Visualizing your success can be a powerful tool for achieving your career goals. Whether you’re striving for a promotion, a career shift, or starting your own business, a career vision board can provide clarity, focus, and motivation. This creative exercise is a fun way to get clear on your goals and map out your future plans while also tapping into your creative side.
While many people decide to make vision boards at the start of the year, you can do this activity at any time, and there’s no right or wrong way to design your vision for your career journey.
Before we dive into discussing how to create a career vision board, let’s talk about how vision boards work and why they’ve become so popular.
What is a Vision Board?
A vision board is a visual representation of your goals made up of images, quotes, and words that inspire you. It serves as a constant reminder of what you’re working toward, reinforcing your aspirations each time you look at it. As the name suggests, people tend to make vision boards as a collage on a physical board, using a poster, foam board, or similar materials as a blank slate to decorate.
Vision boards became extremely popular after the release of the well-known book The Secret in 2006. The Secret focused on something called the Law of Attraction, which is a philosophy that suggests that the energy and thoughts you put out into the world (whether positive or negative) determine what you attract into your life.
It is based on the idea that like attracts like, meaning if you focus on positive outcomes and believe in your ability to succeed, you are more likely to create opportunities and take actions that lead to success. Vision boards align with the Law of Attraction because they can help people visualize their goals early on and work to turn them into a reality.
While vision boards are commonly associated with overall life goals, creating one specifically for your career is a targeted way to focus on professional growth and achievements.
Why Make a Career Vision Board?
There’s more to vision boards than pasting pictures on a board. They also tap into the psychology of visualization and can help give you clarity. Studies show that when you visualize your goals consistently, you’re more likely to take purposeful action to achieve them.
A career vision board can help you by:
- Clarifying your goals: Often, we have vague aspirations. A vision board forces you to get specific about what you want.
- Boosting motivation: Seeing your ideal career path visually laid out is incredibly motivating. This is why it’s a good idea to use your vision board as a regular or daily motivation.
- Keeping you focused: It’s easy to get derailed by short-term challenges. A career vision board serves as a visual reminder of your bigger picture.
- Creating accountability: Once you’ve invested time and energy into your vision board, it serves as a personal commitment to work toward those goals.
Whether you’re dreaming of a leadership role, transitioning to a dream job, or building a thriving business, a vision board certainly won’t hurt your efforts.
How to Make a Career Vision Board
Now, for the fun part! Let’s talk about creating a career vision board. I’ve made vision boards in the past, but they were focused on general areas of my life and things I’ve wanted to achieve, like certain health goals, traveling, paying off debt, etc.
If you’re looking to grow or pivot your career over the next few years, it’s a good idea to frame your vision board to cater to these career goals. Here’s what you’ll need to do.
Step 1: Gather Your Materials
To get started, you’ll need basic supplies. But first, decide whether you want to make a physical vision board or a digital board. You can use tools like Canva to create a digital vision board and design it however you wish.
If you prefer a more hands-on experience, here are some supplies to have on hand for the process.
- A corkboard, poster board, or a large sheet of paper
- Magazines, newspapers, and printouts for images and quotes
- Scissors, glue, tape, and push pins
- Markers, pens, stickers, or embellishments (optional for personal touches)
You can also choose a digital route using apps like Canva or Pinterest if you prefer the flexibility of creating an online vision board.
Step 2: Reflect on Your Goals
One of the most important steps is understanding what you truly want in your career. Take time to reflect on your career goals.
Start asking yourself questions like:
- What kind of career do I want to build?
- What are my short- and long-term goals?
- What kind of workplace culture, leadership, or work-life balance is most important to me?
Jot down your answers to create a framework for your vision board. Be specific and focus on SMART goals, which are: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Instead of saying, “I want a successful business,” visualize metrics like annual revenue, customer satisfaction ratings, specific achievements, or awards won.
Maybe you want to earn a particular industry award or have a better work-life balance with a remote position that has good benefits. Maybe you’d like to reach financial independence or pursue other professional goals like serving the community through your workplace. Include short-term and long-term goals, and don’t be afraid to dream.
Step 3: Gather Images, Quotes, and Inspiration
Once you have brainstormed each smart goal, you will start to put together a vision for your career. This should be translated to your vision board in a creative way.
Look for pictures of professionals doing what you aspire to do, workplace environments you admire, and symbols of success like diplomas, trophies, or graphics symbolizing financial growth. You can also use personal photos, like pictures of your children, to remind you why you want better work-life balance or to inspire you to keep going when things are tough.
Collect motivational quotes or affirmations that inspire you or tie into a specific goal. Also, don’t limit yourself to just pictures and words. You can use anything that inspires positive emotions – like clips of colors, textures, symbols, handwritten notes, logos of companies, or other visuals that you think would be a good fit for your board. If you’re making a digital vision board and have a Pinterest account, you can draw inspiration and ideas from your different boards to fill space.
Step 4: Create Your Collage and Add Personal Touches
Next, lay out your collected images and quotes on your board, organizing them in a way that feels cohesive and inspiring. You might group them by themes like goals, values, or specific time frames (e.g., six months, one year).
Add personal touches such as your name, positive statements or inspirational words you’ve written, and unique elements that represent who you are. The goal is to create something that feels like your authentic self and the ambitions you have for your career.
Step 5: Use It as Daily Motivation
Once completed, place your career vision board in your workspace or somewhere that you’ll see it often. Whether it’s on your desk, in your office, or as your phone wallpaper (if it’s digital), the key is to ensure it becomes a daily reminder.
Create a routine where you spend a minute each morning visualizing your goals as if they’ve already been achieved. This small habit will keep you motivated and focused even during challenging times.
Step 6: Take Action and Implement
A vision board is a starting point, but action is what truly bridges the gap between dreaming and achieving. Take the aspirations from your board and break them down into actionable steps with deadlines.
For instance:
- If your board includes “write a book,” your first step could be creating an outline and setting a weekly writing schedule.
- If you envision a promotion, begin by taking on leadership opportunities or enrolling in skill-enhancement courses.
- Or maybe your action step involves enrolling in school to gain more credentials in your field.
Regularly revisit your vision board to reflect on your progress and make adjustments as needed. Your career vision board should be a dynamic tool, not a static one. So feel free to update it as your goals evolve.
Achieve Your Career Aspirations
A career vision board is more than a craft project. It’s an intentional goal-setting exercise to help you work toward building the professional life you’ve always wanted. By focusing on your aspirations and taking the necessary steps to achieve them, you’ll find yourself moving closer to those goals and dreams each day.
Just remember that before we do anything (large or small), we need a positive mindset and the belief we can achieve that task early on. So, if you’ve been on the fence about creating your own career vision board, consider this your invitation to get started right now.
