The Case For A Realistic Board & 2 More Unexpected Vision Boarding Ideas

Much of the vision board inspo you'll find online is a hodgepodge of highly stylized magazine cutouts. While Lasan uses these clippings sometimes, she likes to mix them with images from her own life. While doing so may feel counterintuitive at first (it's a vision board, not a reality board!), it can help keep things grounded in gratitude.

"One thing about our society and our culture is that we focus so much on trying to aspire to the lives of others and forget to be grateful for the life that we have," Lasan says. "Your life is magazine-worthy! There are so many beautiful things that happen in your life on a regular basis."

In the same vein as the last tip, it's important that your vision board speaks to a future you truly want. In an age when ads, TV, social media, friends, and family are always telling us what we should want, this one's easier said than done. Before you add anything to your board, get quiet and consider if it actually brings you joy or if you were just raised to think it would. Take a few deep breaths as you work to decipher which ideas come from the inside versus the outside.

"At some point," says Lasan, "I had to break myself away from those ideas that I'd basically been indoctrinated to believe based on the experiences of others that are not remotely close to my experience... I was so busy trying to be the way that other people expected me to be that I didn't even really prioritize what it was that I wanted."

Lasan's vision board isn't a board at all but a coffee-table-esque book filled with seven foldout panels. Each section contains photos, Scripture, and words that speak to a particular life theme (such as spirituality, wellness, family, etc.). She chose to package it in this way in part so that she could always have the vision out on display where she could see it. Lasan looks at the book every day and does more in-depth check-ins to see how she's tracking toward her goals once every few months.

If displaying a big board on a wall doesn't appeal to you or you don't have the materials for it, feel free to explore different displays like books, cards, or online collections—anything you feel excited to revisit often.