For me, creating a vision board has become an integral part of beginning a new year. In this post, I share my process, reveal my finished 2022 vision board, and offer encouragement to help you create one for yourself.
The calendar says that the new year began on Saturday, January 1st, but I wasn’t ready to start on that day. And so began my gentle ascent into 2022. I didn’t begin the first weeks of the year by adopting new habits, making resolutions, or creating a “new me.” I didn’t even hang up a new calendar.
But once I recovered from the holidays and had given myself ample time to do a bit of nothing, I started to get excited. The creative wheels began to spin, and my heart joined in with a pitter-patter, like a jazz duet for my soul.
I knew that sound, that song. It was ringing with possibility. The time had arrived. I was ready for a new beginning, and I knew where I wanted to start: creating my 2022 vision board.
Prepping for my 2022 Vision Board
The strongest visions are fueled with meaning and emotion, and I needed those drivers before I could create a visual roadmap for my year. Here’s what I did to prepare:
Journaling
I asked myself some questions to help me reflect on the past year. What worked? What didn’t work? What were the best moments, and why? I shared some of those reflections in this post, recapping my Year of Luxury. Once I had revisited where I had been, it made it easy to figure out where I wanted to go.
Time Wheel Exercise
I drew a circle, divided it into 24 equal parts, and labeled each time section: work, exercise, sleep, etc. The wheel gave me a great visual representation of the time I had to work with to bring my dreams to life.
Chose a Word of the Year
In a practice I’ve done for nearly a decade, I selected a word I felt would best lead my vision for 2022. This year, it was “worth.”
The Vision Board Experience
I had never felt more eager to open my laptop and begin the digital vision board process. Here’s how it went:
I claimed the time
This wasn’t something I fiddled with while watching tv and scrolling through my phone. I found a block of time on my calendar and reserved it solely for creating my vision board. I can’t stress the importance of this action. If you’re unwilling to give time and energy to this exercise, how likely are you to deliver on the visions you’re working towards?
I set the mood
In what felt a little like preparing for a romantic evening, I lit a few candles. In a way, this is like a date with destiny—your destiny. I also found a playlist of music that matched the tone of my vision board and selected one of those songs as a sort of anthem for my year. You can spot that title on my finished vision board below.
I didn’t rush
I searched and saved a lot of images—far more than I included on the finished board. Extra attention was also given to the design and layout of my digital vision board. There was much rearranging, taking it apart, and putting it back together again until it felt balanced and cohesive.
The placement of your images may not matter to you, and that’s fine because your vision board is personal to you, and yours is the only opinion that matters. But if you’re hoping to improve the aesthetic of your design, keep your eyes open. Next week, I’ll be sharing a post dedicated specifically to vision board design tips.
My 2022 Vision Board
The same, but better
Like my 2022 word of the year (worth) feels like a step beyond 2021’s word (luxurious), my finished 2022 vision board feels a lot like last year’s—but evolved.
My 2021 Vision Board
A story within every image
One of the most significant differences from my 2021 digital vision board was that this year includes pictures of celebrities. But I didn’t just select them because I desire to look like them. The depictions (along with every other image on the board) are packed with nuance and meaning.
For example, the image of Natalie Wood in the bottom right-hand corner is an expression of beauty, but also grace, balance, openness, and vulnerability. When I look at that image, I’m inspired to take chances, trust, and remember that exceptional results come when you’re willing to show up and practice again and again.
Not just what you see
Rather than take a literal approach to select the images for my vision board, I focused more on how they make me feel. Some of the pictures from my initial search included tangible items, but I decided not to include them. It’s a personal decision, but I felt inclined to create an aesthetic of how I’d like my life to look rather than fixate on specific outcomes.
I’ve felt differently in the past, and perhaps I will again in the future, but for this year, it feels right to approach it with an openness to experiences that may lie beyond my imagination.
Adapting for the small screen
There are many reasons why a digital vision board is more appealing to me than a physical one, but the greatest is that you can take it with you wherever you go. Once my desktop vision board was complete, I recreated it for my phone and made it my wallpaper.
The fact that I keep tapping on my phone just to peek at my wallpaper is an excellent indication that this year will be a great one.
How are you feeling about 2022?
