What if I told you that the secret to achieving all your wildest dreams was as simple as cutting out some magazine photos and gluing them to a poster board? Okay, there might be a little more to it than that. But vision boards – physical or digital collages of images and words representing your ideal life – are a surprisingly effective tool for getting crystal clear on your goals and motivating yourself to make them happen.
Don‘t just take my word for it – the power of visualization is backed by serious scientific research. A study by Psychology Today found that people who imagined positive outcomes showed better performance and lower stress than those who didn‘t. And a survey by TD Bank revealed that visualizing your goals makes you 1.2 to 1.4 times more confident you will achieve them.
Cutting-edge neuropsychology tells us why: visualizing activates the same brain regions as actually doing the thing. So by imagining your dream life in vivid detail, you‘re training your brain to make it a reality. Pretty cool, right?
While old-school vision boards involved printed photos, scissors and glue sticks, these days all you need is a computer or phone and an app like Canva. The graphic design platform has exploded to 60 million active users who have created over 7 billion designs – many of them vision boards to manifest their biggest goals and dreams.
As a certified Canva Creator who uses the app daily on my MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone, I‘m excited to share my top tips and tricks for crafting a vision board that fires you up and draws your deepest desires into reality. No glue sticks required.
Why Canva is the Best App for Digital Vision Boards
Before we get into the nitty gritty how-to, let‘s talk about why Canva is hands down my favorite tool for creating vision boards, especially as a Mac user. While there‘s no shortage of competing graphic design apps out there, Canva stands out for its perfect balance of ease-of-use and powerful features.
Some of the biggest selling points of Canva for vision boards:
🖼️ An extensive built-in library of assets: Canva boasts over 100 million photos, videos, audio tracks, graphics, and illustrations. That means whatever visuals you can dream up for your goals, you can almost certainly find them on the platform. Just type a few keywords into the search bar and you‘ll have endless cut-out-worthy pics at your fingertips.
🎨 Professionally designed templates: Not a graphic designer? No problem. Canva has over 500,000 templates created by professional designers for every possible use case, including tons specifically for vision boards in every aesthetic. It‘s like having a free designer on call to make you a gorgeous vision board, no design skills needed.
📱 Easy cross-device access: Start your vision board on your Mac, add to it on your iPad, and view it for instant inspo on your iPhone. Canva automatically syncs all your designs to the cloud so you can access them from any device, any time. Perfect for us Apple ecosystem addicts!
⚡ Fast performance: I‘ll admit, I‘m impatient when it comes to technology. Luckily Canva‘s native Mac app runs seamlessly even when I‘m working with image and video-heavy designs. Drag and drop from your Finder and other apps is a breeze.
🖌️ Handy Mac-specific features: Canva takes advantage of all the latest and greatest Mac features, like Touch Bar quick access to common tools, Magic Resize to create designs in multiple sizes, and easy file organization with folders. Plus you can use all your favorite Canva keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow.
😍 It‘s free! Amazingly, you can access all of Canva‘s core features and assets without spending a dime, making pro-quality vision boards accessible to all. If you want to level up with fancy templates, photos, videos and graphics, premium plans start at just $12.99/month – a small price to pay for manifesting your dream life!
How to Create a Vision Board in Canva Step-by-Step
Okay, time for the main event: actually creating your vision board! It‘s easier than you think. Just follow the simple step-by-step process below.
Step 1: Brainstorm your vision board theme and goals
Before you open Canva and start slapping random inspirational quotes on a canvas (oh trust me, it‘s tempting), it‘s crucial to get clear on your vision board‘s purpose. What exactly are you trying to manifest here?
Take a few minutes to journal on questions like:
- What would your ideal life look and feel like 1, 5, 10 years from now?
- What are your biggest, most audacious goals and dreams?
- What are your core values and how can you express them?
- How do you want to grow and improve yourself in the next year?
- What would make you feel happy, fulfilled, proud and abundant every day?
Don‘t hold back – dream big! The juicier and more specific your vision, the more powerful your vision board will be. Write it all down in as much detail as you can. We‘ll use this to find the perfect visuals to represent it.
Step 2: Gather your visuals
Next comes the fun part – hunting for those drool-worthy photos, quotes, and graphics to bring your vision to life! Here‘s how to find them in Canva:
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From your Canva dashboard, click the big "Create a design" button and search for "Desktop wallpaper" to start with a blank canvas in classic vision board size. (Or you can search for "vision board" to browse ready-made templates if you prefer a jumping off point.)
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Time to fill up that blank canvas! Head to the "Elements" tab of the library on the left-hand side and use the search bar to hunt for pictures and graphics related to your vision. For example, if one of your goals is to travel more, you might search for "passport," "plane," "beach," or "mountains." Drag and drop the ones that call to you onto your board.
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While you‘re in Elements, you can also add fun graphic accents by searching for things like "glitter," "paint splatter," "neon," "plants," "line art," or anything that matches the vibe you want. This is your space to get creative!
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For an extra personal touch, upload your own photos or scan in images that represent your dream life. Just drag them in from your desktop or click "Uploads" in the library. I love using Canva‘s background remover tool (under "Effects") to cut myself out and place me in my dream scenarios!
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Finally, add some motivating words to your vision board with the "Text" tab. You can browse pre-designed text templates or add your own headers, subheaders and body text. Include powerful affirmations, your main goal statements, inspiring quotes, or whatever speaks to you.
Aim for a variety of visual elements and an overall aesthetic that makes you feel joyful and energized when you look at your vision board. The more specific, the better – your brain responds to detailed visualization!
Step 3: Arrange your board
Once you have your visual elements picked out, it‘s time to lay them out on your canvas into a beautiful collage. There‘s no right or wrong way to do this – go with whatever composition feels good to you and reflects the energy you want to embody.
Here are some tips for arranging your vision board:
- Create balance by spreading out light and dark elements
- Vary the size and orientation of your images
- Overlap photos and graphics in creative ways
- Align text to edges or center to create visual harmony
- Use consistent colors and fonts for a cohesive look
- Add pops of metallic with gold or silver text and accents
Play around until your vision board feels just right! If you‘re feeling stuck, Canva‘s "Templates" tab has tons of collage and mood board layouts to use as a starting point.
Step 4: Add some spark and share
Woohoo – your vision board is looking amazing! Let‘s add some final touches to make it ultra powerful and put it out there to the universe.
Some ideas to take your vision board to the next level:
- Add music that evokes how you want to feel with an audio player element
- Make your board clickable by hyperlinking images to your written goals or action plans
- Gamify your progress with goal-tracking elements like progress bars
- Incorporate personal cut-out photos of you in your dream scenarios
When your masterpiece is complete, it‘s time to make it your daily companion on your manifesting journey. Download it as a desktop wallpaper, lock screen, or print it out on photo paper to hang in your home or office. Schedule recurring calendar reminders to sit with your vision board for a few minutes of visualization.
You can also instantly share your vision board on social media or with friends and supporters right from Canva. Declaring your dreams makes them feel more real and invites others to cheer you on! You can even add collaborators to your Canva design so they can hype you up with stickers and comments.
Remember, your vision board is a living document! Come back to make changes as your goals shift and expand. You got this.
Vision Board Tips from the Pros
Still not sure what to put on your vision board? Get inspired by these vision board examples from successful celebs, influencers, and entrepreneurs who credit Canva for helping them manifest their biggest goals:
🙌 Oprah‘s Vision for Black America: Media mogul Oprah made headlines last year with her powerful vision board for an equitable, anti-racist future that spread like wildfire on social media. She used Canva‘s collage templates and included both original drawings and curated photos showing her vision for change.
🎾 Venus Williams‘ Vision Board Featured in Architectural Digest: Tennis star and interior designer Venus Williams broke down her 2021 vision board for Architectural Digest, including her process for choosing visuals in Canva‘s library to represent her personal and business goals. Using stenciled text over beautiful interior photos, she shows how your vision board can double as artwork!
💄 Beauty Influencer Huda Kattan‘s "2020 Vision": Mega-influencer and beauty brand founder Huda Kattan is a big believer in vision boards, making a new one in Canva every year. This video walks through her best tips for making one that speaks to every area of your life, from relationships to health to business – complete with Canva screenshots so you can follow along.
👨💻 Gary Vaynerchuk‘s Vision Board Templates: Leave it to entrepreneurial guru Gary Vee to figure out how to systematize and scale vision boards. His team released a series of free Canva vision board templates that break down the process of choosing your goals, finding images to represent them in Canva‘s library, and arranging them for maximum impact. If you‘re not sure where to start, make a copy of one of these and customize it!
Vision Board Inspo and Ideas
To get your creative juices flowing, here are some popular vision board themes and aesthetics to try out in Canva:
Vision Board Ideas:
- My best year ever
- Dream job
- Aligned and abundant
- Travel bucket list
- My ideal healthy lifestyle
- Relationship goals
- Future house inspiration
- Personal growth plan
- Money mindset reset
- Next-level business
Aesthetic Ideas:
- Minimalist black and white
- Colorful abstract art
- Spiritual mystic
- Nature-inspired
- Sleek modern typography
- Scrapbook collage
- Dreamy ethereal glow
- Eclectic maximalist
- Dark and moody
- Y2K nostalgic vibes
Whatever you choose, have FUN with it! Let yourself be an artist, play, and tap into the big dreams that light you up inside.
Manifest Your Dreams into Reality
I hope this guide has shown you just how simple and fun it can be to get crystal clear on your biggest goals and become a magnet for your dreams with a Canva vision board! After making them an annual ritual using this method, I can tell you first-hand – they WORK.
The act of defining your dreams, curating visuals to represent them, and making them your computer and phone‘s constant companion is ridiculously powerful for your subconscious mind. As you focus on those feel-good images daily, you‘ll be blown away by the opportunities and "coincidences" that line up to bring your vision board to life.
So open up that blank Canva canvas, get quiet, and ask yourself: If anything was possible, what would I love to create? What does my most fulfilling, joyful, successful life look like? What do I want to experience, achieve, become? There‘s magic in clarifying your vision and keeping it top of mind.
And don‘t be afraid to put it out there and ask others to hold your vision with you! Canva makes it incredibly easy to share your board and invite collaborators. Empowered women empower women, am I right?
If you create a vision board using this guide, tag me on the ‘Gram – I would love to cheer you on and send you all the manifesting mojo!
Never forget, you are the artist of your own reality. So make it a damn masterpiece. I believe in you.
What would your ideal life look like? Share your big vision board-worthy dreams in the comments and let‘s lift each other up!