Vision Boarding for Business Success
Every time someone new comes over to my house, it goes something like this:
*Hugs* "Hello, so great to see you!"
Migrate to the kitchen and open a bottle of wine.
Pour wine as guest meanders into my office. (Not weird, shares space with the kitchen)
Gravitate to my vision board
“Ohh, what is this?”
“Oh, is this your vision board? I always wanted to make one of these.”
Conversation about vision boarding ensues.
I am a prolific “vision-boarder” and have updated mine about every six months for as long as I can remember. I pretty much assumed everyone else did too, until I put mine in a place where other people could see it.
I had kept my vision board secret - as my desktop background or a Pinterest board. Because it has personal things on there that don’t seem like the same person would want - hiking the Haute Route or shiny new Range Rover? That would be a hard choice for me. (Maybe those aren’t close to the same price point, but you get the picture…)
Vision boarding has had a huge impact on my life, because I do it in a meaningful specific way. It's helped me focus on what I really want, so that I'm taking "achievements" down regularly and replacing them with new desires.
If you’ve ever wanted to create a vision board for yourself and your business success or have been over to my house for wine and felt inspired to create one, here are my steps!
1. Decide on the logistics
The only thing that really matters is that it's somewhere that you’ll see it every day. You want the images to soak into your subconscious, so it needs to be somewhere you’ll look at it without thinking about it.
Do you want to go with your computer’s desktop background?
Do you have space on a wall for a piece of cardboard?
Do you want to buy a big corkboard to easily switch images out?
2. Collect images
What to Collect?
They key here is to not just collect a bunch of stuff. Be REALLY intentional with what you put on your board. It needs to reflect what you really want at a soul level and the goals that mean the most to you. Every image should invoke an emotion or certain feeling you desire.
What does business success feel like to you?
I love using Danielle LaPorte’s method: start with how you want to feel. (Rather than that thing you think you want.) Define 3 to 5 words and then work backwards towards what experiences and things get you to that “core desired feeling”. Or in other words, those things and experiences you'll have when you achieve business success.
Find images, words and phrases that relate to those experiences, things and feelings. You’ll find that the further you dig, the more (and more) you’ll find.
Want to learn more about Danielle LaPorte’s “Core Desired Feelings” method? (Because there’s ohhh so much more to learn.) Check out her book / program / lifestyle, The Desire Map. I’m literally obsessed with it and her gorgeous, corresponding day planners. No joke, I’ve already bought mine for next year...
Electronic Vision Board?
My favorite place to go to find images is Pinterest for obvious reasons. Start with a Pinterest board and collect everything that you have on your desire list. Through your search you’ll also find images that “feel” like what you’re going for - save those too!
IRL Vision Board?
It can be a little trickier to find exactly what you’re looking for if you need images to post to a poster board or cork board. I like to do two things. First, I scour all those old magazine I have lying around the house. This method is great for discovery - you’ll find things that speak to you and your “core desired feelings” that you didn't come up with in your original brainstorm.
Second, I like to fill in the gaps and print a couple images, usually from a Pinterest board. Sometimes you just can’t find that exact thing that you’re looking for and really want on your board.
3. Assemble
Last step is to put it all together. I like to collect all my images before I start putting my board together so that I can space things out starting with the biggest images first.
Electronic Vision Board?
I like to use PhotoShop. But if you’re not PhotoShop savvy, try Canva (it's free!).
Here’s a quick step-by-step for Canva:
Find out the dimensions of your screen. If you’re on a Mac, you can find this by clicking the apple in the upper left > About This Mac > Displays. You’ll see a number like 2880 x 1800 px.
Open Canva and select “use custom dimensions” in the top right. Enter the dimensions you found in step 1.
Choose “Layouts” from the menu on the left and then choose a layout that fits the number and size of images you have.
Drag and drop your images and that’s it!
IRL Vision Board?
Not much to explain here, either get your glue sticks or thumb tacks out and post the images to your board.
When you start creating the things on your vision board in your life (and you will!) then I recommend taking them off. I like to stick them in a notebook and flip through if I need a gratitude inspiration.
Vision boarding is fun, but also powerful. I'd love to see your vision boards! Share your photo on Instagram and tag me in the post @jules.bradford
X JB
