A Quiet Vision Board for an Intentional Life

Most vision boards, although beautiful, can feel a bit visually crowded and overwhelming to me.

In the past, when I would create a vision board, the thought that came to mind every time I looked at the images was that I needed to do more and be more – and move faster.

There is nothing wrong with vision boards in and of themselves; however, for some of us, they can feel like just another kind of visual noise, lingering in the background, reminding us of how much we’re not accomplishing.

So I’d like to offer a softer version – a vision board that invites you to take a deep breath and reflect not primarily on what you want to accomplish – but rather how you want to truly live and feel in your life.

One that brings clarity, yes, but also calm.

A quiet vision board is not about striving or achieving, but rather living in truer alignment.

When Achievement Isn’t the Same as Alignment

Here’s an example of what I mean when I say that many vision boards focus too heavily on achievement.

I once was in a conversation with a woman in her thirties who was a corporate lawyer. She shared that she was deeply unhappy in her career – that it was draining all her time and energy.

When I asked her what originally drew her to law, she talked about her love of words, her enjoyment of debate in high school and college, and her desire to help others.

However, now that she had achieved her dream, she realized that she hadn’t asked herself the right questions in the beginning. Because what she hadn’t considered was what her day-to-day lifestyle would feel like: wearing suits every day, dealing with stacks of paperwork, and spending long work hours away from her family, which she told me was what she valued most.

I hear versions of this story often: someone achieves something, only to arrive and realize they don’t actually like how they feel in the life they worked so hard to achieve.

From Goals to the Life You Want to Live

What I’m offering is this: Instead of a goals-focused vision board, let’s create a life-focused one.

This kind of vision board begins not with goals, but rather reflecting on the kind of lifestyle you want to live – and then working backward from there.

Instead of asking, what do I want to achieve? We’re asking:

• How do I want my days to feel?

• What do I want my everyday routine to look like?

Begin With Reflection, Not Images

Before you begin pinning images, start with journaling out the answers to questions such as these (and the ones asked above):

• What does calm look like to me?

• What kind of beauty inspires me?

• What environments make me feel most like myself?

After you’ve journaled out your answers, notice which words keep reappearing for you – highlight or underline those. They are clues as to what you’re being guided towards.

A Quiet Vision Board Is Also About Editing

In addition, creating a quiet vision board isn’t only about gathering, it’s about editing, too. So, let’s ask these questions as well:

• What feels heavy in my life right now?

• What area of my life do I want to simplify?

• Where in my life am I living on autopilot rather than with awareness?

Curating Images With Intention

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you start to collect your images:

• Be honest with yourself about how you truly want to live

• This is not about being someone else; it should feel more like coming home to yourself

Next, create a vision board on Pinterest, and set it to private (if you’d like).

Then put on some of your favorite music (the kind that makes you feel most like yourself), pour or brew yourself a drink, and start pinning.

As you curate, notice the emotional patterns that emerge from the images you're pinning. Do they speak of calm, connection, home, solitude, etc.?

The patterns you’re noticing are your heart and soul leading you toward the life you want to embody.

Rather than organizing your board by goals, organize it by a feeling or lifestyle you want to move toward this year.

Let Your Vision Board Reflect Your Real Values

My vision board is above. I collected my images on a Pinterest board and then edited them down to the most important ones. I then placed them in a template on Canva. Now I have it on my computer desktop screen, as well as printed and hanging above my desk.

It represents the words I kept noticing while journaling. It has my favorite colors and images that represent a feeling I want to have in my day-to-day life or want as a key part of my life this year.

When I look at this vision board, I am inspired, as it represents alignment with my heart and how I want to feel as I walk through my days.

It is not separate from my real life – it’s a reflection of it. It’s a daily reminder of what I value, which helps me be intentional in the choices I make.

In this way, my vision board is less about planning the future and more about shaping my present.

Shaping the Present, Not Chasing the Future

When we curate a vision board this way, we are not waiting for life to become beautiful; we are choosing beauty in how we live it now.

It reminds us that a beautiful life is not built on grand declarations or ambitions, but on our small, daily choices.

As you continue refining your board, allow it to evolve as you and your life do. This is not fixed – as life itself is not fixed.

Return to it as often as you want to make small refinements so that it’s always ringing true for you.

As I wrote about in my Beauty as a Way of Living post, this culture most often equates beauty with perfection and success with speed; however, choosing to create this quieter kind of ever-evolving vision board is our way of gently pushing back against that – and against following aesthetic trends.

It’s rooted in reflection and honesty. And it’s quietly declaring that our lives are a living, breathing work of art shaped by intention.

Canva Template

If this way of creating a vision board speaks to you, I’ve made something to help you. You can download my free Canva Vision Board Template here and use it to gather your unique words, colors, and images into one simple, beautiful vision board.

It’s designed to feel calm and uncluttered, so it becomes a place of clarity rather than pressure. You can use it as your desktop wallpaper or print it to hang somewhere in your home.

Beginner's Canva Workshop

If Canva is unfamiliar to you or you’d like to learn how to use it even better – in a slow, supportive way – I’ll soon be hosting a small, live Canva Workshop on Zoom for my readers only.

It will walk you through basic-level (and some intermediate) Canva skills. Plus, I will help guide you in completing a vision board or other design of your choosing. You can join the waitlist below to be the first to know when registration opens.

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