How to Power Up Your Vision Board

I love vision boards. I’ve used them for at least six years, ever since creating my first during a retreat with my mentor Christine Kane, and they’ve always helped me manifest improvements in my life.

A vision board is a tool for manifestation and mindset. It triggers the Law of Attraction while it also keeps your thoughts and actions trained on what you want. A vision board is usually a collage of pictures and words glued onto poster board – although I’ve seen many creative variations on that theme, and mine isn’t even like that right now. It works by keeping your wants and desires in the forefront of your mind; because thoughts become things, the more that you think about something, the quicker and more easily it manifests.

Here’s an example: A couple weeks ago I created a new vision board to motivate me to grow my business. On it I put things that I’d be able to afford as my income increased. One of those items was “weekly housecleaning services” to which I added a picture of Consuela, the cleaning lady character from “Family Guy.” Every time I look up at my vision board, I chuckle to see Consuela’s not-so-smiling face.

About a week later, after a series of long, busy days I was feeling overwhelmed by the piles of laundry and dishes that seemed to have taken over the house. For almost an hour I muttered to myself, “I need a Consuela or a Zoila.” (Zoila is another housecleaning figure in pop culture – the live-in housekeeper on the reality show “Flipping Out.”)

Three days later a crazy thing happened: Two house cleaners showed up at my house unexpectedly. In fact, they didn’t just show up – they let themselves in behind the carpet cleaners I’d hired and went right to work in the master bathroom. It took 15 minutes and conversations with the carpet guys and the cleaning ladies for all of us to realize that they were in the wrong house!

(I thought the carpet guys had brought them; the carpet guys thought I had hired them; the cleaning ladies got the address wrong.)

The ladies were deeply embarrassed but I was simply amused. I chuckled as I walked them to the front door, and then I laughed even harder when I realized this was a near-perfect manifestation of what was on my vision board! And they were two Latina women; I had gotten a Consuela and a Zoila!

This manifestation came up so strong and so quick that I wanted to figure out how I could recreate the pattern. (Because I’ve got a ton of other stuff on my vision board!) During some mental reflection and some time with my higher guidance, I got some great insights into why this manifestation worked the way it did.

…which of course I want to share with you so that you can have the same success in your life!

Here’s what it boils down to: When you’re ready to create your new vision board, whether it’s for the first time or 15th time, here are the steps you can take:

1. Download Christine Kane’s Complete Guide to Vision Boards. It’s free, and she does such an amazing job of explaining the creation process that I don’t need to recreate the wheel but simply add what I’ve learned. (She includes three different types of vision boards you can create depending on the purpose and scope.)

2. Here’s one way you’re going to “power up” your vision board beyond what Christine suggests: When you’re coming up with your list of things that you want to manifest, choose pictures that a) have tangible meaning to you, and b) trigger high-frequency emotions for you, such as love, joy, and gratitude. In my case, the picture of Consuela (which I downloaded and printed from a Google image search) represented an (almost) actual housekeeper, and my joyous laughter each time I saw it strengthened the attractive energy that I sent out into the Universe.

I’m trying this next with the item on my board that says, “restocked cash reserve.” The picture next to it is a hand holding a huge wad of money. Very tactile and tangible, and slightly ridiculous in its extreme nature.

3. Work with different areas of your brain. Something I did differently this time was to combine words and images for each item on my board. This latest board actually started as bunch of index cards tucked into a memo board. Even though the cards were brightly colored it was still rather boring, so I spent less than an hour googling images to go with each card. I understand now that the pictures activate different areas of the brain than the words do, and yet the words provide an instant, focused translation of what the picture means.

4. Hang your vision board where you’ll see it most. Mine is right behind my laptop, so it’s always in my peripheral vision. I’m constantly reactivating the attractive energy of the board, whether it’s by accident or I intentionally scan and read the cards on the board. Desks, kitchens, and above your TV might be great places to hang your board. (I love the idea of above the TV as a way to also motivate someone to take action on creating her reality instead of escaping from it.)

5. Don’t wait till it’s perfectly done. Creating a vision board is an iterative process. Having the half-done board hanging in front of you may be the only way you get back to working on it.

6. Include one or two powerful affirmations on the board. I don’t recommend littering the board with tons of these – too many can actually dilute your focus on what you want to attract. But I do attribute the power of my current board to the presence of The Ultimate Success Mantra that I borrowed from Gay Hendricks’ book, The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level: “I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire others to do the same.” Is that not the perfect mantra for a vision board?

All of these ideas have culminated for me in one very powerful vision board. I look forward to seeing what shows up at my door next. 🙂  And because I know you’re curious, here’s a much bigger picture of my board:

Your turn: What has been the best thing you’ve ever manifested off a vision board? What do you look forward to putting on your new, powered-up vision board so that you can see it manifest? And where do you plan to hang it?