How to Create a Dream, Vision or Focus Board

I believe in the power of goal setting and visualizing your dreams. What we think about and focus on is what will come to fruition in our lives.  If you want to reach your goals and dreams, creating a dream or vision or focus board can be a powerful tool to help you reach those goals. Before you can create your dream, or vision or focus board, you need to know what your vision is. There is a list of questions on this post to help you discover your vision. Take some time to answer those questions and discover your vision if you haven’t already, then you can come back to this post.

Now that you have an idea of what your vision for your life is (short-term, long-term or both), it’s time to get it out of your head and onto something tangible.  It’s important that we have a visual reference point of our vision.  This helps us to focus on what we want. It gives us inspiration and motivation to work towards our goals.

Scientists have said that we have over 1,000 different thoughts a minute running through our minds. You may use sticky notes or a cork board or a note pad to write down important things so you don’t forget them. It is impossible to remember everything all the time. It is difficult to keep focused on just one or two things at a time.  Having a tangible and visual reminder will help you stay focused on reaching your goals. It also gives you that “big picture” reminder when you get caught up in the disappointments and frustrations of day-to-day life.

Creating a dream board is very easy and also fun.  You can involve your spouse and kids on the project too. You can have them create their own dream board. A family dream board is another great idea. You can include things you would like for your family to enjoy together or work towards (a bigger house, a trip to Disney World, the colleges your kids want to go to).

Here are the items you need to get started on your own personal dream (or vision) board:

1. Paper one: Old magazines, planner stickers, scrapbook embellishments (the latter 2 are optional) OR create your vision board in Canva and then print it (this is what I started doing in 2019)

2. A piece of blank paper (at least an 8 1/2 by 11 printer paper or you could use a piece of poster board) You can also use a large cork board and pin items to it if you prefer.  Or you can use the Notes pages in the front or back of your annual planner (or use double sided tape to put your printed one from Canva in your planner.)

3. Glue sticks (or push pins if you are using the cork board method)

4. Scrapbooking embellishments if you want to get really creative and colorful (alphabet stickers, quote stickers, flowers, hearts, borders, papers)

5. Scissors

Now that you have all your supplies, it’s time to get creative and have some fun!

First, you will want to go through the magazines (and sticker books/scrapbook embellishments if you have them) and cut out pictures that represent the things you want to enjoy, achieve or accomplish in your life.  These can be actual things like a picture of a big house, a specific car or a picture of a place you want to travel to.  They can also be things that represent your vision like a pile of money, an airplane, a calming ocean scene, a confident woman or kids laughing.  You can also cut out or include words that inspire or motivate you like: happy, cheerful, family, love, faith, hope, dream, etc.  If you cannot find the words you want, you can also type them up in a Word Document or on Canva and use different colors and fonts. I did this for several words on my focus board.

Once you have all the items cut out and ready to go, you simply make a collage of them on your paper or poster board. (If you are using the cork board method, you can arrange them on your cork board in a random fashion or in a timeline of when you want to achieve them.)  It doesn’t have to be fancy, artistic, matching or symmetrical.  Have fun with your dream board project and make it something that is a representation of your vision and your personality.

The image in the post up above is of my personal Focus Board for 2014. I decided to do mostly words and phrases this year.  Below is a picture of my dream board that I made back in 2009.  This is another example of how you could do a dream board if you prefer pictures and images over words.

I encourage you to place your dream board somewhere that you will see it every single day. Mine used to hang on my cork board in my office right across from my desk. This year I decided to make it on the blank notes pages in the back of my annual planner.You could place it on your refrigerator, your bedroom mirror or on the wall beside of your computer desk. Being able to see your dream board every day will motivate, inspire and encourage you to reach for your goals and dreams!

Have you created a dream board before or will you be creating one this year? I would love if you would leave a comment with your thoughts & also share this post on your social media channels!  Thank you!

    • Glad you love the idea! šŸ™‚ I don’t see why it would be appropriate to put your dream board on pinterest. šŸ™‚ Great idea, I think I will upload mine and link to this post!

  • My NEW Vision board has been blank for a little while… now I am carefully planning this one!!! One that will be attainable & sustainable for my family & I to achieve our hopes, dreams & goals together

    Londa xx

  • I’ve not updated my dream board in some time and I knew my enthusiasm and energy was fading so it was time. I just used Canva to create a photo collage and saved it to my desktop. Thanks for the motivation in Day 1 of the course!

  • I’ve never done a vision board but I have a goal or two that I would love to put in place. So this will be added to one of my list of to do asap.

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