Vision Boards: Do They Actually Work?

They’re supposed to spark a light in you. Some people use it and just keep dreaming, some people don’t spend their time in making their visual boards but yet they are still able to achieve their goals anyway. Why?

Collages of beautiful pictures, quotes, drawings and affirmations are considered visual representations of your goals: useful and inspirational tools to manifest the dreams you’re trying to accomplish. However, despite celebrities like Oprah Winfrey or Deepak Chopra and many others swearing on their power, they are not a magic wand.

I might risk sounding a little bit controversial and unpopular here, but at midlife, I think we should know by now that no matter how pretty or sophisticated we make our inspirational board: achieving our goals is not something that happens overnight or by simply staring at a bunch of pictures on the fridge.

Of course, they might be very inspiring, but in the end, they are just prompts that encourage you to envision yourself with things. In my opinion, for success with manifestation, you have to set your intention, believe that it will become a reality, then take active steps towards making that abstract idea come to fruition.

The idea behind vision boards is much like the law of attraction: by representing your goals with pictures and images you will actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions because your mind responds strongly to visual stimulation.

However, you can dream all you like but until you take action, those thoughts will stay dreams: a vision board will not automatically “manifest” your goals. Positive thinking only works when it’s combined with positive action.

According to Neil Farber, M.D., PhD, physician, life coach, hypnotherapist, researcher and the author of Throw Away Your Vision Board.: “When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, you essentially end up doing short visualization exercises throughout the day. Visualization is one of the most powerful mind exercises you can do. But It is not enough to simply have a positive mental attitude. The secret to achieving your goals is to dream about focused, and specific targets and convert your vision boards to action boards”.

In the end, mental practices (like visualisation) can increase motivation, confidence, and even performance. So, dream about the things you want to accomplish, but also envision how you will really do it or get it, and then make them happen.

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