31 Steps for Feeling Happier, Step 9: Design a vision board

How’d yesterday go? What did you cook? I made homemade marinara sauce and a copycat Chick Fil A chicken nugget recipe. Both turned out delicious, although the sauce definitely tastes better when I use my 80 billion garden tomatoes instead of a can of crushed tomatoes. But sometimes you have to work with what you have (or have the time to work with).

Today, though, we’re going to shift our focus. We’re also going to do a little bit of arts and crafts. Because today, we’re going to create a vision board. Vision boards have become quite popular in the last few years (I blame Oprah) but I’m pretty sure they were around for a whille. For those unfamiliar, a vision board is essentially poster board or a piece of paper that you use to put words and pictures of what you’d like to bring into your life. You can write or draw the words or pictures, cut them out of magazines and glue them, some combination of the two. The idea behind it is that by putting it out to the universe, you somehow draw it to you.

For a long time, I thought the idea of a vision board was bullshit. It just sounds ridiculous if you think about it superficially. But the more I dwelled on the concept, the more I realized that maybe it’s not total bullshit. After all, this is just a way of putting in writing the life we want for ourselves. Instead of just thinking about it in the abstract “oh, I wish I had it”, it makes it real and concrete. More like a goal. And if you’re like me, when you write a goal down, you tend to work towards it. 

Another reason I think that vision boards aren’t total crap is that I do believe what you put out, you get back. If you try to stay positive, try hard, work your butt off, and are generally a good person, you’re going to get that back in spades. If you’re an asshole, you’ll get that back eventually as well. With leaving G-d’s plans out of the discussion, I believe there is something to the law of attraction, and a vision board is a part of that process.

The last reason I am starting to believe in them is that I’ve actually seen them work. I want that to be a joke but it’s not. I have a friend who owns a small, local business. She is amazing at what she does and has seen some success with it but she has huge, grand plans for growing the business as well as improving her personal life. She created a vision board and since then has: been invited to the Bethenny show (supposedly this is a big deal), added 2 new regular events to her schedule, found a boyfriend (she’s single), moved into a great apartment, and her cat with terminal cancer has survived 2 months (so far) longer than expected. This is not to negate all the constant hard work she puts in but I’m convinced the vision board helped.

So, what should you include on your vision board? That’s really up to you. It depends on what you want for yourself and your family (hey! A family vision board is a pretty good idea, too. Do that one for bonus points). If you’re stuck, here are a few ideas:

• Wealth
• Travel
• Home
• Love
• Spirituality
• Career

If you don’t want to put all of them on one board, separate them out. That’s probably what I’m going to do. I think I’m going to start with a career vision board and work on that tonight.

So how can this help improve happiness? By looking at the areas you want to improve, you can objectively look at the areas that are great which should make you smile. Also, when you’re taking steps to make yourself and your life better, even in a nontraditional way like this, it gives you that extra boast of confidence that you’re doing something positive for yourself. Which should put a smile on your face. And that external smile should help make you smile internally.

Boost of happiness? Achieved.