The inner life
Vision Board
Direct answer
Vision Board: A vision board is a collage of pictures and words that stand for what a person wants, kept where it is seen daily so that the aims stay in mind.
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At a glance
- Also called
- dream board, treasure map manifestation
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Visualisation, Manifestation, The Secret, Mental Contrasting
A vision board is a collage of pictures and words that stand for what a person wants, kept where it is seen daily so that the aims stay in mind.
A plain educational schematic; it does not diagnose a condition or replace professional care.
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What is a vision board?
A vision board, also called a dream board, is made by cutting out or printing images that stand for wished-for things, such as a home, a journey, a kind of work or a way of feeling, and fixing them to a board or a screen. Manifestation teachers say that looking at it each day draws those things toward the maker.
No study shows a collage drawing anything. What research on goals does suggest is that pictures of the prize alone can please a person enough to slacken effort, while pictures of the steps help. A board is most useful when it shows what the maker means to do, and when it serves as a prompt for the first act of the week.
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What sets Vision Board apart
What marks the vision board out among manifestation tools is that it is an object and not an act: it goes on working, or failing to, after the hour spent making it. That is also its weakness. People stop noticing what hangs in the same place every day, and enjoying an image of success can stand in for earning it. A board therefore does most when it is remade from time to time and tied to dates.
- Also called: dream board; treasure map (Shakti Gawain, 1978)
- Made of: cut or printed images and words fixed to a board, a wall or a screen
- Spread by: The Secret, 2006, and the television talk shows that followed
- Relevant research: Pham and Taylor, 1999: picturing the process beat picturing the outcome
- Standing: a reminder of aims; no evidence that it draws events
Often mistaken for something else: A mood board gathers images to settle the look of a design project; a vision board gathers them to stand for the life its maker wants.
The story behind Vision Board
Shakti Gawain described the same thing as a treasure map in Creative Visualization (1978). The name vision board spread after The Secret (2006), in which John Assaraf tells of finding that he had bought a house pictured on a board he had made years before. Television talk shows and, later, image-sharing sites turned the making of one into a custom of the new year.
Why Vision Board matters
Vision Board is the most widely made object of manifestation practice, and the research on goal imagery says plainly how to make one that helps.
How to read Vision Board
Makers choose a few aims, add an image of the work each one asks for, hang the board in sight and look it over when planning the week.
Vision Board in practice: an example
Beside a picture of a finished marathon a reader pins the training plan and the route for Saturday, so the board shows the road as well as the line.
Where readings of Vision Board go wrong
A board changes nothing by being looked at, and an aim that is missed is no sign of a fault in the picturing.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- vision boards, dream board, vision board meaning, how to make a vision board, treasure map manifestation
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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More in Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
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Common questions
What is a vision board?
It is a board or screen covered with pictures and words that stand for what a person hopes to do, have or become, kept in view as a daily reminder of those aims.
Do vision boards work?
There is no evidence that a board attracts anything. As a reminder it can keep an aim in mind, and studies of mental imagery suggest it helps more when it shows the steps to be taken and not only the reward.
What should I put on a vision board?
A few aims that are within reach, each with an image of the work it takes, and a date or a first step written beside it. Boards crowded with prizes tend to become decoration.
