Believe In Your Dreams! Here's How To Make a Vision Board

Stephanie Osmanski

January 2, 2023 at 6:15 AM·6 min read

Plus, free vision board printables to inspire you and get you started.

Don't fancy yourself a to-do list person? For those of us who are more visual, a vision board might be a more meaningful option to organize, prioritize and set goals. After all, if you're seeing the same images every day, it might just motivate you to get stuff done!

In fact, some health professionals even recommend creating a vision board as a way to help improve a person's mental state, encourage them to find and create their own success, and ultimately, achieve more confidence.

"Vision boards are 100 percent a solid strategy to goal crushing. The first step in achieving goals is setting well thought out, specific goals," Dr. Adarsh Vijay Mudgil, a New York-based dermatologist who is lovingly known as 'The TikTok Doc,' tells Parade. "The next step is doing one thing every day that draws you one step closer to your goal, no matter what."

Dr. Mudgil, who also authored the book Let’s Get it! Hustle and Grind Your Way to Personal Empowerment, is known on social media for spreading positivity, which he coined as "the Mudgil Mindset."

"Vision boards are an excellent tool for defining goals and maintaining motivation," Dr. Mudgil explains. "The rest is all about holding yourself accountable to ensure you're doing what needs to get done every day to bring you one step closer to your goal, no matter what."

Of course, the vision board is not a quick fix. As we all can guess, you simply don't get stuff because you glue a picture of it onto a poster board. But even still, the vision board can be a meaningful tool of encouragement. Especially now more than ever, we could all use encouragement.

"Vision boards help us keep our eye on the ball and maintain focus, which can be tough to do in today's world... To crush goals, you must hold yourself to a high standard and put in that work; self-love needs to be tough-love sometimes," Dr. Mudgil says.

Not sure where to start? Dr. Mudgil adds that goals should ideally tick off five important points.

"Goals should always be S.M.A.R.T—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely," Dr. Mudgil explains.

Of course, even if some of your goals aren't exactly attainable, relevant and timely right now, we still recommend gluing them up there. After all, a vision board is a physical representation of your goals, but that can include long-term goals, too.

Thinking of starting your own vision board? Let's get it! Keep reading for tips on creating a vision board, how to make a vision board, plus 25+ free vision board printables.

What Is a Vision Board?

A vision board, also known as a dream board, is a physical collage featuring pictures of your dreams, hopes, and goals. Simply put, if you could glue a bunch of pictures together of what your dream life or dream year would be, that would be your vision board.

"Vision boards not only define goals clearly, but they also foster the critical element of accountability," Dr. Mudgil says.

People use vision boards in different ways, of course. While someone may create a vision board to see their upcoming goals for the year, others might use it to make a visual representation of their dream life. Either way, a vision board's main purpose is to motivate.

"There is nothing more personally empowering than crushing goals. By getting the daily wins that ultimately lead us to achieve goals, we realize the endless potential within each of us," Dr. Mudgil explains. "That feeds our confidence, leads to fulfillment, and ultimately happiness. Any tool, like a vision board, that can help one achieve goals is something I'm all for."

How to Make a Vision Board

Have you heard of Pinterest? Duh! It's a social media platform essentially based on the concept of vision boards. Instead of cutting, gluing and collaging on a physical poster board though, you can simply save your favorite images to different curated boards.

That's one easy, online way to make a vision board.

But if it's a physical vision board you're looking to create and hang up in your room, then you'll need a few materials: scissors, glue (or tape), and a poster board or a big piece of cardboard. For the images, you can either source them from various magazines or by printing them out online.

Some images/ideas you may want to include on your vision board include quotes and sayings, images that reflect your goals and ideas about home life, family, career, and really, whatever "success" means to you.

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When it comes to a vision board, basically nothing is off the table. Is your goal to drown your living room in plants? Add pictures of plants. Is there a certain career goal you want to achieve this year or a trip you hope to take? Add images that reflect that. And so much more!

As far as format, there really are no hard and fast vision board rules. You can collage your images so they touch, or keep them a bit more organized and separate; really, it's up to you!

Get as creative with it as you want. Or if you prefer some help getting started, keep scrolling to check out Parade's vision board template and 25+ printable vision board ideas.

Once you've made your vision board, remember that it doesn't work like magic. After making your vision board, you have to put in the work. "Attaining goals ultimately boils down to accountability," Dr. Mudgil says. "You must get your daily win that draws you one step closer to your goal, every day, no matter what. That means even if you're tired, sick, on vacation, feeling unmotivated, etc., you can't let yourself go to sleep without winning the day."

Free Vision Board Template

Not everyone wants to get creative and create their own vision board from scratch. If you need a little help getting started, no worries. We have you covered. Check out our free vision board template below.

25 Vision Board Ideas

Creating a vision board should be fun—not tedious work. To help make your vision board-making process all the more exciting, we made these fun free vision board printables to get you started.