About a month ago, just after the start of the new year, I was at a café with a friend and we were chatting about what we wanted the coming year to look like. I had a clear vision in my head, but I found myself unable to articulate exactly what it was I wanted.

My friend suggested making a vision board to help me put my goals into something tangible. I was only vaguely familiar with this concept, having come across a few pins on Pinterest in my every day browsing that showed quotes about financial freedom and vacations and career advancement.

My friend gave me a few prompts and from there, being the over-organized control freak type (I’m working on that), I made a perfectly curated Pinterest board with a visual answer to every one of them.

That was fine. I could pull up the board and scroll through any time I needed a little inspiration or reminder of what I was working towards. But I still felt like I wasn’t quite capturing my vision for my future. I knew there were probably things that hadn’t crossed my mind or that went beyond the prompts my friend gave me.

By this point I had familiarized myself with the concept of a vision board, and one thing I saw over and over was the power of putting it somewhere you can see it every day, aka not just on my phone.

I happened to have a bunch of old magazines that had been sitting around collecting dust for years and decided to thumb through them to see if anything caught my eye to put on a physical vision board.

I wasn’t expecting to find much, but two hours later I had a heaping pile of clippings. I took them to my office, grabbed a box of thumbtacks, and started pinning them up to the cork board above my desk.

The image at the top of this article is the finished product. Somehow all the things I had cut out fit perfectly in a chaotic but aesthetically pleasing kind of way.

And it is so me. I didn’t think a bunch of random things I came across in a bunch of old magazines could encapsulate my vibe and vision so well. And the joy it brings me to look up from my desk and see it there is indescribable. Every time I do I feel charged up and motivated and ready to tackle whatever is coming next.

If you’re like me and need a visual way to articulate your thoughts and goals and dreams, I highly recommend carving out some time to create a vision board of your own.

Not sure where to start? Here are some great prompts to help guide you, including the ones my friend gave me and a few others I came up with when building my own board:

1. What are my personal growth and mindset goals?
2. What are some strong habits I want to build?
3. How can I achieve financial abundance?
4. How can I achieve balance in my life?
5. What kind of relationships do I want to nurture?
6. Is there anywhere I want to travel?
7. What are my health and fitness goals?
8. How can I manifest confidence?
9. What kind of self-care will I make sure I do?
10. Are there any new hobbies or interests I’d like to pursue?
11. What does my dream home look like?
12. What does success look and feel like to me?

Additionally, here are some key words to keep in mind when creating your vision board:

1. Balance
2. Confidence
3. Gratitude
4. Freedom
5. Fulfillment
6. Strength
7. Love
8. Growth
9. Motivation
10. Health

With these as a jumping off point, you can start to curate your own vision board. You may not have access to a space where you can create a physical board, and so there is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping it digital somewhere like Pinterest, or even as a note on your phone or folder on your computer. As long as it’s always within reach so you can look it over any time you need a reminder of what you’re working towards, it’s doing its job.

Now go build your vision for your future, and start manifesting the things you want to live a fulfilling life!