If you have a dream (or lots of them!) a Vision Board is an excellent way to help your brain to look out for opportunities to achieve your dream… even if you don’t realise it.

Special thanks to Scouts Aotearoa for sponsoring this activity.

What is a Vision Board and how do they work?

Research shows that if you know what it is you want to achieve in life (even if that changes every year… or more frequently), you are more likely to identify and be able to take advantage of opportunities that will get you closer to those goals.

A vision board is a collage of images and words that represent your dreams and goals. People make them as they prime your brain to look out for (and grasp) opportunities to help you achieve those goals.

Scientists have also discovered that our brains are more likely to remember images than they are to remember words.

A vision board helps you to create a visual roadmap of what is important to you and what you would like to achieve.

Hanging it somewhere where you’ll see it every day (like above your bed!) reminds your brain what your goals are and helps you to keep looking for ways to achieve those goals.

How to Make a Vision Board

Creating a vision board is super simple! All you need are access to lots of different pictures…

Collect up some old magazines (old Upstart magazines are great for this!), newspapers, print out photos from websites or even draw things you can’t find printed pictures for!

Next, flick through these resources and cut out any images that you think fall into one of these categories:

• Things I value
  This could be people in your life (like your friends, family and even pets), things you enjoy doing, places that make you feel happy and/or skills you’ve already learnt.
  This category helps to remind you of the things you already have and want to keep and/or grow.

• Skills I want to learn
  Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn the guitar, to speak te reo Maori or bake cakes just like your Nan.
  By including pictures of anything you’d like to learn how to do, you will begin to prime your brain to seek out ways to learn these new skills.

• Places I want to visit
  Whether your dream is to go to Disneyland or to visit somewhere you’ve never been right here in Aotearoa, include pictures of the places you’d like to see one day.

• What I want to do for a job
  Most young people now have ten or more career changes in their lifetime, so don’t be afraid to cut out photos of lots of different professions that you may like to try one day. Dream big!

• Things I want to buy or try
  You probably already have a list of things that you would like to own or try one day. Cut out photos of these to keep yourself focused when earning, saving and spending money.

Once you have cut out images to represent your wishes for the categories above, get a big piece of cardboard or poster paper and glue your pictures to this.

Try to glue the pictures to your poster board in category clusters, then use a marker or coloured pens to write the category name next to each picture cluster. Next, highlight any goals that are particularly important to you by drawing arrows or patterns around them.

Did you give it a go?

Send us a photo of your Vision Board and you might find your picture featured in a future issue of Upstart magazine OR on Upstart online… AND win a prize!

About Scouts Aotearoa…

We empower youth through adventurous experiences to lead lives that make a positive difference.

Scouts welcome young people between 5 and 26 and is open to all genders, ethnicities, religions, and abilities. All you need is a sense of adventure and fun!

The Scouts programme is designed to give you ownership of your own adventures.

We want every young person to feel empowered, have adventurous experiences and play an active part in improving their communities

– Scouts Aotearoa