Creating a Vision Board: a How-To

There will never be a better time to start than now. Whether it’s January 1st or August 20th, you can make a change. So, stop waiting for the perfect time and get right into it.

There are no rules in goal setting, only preference. Personally, I function very well with visuals. Seeing my ideas and dreams come to life on colorful pages of pictures, Pinterest boards, and  vision boards. And while it doesn’t work for everyone, you’ll be surprised with how well visualizing your goals will help you accomplish them. Below I have added a short guide to establishing your goals, which will be the foundation for your vision board.

Step 1: Determine your goals.

The best way to establish your goals is by categorizing them. To do this, consider setting aside 30 minutes of time and grab yourself a pen and a piece of paper. Next, determine your time frame for your goals, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, etc. After you decide your timeframe, you will want to create your categories. I have found that these 7 serve as the best guidelines for me: financial, spiritual, health, social, family, career, and personal. You should always choose what works best for you, so feel free to utilize this is a tool rather than a hard line. After you have done this, it’s time to start thinking. Beginning with your first category, think of 2-5 things that you want to accomplish. They can be big or small but the key is to find goals that are both attainable and challenging. The last and arguably most important step for creating a “good” goal is making sure that your goal is measurable. If you want to “get fit” a good goal might look like “I will exercise 3x a week”. After you have written 2-5 measurable goals for each category, it’s time for some fun!

Step 2: Creating

If you are a creator, this will be your favorite part. If not, don’t fret, seeing your hard work payoff will make it worth it. For this step, create a centralized photo album. This can be a Pinterest board, an album on your phone, or if you want to be super creative, a magazine collection.

From here, search for your overall goal online and save images that resonate with you/remind me of your goals. For example, when I set my goal to eat a cup of fruit or veggies daily, I searched “aesthetic fruit pictures” and found delicious images of berries. Finding aesthetic images will not only add to excitement, but it will help you stay on track if you slip up.

After you have gathered your images you can use various platforms like Canva, Adobe, etc. to design your board. After you adjust it to your liking, I recommend downloading the image. From here, you can utilize local printing services to make your board come to life, add it as your desktop screen, lock screen, anything that will help you stay on track. If you prefer a more hands-on approach try bulletin boards or pasting the images on to a poster.

Step 3: Follow-through

This part will probably be the hardest part. It will also be the most rewarding. As you continue on your journey to complete your goals remember that it’s okay to take detours. Mistakes or missed goals do not mean you are not capable. Perhaps your goal was not measurable enough, maybe it was misaligned with your value as you grew. The purpose of a vision board is to serve as a guideline and path of direction. Below I have added a few examples from my recent vision boards. Happy creating!

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the images pictured within the collages. This is for example only.

Staying Motivated in College

Remaining motivated and healthy in college is no easy task…especially early on. College life throws a lot at you. Suddenly you’ve become your own boss, you have the option between fries and veggies every night, frat flu is running ramped, you don’t want to miss out on anything with friends, you have 7 assignments due tomorrow night, and you can’t forget to call your parents…trust me, you need to remember that one!

Learning to manage your time and stay healthy is a process…especially if you didn’t have that experience beforehand. I had a very difficult time staying healthy during my first semester in college. Being driven was never hard for me but when I caught my first case of the college cold… man my motivation for everything vanished.

First semester failures

When I started college, I was very excited and I couldn’t resist late-night singing sessions with the girls, trips to New York City, or going out on weekends in the cold. On top of this, I was staying up way too late to make it to my 8ams. It wasn’t long before I got sick. After months of sickness and exhaustion, I realized I needed to make some lifestyle changes.

That brings us to the present day, while I am still learning, I have re-aligned my goals, and gotten much better at taking care of myself and finding my peace. This has made staying motivated so much easier.

Who are you doing it for?

I challenge you to ask yourself if the goals you set are promoting your health and happiness. Discipline might keep you consistent when you aren’t motivated, but if you are motivated for the wrong reasons, it’s game over. So, set good intentions for your mind and body. If you are working out to be skinnier, attending college to be rich, dressing up for someone else’s approval, etc., you might reconsider what you are doing and why.

Once I began working out to get stronger vs. smaller, I started getting excited about my gym sessions. Now I plan out my outfits, I love taking progress pictures, seeing what my body can do, and nourishing my body. I recently read that it takes most individuals roughly 8 weeks to see significant physical progress in the gym, but most people quit before they get to week 8 because they aren’t seeing results, so they never end up seeing the progress. If we become too obsessed with the results, then it will be very difficult to progress.

No… I don’t have a degree in health sciences, I’m not a life coach, and I don’t have the qualifications to talk about what you should or shouldn’t do in the gym, but I do know that when I shifted my mindset my progress came shortly after. I realized that I have one body, and if treated with kindness, it can take me anywhere I want to go. Now I can say no to things that did not make me feel happy or healthy. Our bodies are not meant to be punished they are meant to be rewarded.

So, why not start now? 

Let me guess, you are going to start, but you want to wait until Monday.

No.

As my dad likes to say: “If you wait for Monday, it will never come.”

Don’t wait for the next Monday to start taking care of yourself. Start small and start now.

You can start by moving your body. You don’t have to hit the gym 6 days a week. Do some light stretching, go for a walk on the treadmill, go for a short jog, or lift some light weights. Something is better than nothing. Show up for yourself!

Are you taking time for yourself? It doesn't have to be big; it can be as simple as reading a chapter of a book you enjoy, journaling once a week, going on an adventure, sitting in the sun, listening to music, and taking yourself out to a new restaurant. There are so many small ways that you can so this.

Are the people that you are spending your time with challenging you to be a better person? Do you talk about real things and not just other people with your friends? Are you experiencing new things, and learning?

All these questions can seem big at first, but to find your peace and motivation, I urge you to evaluate your “why’s?”.

Life is beautiful, crazy, hectic, ever-changing, scary, exciting, and so much more. Life pulls us in so many different directions. So, hold on to yourself, and appreciate your time, your body, and your worth. If you realize you are worth it, staying motivated will be so much easier.