(How to) Create a Vision Board for Your Dream Job or Career
Do you want to know one of the most powerful things you can do to find your dream job?
Well since one of the most important things to do is to get clear on exactly what your dream job or career looks like we need to find a good way to do just that.
Sooo…one of the most powerful ways to get clear about what you want?
Create a vision board for your dream job or career.
We call this your Dream Work Vision Board.
So how do you actually go about setting up your Dream Work Vision Board?
Well I am glad that you asked.
First things first.
Oftentimes vision boards get a bad rap for being a bit to “woo woo” or being some sort of magical “law of attraction” type thing.
As a matter of fact I was a bit skeptical about doing my own vision board the first time I heard about.
But as I learned a little more about the process and science behind it all it started to make more and more sense to me.
Vision boards are simply visual representations of the things that you want your life or business to look like.
By using pictures to represent your vision (instead of or in addition to words) you are more emotionally vested in outcome since these images make you feel a certain way.
So how do you go about creating a vision board for your dream job?
You can create your vision board a few different ways, each of which have some pros and cons, but I will mention the top 3 here methods we recommend here:
Method #1 – Use poster board, paper and pictures from magazines. Find a good sized poster board at your local arts store. Then grab some of your favorite magazines and start cutting out pictures. Choose pictures that are representing in some way the components of your IDEAL job or career. Once you do that start pasting them to your board in a way that inspires you. Get creative and feel free to use different things that make your board come alive! Get it to a place that makes you FEEL awesome when you see it. The biggest downside to this method is that it is usually not portable. I recommend that once you complete your board to put it in place that you can look at every single day. If your board is to big to carry around with you then take a picture that you can easily access on your phone. Maybe even make it your background to get in place that reminds you everyday of your dream work!
Method #2 – Use Keynote or Powerpoint. Search the internet for the things that come to mind when you think about your dream job. Once you find an image take a “screen capture” and add it to a slide on powerpoint or keynote. Once you have a bunch of images arrange them in a way that inspires you. I like this method for a few reasons. It is easy to screen capture images from the internet and paste them to a slide. I also like that you can create different but more detailed slides for areas of your ideal work that are most important to you. You can also make a PDF out of the slides and keep it on your desktop or make it your background or screen saver.
Method #3- Use Pinterest. Pinterest is great for finding tons of images for you vision board. You can even make your board “secret” if you don’t want all your friends and followers to see it. Once you create a board search pinterest for images that represent your dream work. Then “pin” them to your new board. This method is easy and a good way to get started. Search through pinterest to see what images strike a chord with you. One way to use pinterest is to start there for inspiration. If creating a board isn’t your thing then you can use it to get ideas and then use one of the other methods listed above.
So by now you might be thinking of what to actually put on your Dream Work Vision Board.
Here a few ideas.
Just remember to think of it as creating the IDEAL representation of your your job or career.
Put another way…what does your job (work or career) look like when it is IDEAL?
One way to start your Dream Work Vision Board is to use the who, what, where, when, why and how method.
- The “who” – who are the people you envision working with when you are doing your dream work? The people you identify should include the people you work with and the people you are most interested in helping. Questions to think about – Who are your coworkers? What does the culture look like? Who is your ideal client? Which group of people are you interested in helping?
- The “what” – now its time to really focus. What is it that you do every day in your ideal job or career? Now of course even your dream job will include things that you aren’t really excited about doing (taxes, scheduling, and paperwork come to mind). But the point here is to focus on the things that you will do day in and day out that you love doing when you are doing your Dream Work. Is it writing all day? Is it working with kids? Is it solving problems? Is it baking cupcakes?
- The “where” – where are you doing your ideal work? Be as detailed as possible. Is it in some exotic location or is it from the town you live in? Do you have a home office or do you work from a cowering space nearby? Do you travel around? It doesn’t have to be just one location so think of what would be ideal to you and put it on your board.
- The “when” – some jobs obviously have set hours. If you are starting your own gig or doing freelance work that you really can determine when you work. Is having that freedom part of your Dream Work? If so then…Do you work during the day or night? Do you work 3 days a week or 7? What are your hours?
- The “why” – now this is a big one! We actually teach an entire class about finding your “why” when it comes to your job or career. The idea here is to think about the real reason you are doing the work that you do. Whats the true purpose? If your answer is to “make tons of money” is that really the reason? Be honest with yourself and then evaluate your answer. Is your “why” big enough (for you)? Doing the work on this part of the vision board alone can reveal some very important clues about your Dream Work…so make sure you dig in and get to your ideal answer.
- The “how” – now the how part of the board can differ depending on where you are on your journey. If you are trying to get closer to your Dream Work you may need to lay out a detailed action plan on how you are going to get there. The “how” part of the board can also represent a more detailed version of what you do at your dream job. The important thing here is to put images on your board that will represent the “how” that matters most to you and get you closer to doing the work you love.
The Dream Work Vision Board exercise is a great way to focus on what is important to you when it comes to your job or career.
By laying out your vision board you can now see how far away you are from your ideal work (which can be a big inspiration) but more importantly the direction you need to head in order to find the work you love.
Are you ready to create yours?
