Vision Board Pro Tips: Power Your Creativity this Year

Every year, we kick off the New Year with a Vision Board Jam at Pregame HQ.

Artist Marissa Cade (née Johnson – new year, new name!) leads Pregame members through creative exercises, resulting in a physical representation of our intention for the year ahead.

If you’ve done a vision board before, you might think you already know all there is to know about the #collagegoals. But Marissa always takes it to a new level, from guided vision meditations to innovative surfaces and creative cues for our art projects.

Here, Marissa drops this year’s pro tips for creating your vision boards!

Why do you love Vision Boards?

I am a visual thinker and a big proponent of manifestation, so I naturally gravitate toward vision boarding when it comes to goal setting.

What are your pro tips for making a Vision Board?

  1. Start with meditation: I like to begin my vision board process with a meditation to visualize my goal. Whatever types of imagery come to mind I try to capture with elements on my vision board.
  2. Keep it pretty: If you don’t like poster boards, don’t use one for your vision board! Make your vision board pretty to you. If you like light colored images and white, focus on trying to find pastel images that you like for each element. If you are a word/language person, focus on cutting out words that speak to you. If you have a favorite color or favorite style try to reflect that in your vision board so that looking at it is pleasing to you.
  3. Location, location, location: Put your vision board somewhere you will gaze upon it! I like mine at the foot of my bed so I can lay there, ponder, and dream about it every evening and every morning. Other locations are on the bathroom mirror, at your desk, on the wall next to your TV, or near a favorite reading chair.
  4. Honesty is the best policy! If you are highly motivated by beautiful clothes, or you are helpless over sparkly jewelry, or what you really want is to cash in all your worldly possessions and head to Cambodia, put it up there! If you don’t and you put things on your board that you don’t actually want, it won’t work!

What are some creative twists on the traditional collage-on-a-posterboard?

Some of my favorite non-board things to vision on are: a calendar, a canvas, or make each item into an ornament and hang them from a plant (create a vision tree!).

What’s your personal experience using a Vision Board to reach your goals?

I have manifested everything from a house to a husband through my vision board practice.

What if someone else sees your Vision Board? Is it too personal?

That’s up to you. If you don’t want anyone to see your vision board, put it where prying eyes cannot reach. My guess is that even if someone happens upon it, I doubt it will be studied. Most people just aren’t going to spend a lot of time scrutinizing your vision board!

What do most people get wrong when making a Vision Board?

A common mistake I think people make when vision boarding is not being completely honest with themselves. When you look at your vision and your eyes travel from one item to the next your mind should say yes, yes, yes. If there is something on your board that your mind says, “that’s nice, but not gonna happen,” time to examine your beliefs about possibility. If you think, “do I really want that?” or “not right now,” let it go. Cut it out, take it down, it doesn’t belong in your vision right now.

Vision boarding is a practice. The more you do it the better you will get at it! I recommend a minimum of once per year, and recycle items that you really like and have not manifested yet. Vision boards can be living, evolving, works of art!

Happy visioning!