Vision boards promise a lot. Some articles say they will help you "manifest" a new job or a partner. Others say they simply keep your goals in front of you. It is a fair question to ask which of these, if any, is true.
The honest answer is more interesting than either. The way vision boards are usually made, a collage of the life you want, probably does not help much, and research on imagining the future suggests it can even work against you. But the same research points to a version that does help, and it is not hard to make.
The short answer
As far as we can find, no rigorous study has tested vision boards directly. What has been studied, a lot, is what a vision board is made of: picturing the future you want. Those studies say three things.
- Enjoying vivid pictures of an ideal future tends to lower the effort people put into reaching it.
- Picturing the steps toward a goal helps more than picturing the goal already reached.
- Pairing the wish with an honest look at the obstacle, and a plan for it, helps people follow through.
A board that only does the first is closer to a daydream than a plan. A board that does all three can be genuinely useful.
What vision boards are supposed to do
People make vision boards for different reasons. To get clear on what they want. To be reminded of it every day. To feel inspired. And sometimes, following the "law of attraction", to make it happen by thinking about it.
The first three are reasonable hopes, and some of them hold up. The last one does not: there is no evidence that picturing something brings it to you. If a vision board helps, it helps by changing what you do.
What research says about picturing your future
Dreaming about the outcome can drain your energy
The psychologist Gabriele Oettingen spent years comparing two ways of thinking about the future. Expectations, judging that a good outcome is likely, predicted more effort and better results, in people looking for jobs, students before exams and patients recovering from surgery. Positive fantasies, simply enjoying vivid images of the outcome, predicted the reverse: less effort, worse results, sometimes up to two years later.
Later experiments found part of the reason. Indulging in a positive fantasy about the future lowered people's energy, measured in the body as well as in what they did. Enjoying the outcome in your head seems to take some of the push out of chasing it.
It can feel good now and worse later
A further set of studies looked at mood. Positive fantasies about the future went with fewer symptoms of depression at the time people had them. But measured over the following weeks and months, more positive fantasising predicted more depressive symptoms later, in both adults and schoolchildren. In students, part of the link ran through doing less well at their studies.
This does not mean hoping is bad for you. It means that daydreaming alone, without a path, can leave the gap between the dream and the day feeling wider.
Picturing the steps works better than picturing the finish
In a well-known study, students preparing for a midterm exam were asked to spend a few minutes each day imagining one of two things. Some pictured themselves getting a top grade. Others pictured the process: when, where and how they would study. The process group studied more, felt less anxious and did better on the exam. Picturing the result did not help.
The researchers' wider work found the same pattern: imagining the process of reaching a goal moves people toward it, while imagining the successful end, the advice many self-help books give, does not.
Expectations aren't the same as fantasies
There is a hopeful side to all this. Believing a goal is within reach, based on what you know about yourself, is helpful. The problem is not optimism. It is optimism that stays in the imagination and never meets the real obstacles.
What does work: mental contrasting
Oettingen's response to her own findings was a technique called mental contrasting. You picture the outcome you want, then you picture the main obstacle inside you that stands in the way, then you make a plan: if that obstacle shows up, here is what I will do. It is often taught as WOOP, for wish, outcome, obstacle, plan.
It has been tested widely. In one study, high-school students preparing for an important exam who spent half an hour on mental contrasting with a plan completed more than 60 percent more practice questions than students who did a comparison writing exercise. A 2021 review of 21 studies, with nearly 16,000 participants, found that the technique helps people reach their goals, with a small to moderate effect. The authors noted that the true effect may be somewhat smaller, as is common in this kind of research.
It also does something less obvious. When a goal is not realistic, looking honestly at the obstacle can help people let it go and put their energy somewhere it will count. That is a benefit too.
So, do vision boards work?
They can, if the board does what the research supports. Concretely, a vision board is more likely to help when:
- The goals on it are yours, not borrowed from someone else's feed. Goals that fit your own values are pursued with more lasting effort.
- It shows the path, not only the finish. Next to the picture of the beach, put the first step: the savings jar, the date in the calendar.
- It names the obstacle and a plan, for the two or three goals you want to work on first.
- You read it back regularly, and change it as you change.
Our guide on how to make a vision board that actually works walks through building one this way, with a free printable template.
How to fix the board you already have
You do not need to start again. Take your current board and, for each picture:
- Ask what the very first step toward it would be, and write it next to the picture.
- Add one picture or word of the process, not just the result: running shoes next to the finish line.
- Under it, write the obstacle inside you that usually gets in the way.
- Write one if-then plan for that obstacle.
- Put a date in your calendar to read the board again in a month.
It will look a little less like a magazine page. It will be much more likely to lead somewhere.
What a vision board can't do
A vision board cannot make something happen by itself, and it cannot lift a low mood that has lasted for weeks. If you are finding it hard to want anything at all, or the gap between your board and your days feels painful rather than motivating, put the board aside and talk to your doctor or someone you trust. If you are in danger, our help page lists services that answer day and night.
Doing it with Chirpi
Chirpi is built on this research. Its vision board has five panels and one sentence for your why, and you choose up to three top priorities. Any line on the board can grow into a goal with a first step, and each goal becomes one small step that fits your morning, afternoon or evening. The board is where you see where you are going. The step is what you do today.
Chirpi is coming to iPhone and Android. The first seven days are free, with no card.
Do vision boards really work?
A board of pictures alone probably does not help much, and research suggests that simply enjoying images of an ideal future can lower your effort. Boards help more when they show the steps as well as the goal, name the obstacle and a plan, and are read back regularly.
Is there scientific evidence for vision boards?
As far as we can find, no rigorous study has tested vision boards directly. The evidence comes from research on imagining the future, which supports picturing the process and planning for obstacles, not just picturing the outcome.
Can a vision board make you less motivated?
It can if it only shows the finished result. Studies found that indulging in positive fantasies about the future lowered people's energy and effort. Adding the first step and the obstacle to your board helps avoid that.
What works better than a vision board?
Mental contrasting, often taught as WOOP: picture what you want, picture the obstacle inside you, and make an if-then plan. A review of 21 studies found it helps people reach their goals. It combines well with a board.
How do I make my vision board more effective?
For each picture, add the first step and a picture of the process, write the obstacle that usually gets in your way and one if-then plan for it, and look at the board again once a month.
General wellbeing information, not medical advice. If you're struggling, here's where to find help.
Brice founded Chirpi after going through low times himself and watching his family go through them too. He learned that people mostly want to be heard, and to have somewhere to go. Chirpi is built on both.
Sources
- Oettingen, G. & Mayer, D. (2002). The motivating function of thinking about the future: Expectations versus fantasies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1198-1212.
- Kappes, H. B. & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 719-729.
- Oettingen, G., Mayer, D. & Portnow, S. (2016). Pleasure now, pain later: Positive fantasies about the future predict symptoms of depression. Psychological Science, 27(3), 345-353.
- Pham, L. B. & Taylor, S. E. (1999). From thought to action: Effects of process- versus outcome-based mental simulations on performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(2), 250-260.
- Taylor, S. E., Pham, L. B., Rivkin, I. D. & Armor, D. A. (1998). Harnessing the imagination: Mental simulation, self-regulation, and coping. American Psychologist, 53(4), 429-439.
- Duckworth, A. L., Grant, H., Loew, B., Oettingen, G. & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2011). Self-regulation strategies improve self-discipline in adolescents: Benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions. Educational Psychology, 31(1), 17-26.
- Wang, G., Wang, Y. & Gai, X. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effects of mental contrasting with implementation intentions on goal attainment. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 565202.
- Oettingen, G. (2012). Future thought and behaviour change. European Review of Social Psychology, 23(1), 1-63.
