editors. Most of my writing nowadays is a stream of consciousness, to the point that I rarely even read the articles back. If Grammarly doesn’t catch it, the chances are it won’t change!
I suppose that technically, my writing might have got worse. However, in ignoring style guides and search engines, and all the other outside influences that can make what I write not what I like, I feel it has got better. It reflects me and the message I want to transfer to the reader.
I can assure you that you’ll find the same outcome with vision boards. You’ll be delighted to complete your first one, but you’ll find that your second is even more beneficial because of what you learned making the first one. Depending on how long you wait, you’ll have an idea of what resonates with you when you see your vision board, whether you prefer words or pictures, and how long it takes for your vision to be placed in motion.
Of course, to make your second, tenth and hundredth vision board, you have to make your first, so let’s get onto what it should include.
Getting Started on Your First Vision Board
If you’ve never made a vision board before and just know that you’d like to create one, I’d highly recommend having a read of the Ultimate Introduction to Vision Boards here at Widibi. It’s a lengthy read – the longest single feature on the site at the time of writing – but it will tell you everything you need to know about the concept, how it works and what it relies on.
If you don’t quite have time for that or know enough not to need an introduction, then let’s get onto the contents and exactly what to put on a first vision board.
A General or Specific Vision Board?
The first decision is the topic of your vision board. As I’ve mentioned, I have multiple vision boards going at one time. If an important event is coming up, I’ll have a vision board just for that. I have one for home, one for work and one for family. That’s only just scratching the surface!
What I’d recommend to anyone that has never made a vision board before but is itching to get started is to cast your net wide. Vision boards do require thought, but you don’t want to spend so long thinking about what to put on it that it quickly descends into procrastination!
Forget timescales and forget and compartmentalisation you do in your life. Think of yourself and everything that entails. That could be your family, your job, your car or anything else that matters. There’s plenty of time to break it down later. When you make your first vision board, consider your entire self.
How Personal Should You Get with a Vision Board?
I make my vision boards for me. You can make a vision board for someone else, but it makes sense to perfect it for yourself before you start helping others!
In how personal you should get, I’d say as personal as you can. Your first vision board is all about your goals and your dreams. The only reason why you might not want to get too specific in what you put on there is who else might see it and where you plan to put it. If you want to put it up at work and want a new job, it might not be the greatest idea to be too specific if you’re in the view of your boss. Similarly, if you’re planning a surprise for someone but could do with some added guidance and motivation, don’t give the game away on a vision board they’ll be able to see!
If your vision board will be somewhere that only you can see it, then there is absolutely no reason not to get as personal as you wish. If you’re using a vision board to invoke the law of attraction, the universe won’t judge you. If you have no interest in the law of attraction and just want help with focusing on perfecting your life, you’re only cheating yourself by not being honest.
Materials for Your First Vision Board
When trying something new for the first time, many people advise doing it manually or the old-fashioned way, whatever that entails, so you have an intricate understanding of how things work. I have a friend who operates a portfolio of websites, and he said that the typical advice for someone starting out is to build the first one yourself, even if you plan to buy them in the future. The knowledge and experience gained through doing so, he says, is invaluable for solving problems and coming up with new ideas in the future.
The same does not apply to vision boards. You might be under the impression that vision boards involve sticking pictures and adding drawings to a large sheet of card. It’s viable and as good a way to create a vision board as any other. However, if you want to skip straight to the digital version, you won’t miss out. There’s nothing major to ‘learn’ about putting a vision board together.
It’s important to remember that thoughts matter more than materials. A great vision board includes visual stimuli that mean something to you and lead you towards your goals, even with just a glance. Whether that’s on a screen, pinned to a wall or even painted on the wall doesn’t really matter, as it’s the effect that we’re interested in, not the surface.
With that said, it’s worth deciding how you’re going to approach your first vision board before embarking on putting it together. You wouldn’t want to get halfway through a card-based board before running out of pictures, nor would you want to start creating a digital one before realising you don’t have a printer and can’t put it where you want to.
Plan ahead, then move onto the most important stage.
Setting Goals and Dreams for Your First Vision Board
The most important stage is deciding what makes the cut. Don’t trouble yourself with things that will happen anyway – ‘I hope the sun rises tomorrow morning’ isn’t worthy of a spot on your board and you don’t need to devote any of your vibrations to making it happen.
With that said, don’t be afraid to cast aside the shackles. Something might seem impossible today, but the universe has a funny way of working things out. I have an office building on my vision board that has been a goal for a while now. My business is too small to even make use of that much space at the moment, but the building remains on my board so that, as the business grows, I know where I want to be when I can make the best use of it.
You might want to become a pilot, but not right now. You may have a dream house in mind, but are a few raises away from the mortgage. You don’t need to worry about the concept of time when creating your vision board. If something is literally not impossible – I wouldn’t spend time putting Superman’s powers on a board – then it is a worthy candidate.
This thinking stage is crucial for making a great vision board. One reason why the concept works so well whether you believe in the law of attraction or not is that by devoting time to thinking about what you really want, you’re already ahead of 95% of the population.
So many people get up, go to work, come home, eat and go to bed, then do the same thing the next day. And the next. And the next.
It’s like getting into a car and going for a drive to nowhere in particular. It has its fun moments and can be a great break from the same four walls, but ultimately you come home and you’re back where you started.
Vision boards enable you to define the destination, even when the directions aren’t immediately apparent. If you can put as much effort into thinking about where you want your life to be as you would into your next vacation destination, getting there becomes so much easier.
The most common topics of interest for a first vision board include:
- Homes and property
- Work and offices
- Family and relationships
- Money and wealth
- Health and wellbeing
Use them as starting points, even if you check through them quickly. Are you happy in your home or do you want something bigger? Do you love your job or is it time for the next step?
Even if something is good enough for now, will it be good enough forever? If not, the next step is a worthy candidate for inclusion on your vision board.
How Specific to Be on the Vision Board Itself
I’ve already touched on specifics and generalisations in this article, but it’s important to address the topic in terms of what makes it onto your vision board.
Fortunately, there is plenty of flexibility. Like I mentioned, I have an office building on my vision board. It’s not just any office, but the exact office I’d like to operate my business from. At the same time, I also have a large house on my board. However, it is there depicting a large house in general, not a specific one I’d like to move into.
Both work. When I look up at the office while I’m working, I remember that it’s what I’m working towards and it can provide just the motivation boost I need during a tough day. If I’m short on space in the home, one look at the vision board reminds me it’s only temporary.
This applies to anything you could put on your vision board. Some people fill in a cheque for a certain amount of money they want to enter their life. Others depict an increase in income with a chart depicting rising amounts, without being precise. Someone looking for love might have a specific someone on their vision board – others just have a person there as a placeholder.
As long as what’s on your board depicts what you want to the point that you can look at it and, without thinking, immediately understand the meaning, you’ve put exactly what you need on your board.
What to Put On a First Vision Board – In Summary
When you make your first vision board, you want to include things that matter to you, usually without going into too much detail. I wouldn’t advise using your first board for things you’d like to enter your life within a few days, as it can take time for things to really get going.
Instead, be bold, be personal and remember that what you think matters more than what you put on the board. It is merely a tool to help you to bring the things you want into your life. Even if it feels like something might take years, most of the best things do. If anyone in the world has something you’d like, you can have it too, and a vision board will help to ensure that this is the case.
