Meet the 'vision board', the latest motivational trend the internet is about to ruin

We love to repackage old ideas in shiny new veneers, especially when they’re related to aspirations, goals and/or dreams.

Take the humble ‘bullet-journal’ that briefly turned the concept of ‘a list’ into a revolutionary new idea, one that ensured a New York Times bestseller and far, far too many explanatory YouTube videos.

Or Marie Kondo’s radical organising method which was essentially: tidy up, slobs. Incredible!

Well fresh for 2020 we’ve got something brand new to satiate humanity’s constant need to self-optimise in ever more imaginative ways.

You already know what new year’s resolutions are – a list of things you want to either achieve, jettison altogether, or a new habit you’d like to curate. Basically, a wish list of a better, brighter, faster you.

Now imagine New Year's resolutions… but collaged. Welcome, friends, to the concept of vision boards.

You may have heard of vision boards before (they were floating around in 2015) but for some unknown reason, the concept appears to have whetted appetites once more.

According to Google Trends, searches for ‘vision board’ peaked at their highest in five years just before New Year’s Eve 2019.

The basic idea behind vision boards is that visualising a goal helps you achieve it (see the entire premise of Hollywood’s favourite book The Secret)

Creating a vision board means adding images that motivate and inspire you, or remind you of things that motivate and inspire you.

For example, comedian Michael Daapah put a picture of a jet ski on his 2019 vision board – because he wanted to ride a jet ski (he smashed this goal). It is, as they say, simples.

The vision board probably works best if centred on a specific theme, or at least organised into sections like ‘Career’, ‘Travel’ and ‘Love Life’. But it is your vision board, so if you want to go totally rogue, absolutely go off.

What’s the draw of vision boards over, say, taking two minutes to write a quick and easy list of things you’d like to do?

Well, for one, it takes a bit more effort and boy do we love putting extra energy into tasks that probably don’t need it.

Two, the end result of vision boards is a very aesthetically pleasing physical object you can refer back to. This feels like an achievement in itself. Plus, it’s crafty, which is usually pretty therapeutic.

And on top of that, it makes you really think about the goals you want to achieve. Of course you can just stick any old image of a velvet cocktail chair on your vision board and call it a day, but that doesn’t feel half as much of a win.

While vision boards aren’t for everyone (are you visualising or just… procrastinating), overall they seem like a pretty harmless pastime.

Which means the internet is definitely about to do what it does best and ruin them.

Get ready to see vision boards everywhere until they go the way of succulents and avocados and become so synonymous with millennials that they eventually end up as lazy shorthand for a generation’s habits, only useful to journalists with explainer articles to write (I don’t know what you’re talking about...).

Happy adult collaging!

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