your 2024 guide to vision boarding
We are only three short days away from 2024, meaning that reflection on the past year and the year to come is in full swing at our home. For my sister’s birthday this year we created vision boards together to visually represent our goals and aspirations for 2024, and it was so much fun! I would highly recommend inviting a group of friends to make vision boards with you over steaming cups of tea and sweet conversation. Quite honestly, this evening was one of my favourites of the entire year.
And really, you can create a vision board at any point in the year. Don’t limit yourself to the end of December! If you read this after 2024 has begun, don’t feel like you missed the boat! Spend an evening with friends and create a vision board for the remainder of the year, for the summer, or for a new milestone in your life. The options are limited only to your imagination!
Resources and research on goals is extensive. There are over 120,000 self-help books on Amazon related to personal development and how to accomplish one’s goals! In one article I was reading, it was mentioned that having goals not only increases performance, but it also guides the choices you make to align better with your goals. In other words, having goals creates a trajectory for you to follow to accomplish them!
Essentially, that is the idea with a vision board as well - you create a collection of images and quotes that inspire you and that will motivate you to maintain your rhythms when it gets tough to stay serious about your goals. The best part? It’s a lot easier than writing down a bunch of goals and it’s super fun! Vision-boarding can help you gain self-awareness and self-reflect on what is really important to you or what visually inspires you.
One of the most interesting things from our vision-boarding night was how different each individual’s board ended up being. We all had access to the same resources, but our personalities, interests, and values really showed up in how we curated our boards. Some people overlapped their clippings, some people didn’t have any of their images touching. Some people coordinated the colours to match, some people didn’t care. There aren’t really any rules about how you put it all together, just to put it together in a way that will inspire and motivate you when you look at it.
Let’s dig in!
What you’ll need:
poster board
magazines
scissors
glue
mod-podge
How it’s done:
The supplies are pretty basic. I bought some pre-cut poster board from the Dollar Store and dozens of magazines from Thrift Stores. The magazines were a little harder to come by than usual as more and more journals are switching to digital versions, but if you head to a bigger city center you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for!
As I mentioned earlier, the parameters for crafting your vision board are very loose. Cut out the pictures and quotes that inspire you or that correlate with goals that you’ve set for yourself. If you know that you want to bake or read more in 2024, clip images that correspond with those ideals. You can also cut out quotes, words, numbers, or letters that inspire you.
We had loads of magazines, so we all sat around the kitchen table armed with scissors and fresh lemongrass tea, flipping through the pages, chatting and snipping away to our hearts’ content.
Once you’ve gathered up your clippings, you can adhere them to your board however you like. Allow the glue to dry before applying the mod-podge to seal the edges.
Finally, hang your board up in a place where you will see it regularly. I’ve also heard of people using a white board or a cork board for their vision board so they can update it throughout the year. My sister has a wall of quotes that she updates regularly, and I have a notebook where I compile things that inspire me throughout the year. It’s really up to you!
Aspects to consider:
mental/emotional goals
spiritual goals
physical goals
interpersonal goals
intrapersonal goals
Find images that inspire you in several categories to have a more all-encompassing vision for your year. Remember - the goal isn’t to have a perfect year, it’s to give you a trajectory or pathway for how you approach your year!
