A good vision board template is a simple grid with one big space in the middle for your main goal and a handful of smaller spaces around it, each with a prompt to answer. Below is a six section template you can copy onto paper, into a phone note, or into a design app, and fill in today in under an hour.
You do not need a printer or a design tool to use it. A sheet of paper and a pen are enough for the first draft. Pictures can come later.
The template
Draw a rectangle in portrait. Split it like this:
- Center, largest space: your one main goal for the next few months.
- Top left: how you want to feel.
- Top right: the daily action.
- Bottom left: the people.
- Bottom right: the place.
- A strip along the bottom: one sentence in your own words.
That is six spaces. Keep them roughly that size. The center should be at least twice as big as any other section, so your eye goes there first.
Now fill in each section, in this order. Start with the center, because every other space depends on it.
1. Center: the main goal
Write the goal as a sentence you could check off. "Finish the first draft by March" is a good example. Then find or take one photo that shows the goal already done. This picture carries the board, so take your time picking it.
2. Top left: how you want to feel
One or two words. Calm, strong, proud, light. Add an image that gives you that feeling, like a quiet beach or a person crossing a finish line.
3. Top right: the daily action
What will you do on an ordinary Tuesday? Twenty minutes of writing. A walk at lunch. Five dollars into savings. This is the most useful square on the board, because it turns the goal into something you can do today.
4. Bottom left: the people
Who is part of this? Someone who will cheer you on, someone you want to make proud, or someone you will celebrate with at the end. A photo of them is enough.
5. Bottom right: the place
Where does the goal happen? The desk, the trail, the kitchen, the city. Picturing a place makes the goal feel physical.
6. Bottom strip: your sentence
One line, in your own words, that you would say to yourself on a hard day. Short enough to read at a glance.
Three ways to use the template
- On paper. Print photos or cut them from magazines, glue them into the sections, and hang it where you will see it each morning. The printable page has sheets you can print.
- On your phone. Recreate the layout in a design or notes app, drop in photos, and export it as an image for your lock screen. There are step by step instructions in how to make a digital vision board on your phone.
- Center image only. If six sections feel like too much, use just the center photo and the bottom sentence. A single picture and a single line make a perfectly good board.
Common mistakes with templates
- Filling every space with a different goal. The template works because everything points at one goal. Five goals in six boxes gives you a collage with no center.
- Skipping the daily action. Without it, the board is a wish list.
- Using only stock images. Your own photos hit harder. Even a blurry phone picture of your actual running shoes is better than a perfect one of someone else's.
- Making it once and never touching it. A board you never change fades from view. Add a photo when you hit a milestone, or swap one section a month.
How long to give it
A template works best for a goal you can reach in one to three months. Anything longer tends to lose its pull, and you can always make a new board when this one is done. If your goal is big, put the first milestone in the center and save the rest for the next board. When you finish, keep the old board somewhere. Looking back at a board you completed is a good reason to trust the next one.
Example: a filled in template
Here is one filled in for a first half marathon.
- Center: "Run the city half marathon in April," with a photo of the finish line from last year.
- Feel: "Strong," with a picture of a runner on a hill.
- Daily action: "Run or stretch for 20 minutes."
- People: a photo of a sister who said she will be at the finish.
- Place: the river path near home.
- Sentence: "Slow miles still count."
Turning the center square into a daily check-in
The center photo is the part worth seeing most often. Reveal the Dream is built around exactly that square. You pick the photo of your main goal, choose a journey length, and the photo starts covered by a frosted layer split into one piece per day. Each time you do your daily action and check in, one piece uncovers, in the app and on your home screen widget. By the last day the whole picture is showing.
Classic includes one journey of 7 or 30 days and a home screen widget, and you can export the finished reveal as an image. Premium adds several journeys at once, any length you choose, more reveal styles and cover colors, and rest days. You can see it with your own photo at the in-browser demo.
Fill it in now
Grab a sheet of paper. Draw the six spaces. Write the goal in the center before you do anything else today. The pictures can wait until tonight.