How to Create a Vision Board that Actually Works
Learn how to create a vision board that actually works using neuroscience, intentional goal-setting, and mindset shifts to turn your aspirations into action this year.
POV: It's 11 pm at the end of December, f*** knows what day.
You've lost track. Your only measure of time is the Quality Street wrappers mounting on your bedside table. The festive leftovers have finally stopped calling: after days of midnight tupperware trips for cold stuffing and mince pies.
You've seen everything worth watching, from the soap specials to that movie everyone told you to watch in October. Your feed has become a blur of other people's Aspen trips and your friends' pets wearing festive pyjamas.
It's as you crumple up yet another purple wrapper that it hits you: Christmas is over. And right on cue, the first 'New Year, New You' TikTok lands on your screen.
New Year, New You! 10 Habits to Transform Your Life!
Though not a fan of performative optimism, that all-too-familiar guilt brews into a surge of motivation to change your life for the better. Notions of dry Jan, gym memberships, and new year resolutions swirl through your mind, each one a promise you mean to keep but have no actual plan for.
What is a Vision Board?
Vision boards have become one of the most misunderstood tools in personal development.
Most of us can picture the ritual: a Pinterest scroll, a stack of glossy images, a glue stick, and a quiet hope that simply seeing our “dream life” every day will somehow make it real. We stick it on the wall, feel inspired for a moment, and that's it.
The problem isn’t vision boards. It’s how we’re taught to use them.
Why your last vision board didn’t work
Traditional vision boards focus almost entirely on aesthetics. They prioritise how life should look, and don't make you question the life you are intending to lead. And the truth is: pretty Pinterest images don't have the power to change or guide your behaviour, nor improve attention, decisions, or habits. Without structure, a vision board is just a pretty picture, something your brain learns to ignore.
The science-backed strategy
An effective vision board sits at the intersection of three things: the science of manifestation, spiritual intention, and your own internal creativity.
Your brain is constantly filtering through an overwhelming amount of information, around 11 million bits per second from your senses alone, while you consciously process maybe 40 to 50 bits. Every second, it decides what matters and what doesn't, discarding the rest without you even knowing.
A strategic vision board trains your brain to recognise and prioritise anything aligned with your goals. The right actions, imagery, and experiences start getting marked as 'important' instead of slipping through your mind unnoticed.
When done properly, it becomes a psychological tool, not a decorative one.
The science behind visualising and manifesting
When you visualise goals, you activate the Reticular Activating System (RAS), the part of your brain that decides what deserves your attention and what gets ignored.
Research by Dr Gail Matthews found that people who visualise and mentally rehearse their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them.
This creates what psychologists call value tagging. Your brain starts flagging relevant opportunities, behaviours, and information as significant. Pathways to your goals don't appear out of nowhere, they were suddenly always there.
What makes a vision board actually work
To gain access to my full SIX-STEP STRATEGY on how to build your very own vision board, download our Her Vision Board Bundle from our online store.
An effective vision board has three elements:
- Clear Categories, Not Vague Dreams: Sort your goals by their area in your life. Whether that be health, career, mindset, relationships, or environment. Structure gives your brain something to work with.
- Words as well as Images: Pair your pictures with intentional language. Values, emotions, specific behaviours, and your goals will shift from aspirational to actionable.
- Repetition and Visibility: Repetition is how the brain rewires itself (that's what neuroplasticity is). Seeing the same goals regularly strengthens neural pathways until aligned choices start feeling automatic instead of forced.
Why this approach works
Your brain doesn't change from a burst of motivation. It changes through exposure and reinforcement, the slow drip of seeing the same thing until it becomes part of how you think.
Vision board ticklist:
- Keeps your goals visible
- Reinforces identity, not just outcomes
- Focuses on your goals, not other people's
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Anchors them to actual habits and behaviour
This is the framework I used to create clarity during my degree—and eventually graduate with a first. It works because it's built on how your brain actually functions, not on hope.
If your vision board hasn't worked before, you didn't fail. The tool was incomplete.
When you combine visualisation with structure, repetition, and intention, a vision board stops being motivational decor and starts being a map you can actually follow.
Your future self doesn't need more wishing. She needs clarity. And clarity is something you can build.