Vision Board: Why and How

Yearly Roadmap

Diana the Huntress, Artwork by Guillaume Seignac

“The next right thing.” I saw this line on my friend’s vision board. She pasted this line in multiple fonts. I saw that the board had one vision and a paper attached to it with the same message: “The next right thing”. It had curiosity and a scope for adjustment. I saw her vision board for the first time during our online classes. It peeked out behind her head. One day, I asked her to show me the board. It was huge. She almost took an entire wall to do that. It had multiple sections, and each section had different reasons. One had a personal life-goal, another “10 years later: Me” and the other three months from now. She had a pattern—the pattern of breaking down the priorities. It was so magical as if I could see her as she would step up to the ladder of her own destined route.

I asked her about the methods of doing that. She said, “I love to see everything at one stretch like what would be the next possibilities for me. Every day, I wake up with motivation. You know, it’s very easy, be realistic with your goals and find pictures according to that.”
She continued, “I calculate my three months at a time. Then I change. You know, if I add something or something that does not go well. This method goes well with yearly plans if the goal is bigger. I give myself that freaking time. And that in 10 years, it’s wild; I know it will change. But you can do that on a yearly basis."
I asked her, “And that “The next right thing”? I know what you mean, but how do you put that together?”
She said, “Well, that’s a dash of reality! I feel you need to remember one thing even if you work hard, things may not go well. You need to pick what may go well in that situation. Try to be flexible. That is the base of a vision board.”

Her ideas are intuitive and practical. These things also align with expectations. It was something that exceptionally could make the days creative and exponentially productive. But there was another question on my mind, “Will it be worth the time?"

A few days back, I searched for books on Vision Board and I got “In Your Dreams” by Ilana Griffo. She said, “...by creating this board, you can actually help your subconscious recognize your goals and keep them top-of-mind. Keeping them top-of-mind will ultimately help you take action and move your life in the direction you want to go.”

The subconscious is a tricky part, and by far it always tends to accumulate the painful parts of our experiences. And if there’s any chance that we could choose goals over losses, then the whole practice is worth enough. I made some rough notes before walking into this board making task. I had some questions:

“What will be my pattern: quarterly or yearly?”

“What will be the priorities of my vision board?”

“How big should I make that?”

“How will I incorporate changes?And how often should I do that?”

I realised that vision boards should come with top-most priority plans and with the utmost simplicity. For example, what are the activities that simply merge into my routine? And how would these activities attract bigger goals in my life? The first thing comes with the selection of the activities and then comes the transition towards achievement.

I created nine blocks for my Vision Board and added some quotes and key words. The top three blocks show my top three priorities: my happiness, my career, and my relationships.

The middle block shows my energy. And the five other blocks initiate the activities to get towards the top three. And if any day, I need to think over then the changes will be around those 5 activities.

We have the biggest opportunity to take initiatives. The efforts have the potential to create effulgent and exemplary steps for our future. The still water has the chance to cut a sturdy way out. When we see how far we could go in a particular time-frame, we look at our graphs according to that. Then the journey does not turn towards darkness. But this work needs mental clarity and priority checks. I call that Ina*.

It’s a proclaimed hunt for dreams. We are moving towards that with the bow and arrow of determination and agility.

(*In Sanskrit, Ina (इन).—a. means determined or anything that is powerful.)

P.S. You can find my Vision Board on my Instagram handle.🌻