The new year is right around the corner, and while it brings many new transformations, resolutions, and beginnings, one thing that remains constant for everyone is setting goals. Goal setting is not just writing wishes in your diary anymore, but rather a more visual form that incorporates images, doodles, and quotes.
They are essentially a collage of pictures, words, and symbols representing future goals and have quietly become a modern New Year’s ritual.
Where did vision boards come from?
Vision boards, as a modern concept, stem from ancient visualisation practices like cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphs, but gained mass appeal through New Thought movements, self-help gurus like Napoleon Hill and Tony Robbins, and famously by Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 book The Secret, popularising them as tools for manifesting goals via the Law of Attraction.
How do vision boards work?
Vision boards operate on a mix of neuroscience and behaviour. When your goals are visually reinforced, you begin to notice opportunities aligned with them.
According to Dr Minakshi Manchanda, Associate Director, Psychiatry, Asian Hospital, visuals reduce cognitive load. “Words require interpretation, while images provide instant meaning. This makes images especially powerful for future planning, where clarity, motivation, and emotional connection are critical. Nearly one-third of the brain is involved in visual processing, which means images are processed faster, more emotionally, and more holistically than written words,” she adds.
She says that vision boards primarily influence mindset, but mindset is the foundation of behaviour change. “Psychologically, vision boards work by strengthening goal salience; they keep goals at the forefront of awareness. Repeated exposure to goal-related images activates the brain’s reticular activating system (RAS), which helps individuals notice opportunities, information, and actions aligned with those goals in everyday life,” she adds.
When asked about why visualising goals feels more powerful than simply writing them down, Dr Pavitra Shankar, Associate Consultant, Psychiatry, Aakash Healthcare, says, “Visual cues create stronger emotional associations, and emotion plays a crucial role in memory formation and motivation. When a goal is emotionally charged, the brain treats it as more important, increasing attention and recall.”
The resonance with Gen Z
For a generation navigating burnout, uncertainty, and constant comparison, vision boards are less about luxury and more about alignment. They include rest, boundaries, therapy milestones, financial literacy, and slow living alongside ambition.
For 23-year-old Ananya Singh, an Indian computer-science student who moved to Boston, USA, for her post-graduate studies, vision boards were something she made with her classmates as a group activity. “My purpose then was to interact with my new classmates and experience working on a physical vision board. However, I was intrigued by the concept later on. My current one sits on my desk in my room, and I take a look at it whenever I am studying, which makes me think about my goals and everything I have planned,” she adds.
When asked if she believes they actually work, she says, “The one I made was mostly for next year, and I do like to think that manifesting things and looking at them daily creates a positive mindset.” For her, digital ones were more preferred, but making a physical one was a whole different experience. “I printed the pictures and cut out some from magazines that I wanted related to my career, good academics, a world tour, and living with my younger sister. I doodled around and put in some lyrics of the songs as well, and it was honestly an enriching experience,” she adds.
Even for 25-year-old Harleen Kaur, working as a software engineer in Gurugram, who made one during her post-graduation, vision boards were a means to achieve luxurious goods, just like the one she made. “I wanted an amazing and well-paying job, so I had found pictures reflecting that thought. Alongwith that, I wanted it show me having fun in my life, travelling to different places and making a lot of good friends.”
Interestingly, some of the things on her board came true for her this year, such as getting a well-paying, balanced job. “I got the job that I had been wanting to get when it had only been two months to me making that vision board. Then I went on a trip to Mumbai, which was again something I wished for because I put a picture of a beach,” she adds.
She has made another for next year with different pictures and goals, and she prefers physical ones over digital ones. “I feel like vision boards are something that you see and you look at it with a hope that ‘one day everything would get fulfilled’, and I was sort of obsessed with vision boards at one point in my life. For me, I absolutely believe in them because manifestation actually works.”
How to make a vision board (that actually works)
- Start with clarity: Reflect on what you want in the coming year, like career, health, relationships, creativity, and rest. Define your goals properly.
- Choose your medium: Physical boards with magazine cut-outs or printed pictures, quotes, etc., or digital boards on Pinterest, Canva, or even your phone wallpaper.
- Curate images and words: Pick visuals that evoke emotion, not just aesthetics. Go as specific as you want. For example, if you wish to live in a specific city, choose pictures of that city and also look out for things you already believe in. Add in your favourite quotes, song lyrics or religious scripts as well.
- Place it consciously: Somewhere you’ll see often, your study or work desk, wardrobe, lock screen, or even on the wall in your bedroom, so it is the first thing you see when you wake up.
