CREATING A VISION BOARD AS A FAMILY PROJECT

CREATING A VISION BOARD AS A FAMILY PROJECT

Collages—pictures created by attaching smaller pictures to a large background—were popular kids’ crafts long before “vision board” entered the adult vocabulary. Regardless of participant ages, the vision board needn’t always be a one-board-per-individual project. Together as a family, you can create a board that helps you all work together toward group goals.

Vision Boards 101

For the few who’ve never heard of a vision board: it’s a collage with a theme (things you want to achieve) and a goal (daily reinforcement of a mindset that keeps you moving in the right direction). Everything on the board evokes mental images and feelings relevant to your life purposes. Vision-board media can include:

• Cut-out magazine pictures
• Hand-sketched images or handwritten words
• Computer-generated art
• Encouraging notes from loved ones
• Feathers, ribbons, or inspirational sayings that generate positive feelings

Vision boards are most effective when three-dimensional (though some people use virtual boards), prominently displayed, and designed to evoke positive feelings (not just reminders of material “wants”).

The Family Vision Board

Every family has communal goals. Yours might include:

• Saving for a vacation
• Starting a home-based business (family members not directly involved in the business will play roles in modifying household routines to fit)
• Starting a garden
• Building a rec room or accessory dwelling unit
• Starting a family health-and-fitness program
• Eliminating complaining from the household

Make a list of goals everyone’s enthusiastic about. Choose one or more to focus on. Then, ask each family member what they want to do: cutting out pictures, creating original images, collecting inspiring decorations. Participants can create their parts individually or in teams; designate a communal “work stations” area so this remains a group project throughout. (Don’t “help” small children unless—or more than—they ask. They won’t feel part of the project, or the goals, unless “their” share is really their creation.)

For final assemblage, use a large corkboard or posterboard for the background. Take turns attaching a few items at a time, with pushpins and group input, until a final version is agreed on. Then you can paste or tape items down—or stick to the pushpins, as you choose.

When the board is ready, display it where everyone will see it daily. Challenge them to stop and concentrate on it whenever passing it.

Note to Teachers and Other Group Caregivers

Communal vision boards can also be class projects. With many classes going virtual, you might even use that approach for a group vision board: 

• Agree on a shared goal or goals.
• Have everyone create their contributions and scan them into computer files.
• Distribute the files to all participants. Let participants group the images into proposed arrangements.
• Agree on a final arrangement. Have everyone download the final version.
• Ask everyone to “translate” their file into personally effective forms (from creating a screen saver to enlarging images separately, printing them out, and re-assembling the arrangement on a real-world board).
• Each week, discuss how everyone is using their board, and what you all can do toward the goals. It’ll bring fresh reality to “apart but together.”

Happy visions to you all!