Marketing Delmarva: Planning Your Year: How Vision Board Day Can Set the Stage

Did you know the second Saturday in January is Vision Board Day? More than just a random observation, it's a goal-setting, success-planning, strategy kind of occasion, perfectly timed for the new year. From picking dates to launch a new marketing campaign, take a family vacation, or implement improvements to your existing practices, this date encourages a forward-looking mindset for the months ahead.

What goes into a vision board? It is generally described as a road map or template for things you wish to achieve in a certain time frame; a visual sort of planer or itinerary, encouraging the listing of specific goals, objectives and targets which will be coming up. Your board could be about business strategy components, personal life, or a blend of both - some folks even make several boards to stay focused on a few different topics.

Some things a vision board is not; structured, scheduled or itemized, specific tasks. On the contrary, it's meant to be a casual, subject-to-change type of concept, inviting thoughts and encouraging creative ideas. Add stickers, cut out pictures from old magazines, write out possibilities in funky-colored gel pens or glitter markers - for this project, you are officially allowed to ditch being a responsible grown-up and instead, adopt an unstructured approach to play (isn't that fun when we get to do this as adults!?)

Below are a couple of blank designs that I've used to sketch out my vision boards in previous years. While I don't always drag out the glue sticks and hack up a magazine for paper cut-outs, I do get creative with my digital boards and love starting out with a simple background and a couple of post-it notes or scrap pieces of paper. Casually arranged, I download the board image and save it right in my computer's pending folder, so at any time I can pull it out and edit freely with updates and new suggestions.

Here are a couple of png images I made for my boards.....feel free to download by clicking on them to open a larger version in a new window and then saving to your phone or laptop.

Here are several different styles of sample boards and blank versions.

Now you see some different styles, I'm sure your wheels are turning, right? Well, while the vision board idea is meant to be fun and creative, there are some practical considerations for the steps you'd want to take. Here are several sites and articles highlighting good points about planning out your process, which I think you'll find helpful to take a quick peek at this week.

• How to Create a Vision Diagram
• 31 Vision Board IDEAS & Examples
• You might think of them as just a hodgepodge of affirmations and images, but vision boards are a great tool for manifesting what you want in life. See templates here.
• How to Make a Vision Board

Lastly, here are several additional board examples; I love grids and find them very helpful to stay organized with neat rows, but filled with clipping and notes piled on each square, and I also like the design of the tree filled with blooming ideas. If you like these styles, feel free to download and print them out, or just save on your phone to work on as a digital scrap project.

I hope you are inspired for the week ahead to get going with your vision for 2023. You have all week so think about the things which are most important to you to include, gather some materials, and then plot out an hour or two of alone time to glue, stick, write and craft your dreams for the year to come. Good luck and be sure and stop by my Facebook page to let me know how your project is coming along!

Sincerely,

Andrea Baumann

Marketing Delmarva