Whether you are in the work force, struggling through school, or just trying to get your life together, nothing is truly set up to be accomplished without a vision. A vision could be about what the 'perfect you' would look like, or about 'the perfect job' would be, or about 'the perfect semester' or the 'perfect life'. Obviously, there is never a 'perfect'... but we all can dream, right?

With the new year just starting up, I have a lot in store for what I want to improve about myself for this coming year. For 2017, I have a vision to become a more successful, healthier, stronger and just overall better person. Obviously, I will not change in the blink of an eye, and I know my lazy self will need constant motivation to truly make my vision a reality. Therefore, I decided to join in on the vision board trend and make one for myself.

Why a vision board?

I have seen numerous vision boards posted across social media the past couple years, and honestly, at first glance, I was skeptical about the idea. Yeah, it looked like a fun, cute craft, but that was all it seemed to be to me. Could a board with a couple of inspiring words and pictures really change the way you think and live your life? ...Sounds a little unrealistic if you ask me. As skeptical as I was, when I began researching and looking further into the idea of a vision board, I immediately fell in love with the idea. As I started talking about this idea with my Dad, this quickly this turned into a family project as well. The cool thing about these boards is that each person's board is completely different. Depending on your goals or resolutions for the new year, your board could be filled with pictures, motivational quotes or words.

How do you make a vision board?

A common way to make vision boards is to go through old magazines and cut out things that show your vision. If you are more digital, you can make a collage online and print it out or even set it as your laptop home screen. No matter how you decide to create your vision board, the results will not differ.

When deciding what to put on your vision board, you have to think back on the past year and think of things you liked and things you did not like. For me, most of the things I was not a fan of were things going on in my head. Thoughts I did not want myself thinking going forward. That being said, I decided to make my vision board more motivational rather than materialistic and straightforward.

Here is how my vision board turned out. I decided to make mine digitally, print it out and mount it on a piece of cardboard for a more clean look.

Now here's where it gets real...

Once you are happy with your vision board, post it to a place you can easily see it each day. Some good places are: your closet door, mirror, bulletin board, fridge, laptop case, etc. Each day, take a look at your vision board. While you may not see results right away, before you know it, you will be remembering the things on your vision board and applying them to your life without even realizing it. We are not even a month into the year yet, and I am already seeing results from my vision board applying to my life. The great thing about these vision boards is that positive change is happening to your life with ZERO EFFORT. Just less than a minute of looking at a piece of paper each day.

Make your vision a reality.