In this post, you’ll learn how to create a digital vision board and establish a ritual that will help you attain your biggest dreams.
At the beginning of the year, my mastermind group was choosing a group activity for our upcoming in-person meetup, and my friend Kalyn offered a brilliant idea: Digital vision boards. My eyes lit up and my heart began to pitter-patter. A vision board that I could create from the comfort of my laptop? No paper cuts? No glue? I could hardly wait to begin.
After Kalyn led us through a digital vision boarding exercise, I returned home and treated myself to a quiet evening where I used the inspiration I gathered to craft mine. Here’s how it turned out:
How my vision board has amplified my life
My work days, like yours, come with challenges. But I start each of them with a smile because when I see my desktop, I’m reminded that I’m working towards something beautiful.
How might your day be different, if it began from a place of pure joy?
It sounds so simple, but the visual cue of my digital vision board has helped me to:
Stay focused.
Believe in myself.
Strengthen discernment.
Trust that everything will unfold in a magnificent way.
If you’re feeling inspired to create your own digital vision board, let’s get started!
Set up to create your digital vision board
Claim your time. This is the most important instruction in this process. We’ve all convinced ourselves that we are good multitaskers, but divided attention leads to subpar results. This is your future you’re crafting! It deserves your full energy. Put your phone away. Turn off the tv. Find a quiet place.
Choose five things. Take out a sheet of paper or your Notes app, and write down five things that you’d love to happen in the next year. It can be a goal, an event, or a milestone. Anything you want, as long as it makes you feel happy.
Examples: Run a marathon. Learn how to make homemade pasta. Write a book. Launch an online shop.
Choose a word. Many people make a practice of choosing a single word to guide your year. If you’ve already chosen one, write it down. Otherwise, think of a word that encompasses how you’d like to live your life in the coming months.
Examples: Joyful. Brave. Adventure. Rest. Beginning. Curious.
Choose a phrase. Select a series of words, a quote, a verse, or a line from a song that speaks to you. It can be related to your “word” but it does not need to be. Write it down.
Examples: See the good. Believe in yourself. Be still and know. It’s now or never.
Choose a song. Select a song that lifts you up and makes you smile. If it has lyrics, they should be positive and encouraging. This does not need to be your favorite song, just one that makes you feel good. Queue it up from your favorite music source.
Crafting your digital vision board
1 | Create a folder on your computer called “Vision Board Images.”
2 | Take a look at your list of five things, and begin searching for images that best represent your dreams. Save as many images as you like to your designated folder. If you come across additional images that make you smile, save those too.
Places to search: Pinterest, Unsplash, Tumblr
3 | Create a 2800 px x 1800 px or desktop-sized document in your favorite design software, (or open your free template that you can grab below.)
4 | Begin placing the images you saved in your folder. Take time to play around, tinker and experiment. Remember that this is digital and nothing is permanent. You can make as many changes as you need. Feel free to use all of your images or pare them down so that you’re only using the ones you love most.
5 | Add two layers of text: one for your word, one for your phrase. Choose a font that makes you happy.
6 | Download and assign as your desktop background, or print it and hang it up somewhere you’ll see it every day.
Bringing your vision to life
The most powerful way to manifest the board you just created is to make it your new reality. Simply looking at it every day will send a signal to your brain. One that starts off by saying, “this would be nice,” but over time, changes to “this is attainable,” and then finally, “this is happening.”
New Year’s resolutions don’t have a good success rate because they are one-day declarations. To create your dream life, it needs to become your new normal. And this requires daily exposure.
If you want to amplify your vision, press play on that song you selected. I’ve made this practice part of my morning ritual for the day. I open my computer and take in my vision board while listening to my song.
If you want to take it one step further, incorporate movement into this ritual: dancing, stretching, jumping jacks, bopping in your chair—whatever works for you. The visual + the audio + the kinesthetic create a powerful, physiological shift that will naturally help bring your vision to life.
Revise, adapt, grow, thrive
Revisit this vision-boarding exercise any time you need a pick me up, or that you’ve outgrown your current desktop wallpaper. Swap out photos, imagery, or your song whenever you want to make a change. Maybe you accomplished your goal. Maybe you didn’t dream big enough. Life moves, so we move with it.
