Creative Vision Board Ideas For Teens (a guide)
This blog post explores creative vision board ideas for teens-(a guide). Inspire and motivate your teen daughter or son with a vision board. Vision boarding is a fun way to get them thinking about their long-term goals and dreams.
Choose from a range of vision board ideas for teens such as;
- A photograph vision board
- A digital vision board
- An app vision board
- A collage vision board
- A project vision board
- A mindfulness vision board
- A goal-setting vision board
Quite a few to choose from! Although they are all visually different, they all serve the same purpose; To inspire and motivate you
What’s the purpose of a vision board?
They provide a visual focus for future dreams and aspirations through pictures or words.
They are a good way to encourage your child to think about and work toward their future creatively.
The Benefits of Creating a Vision Board for Your Teen
Thinking about the next steps in life and how you can achieve your goals can be challenging at any age. Keeping the motivation and desire to follow through with personal goals can be even more challenging. It’s even harder for teens to think about long term goals when their focus is taken up with their present concerns. This is why a vision board is a good idea and a great starting point for them to think about their personal goals and aspirations. Think of it is their own action plan.
The benefits include;
- Encouraging them to achieve their goals
- Helps them start to create an ambitious mindset
- Helps them to focus on specific areas of their life
- Helps to think about longer-term goals
- Helps them to think about specific actions to take next to achieve their goals
Encourages Personal Growth
A vision board is not just a creative tool; it’s a catalyst for personal growth. It helps your teen identify their interests and areas they want to focus on, fostering a sense of self-discovery and optimism about their future.
Exploring the main types of vision board ideas for teens
Goal Vision Board
The Goal vision board is my favourite. It’s a great way to combine visual pictures with words and phrases that are actionable goals. On the board, they put sticky notes with their goals and aspirations and alongside or underneath an image relating to the goal.
If they prefer to just have the words, that’s fine. Get them to choose a place where they can visually see the board every day and be reminded. Once they have achieved the goal, they can remove it from the board. Or keep it as a reminder of what they have achieved.
Goal Setting-Don’t forget to talk about their Goals
Before they create it, don’t forget to talk. Keep it casual. Talk to your teen about their personal goals and dreams. Goal setting needs to be a conversation where they define their own personal goals. It shouldn’t be imposed; otherwise, they won’t feel motivated to achieve them. Yes, discuss and give guidance if needed, but let them decide. They may already have strong opinions; if so, great; run with those.
If they don’t, think about the different areas of life where they can apply goals and create new habits.
Here are a few examples to think about;
- Health Goals (exercise/ fitness/ diet),
- Social (friends),
- Education (School/ College/ Exams/ Revision)
- Employment/ work- part time jobs
- Emotions- Anger/ anxiety/ stress/ frustration/ happiness
- Hobbies- sports/ creative
- Spiritual- church/ volunteering/ Bible study/ prayer
For every specific goal, they can create two or three actions and put those on the board.
For example, If the goal is ‘Get a part-time job,’ that would go up on the board with a few actions such as, ‘Research how to write a good CV,’ ‘Write my CV,’ ‘Apply for 5 jobs online with my new CV’.
Underneath each goal and action, place a picture. Each goal now has a visual image to represent it. You don’t have to have pictures, though. My son used to love simple sticky Post-it notes. He started on a board but found it too small and eventually designated a corner of the wall in his room. He had the goals and then listed the actions underneath on the sticky notes. More of a visual WALL than a board! It worked well.
Goal Setting with SMART Goals
SMART Goals-Encourage your teen with SMART goals
SMART goals are a great way to be more strategic with goal setting.
SMART stands for
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely
A little history about SMART Goals
SMART Goals were created by George T. Doran, a consultant and former director who first published his idea in a paper in 1981.
A method that is often used in business, it can also be used personally as well.
Here’s an example of a SMART major goal;
Specific: I will get a part-time job.
Measurable: I will write a CV and apply online for a job every week.
Attainable: I have voluntary experience, and a paid job will build my skills and knowledge.
Relevant: Achieving this Goal will allow me to have my own money and help me to be more independent. I can also show this experience on college application forms.
Timely: I aim to have a part-time job by Christmas.
Personal Digital Vision Board
A digital vision board is a board created using a digital template. You can find them in apps or online. Canva has a free digital vision board download where you can choose from thousands of pictures for a vision board and then download it to save or print out.
Vision Board Apps
Create your vision board using a specialist online vision board app. Canva has a free app, and other specialist apps are also available. Simply search for ‘vision board’.
Using a mobile phone without an app
They can also create vision boards on their phones without an app. They can create an album on their phone, name it ‘vision board,’ and then put pictures from online screenshots in the album.
Collage Vision Board
If your teen is practical and likes creating art, they may prefer a collage vision board. The collage is made using a collection of images, which in turn creates a collage of pictures and/or words.
Basic supplies for vision board
To create this, and other vision boards you’ll need the following basic supplies.
A physical board (use a canvas art board, or any type of board that you can stick paper on)
Old magazines, or newspapers (for magazine cutouts and newspaper cutouts)
Material, old bits of fabric Glue stick for sticking
Pens/Felt tips/ Highlighters
Fabric/ glitter/ stickers
Scissors for cutting pictures/ words out
Vision board clip art book: If you don’t have a selection of magazines or newspapers you can buy ‘a vision board clip art book’ online instead. These books contain hundreds of pictures and quotes that they can cut out and use for the vision board.
Photograph vision board
Use a selection of photos to create a photograph vision board. You can use old photos or order and print off a selection to suit.
What you will need:
Canvas board
Photos
Drawing pins or glue to stick the pictures on the board
Project vision Board
If your son or daughter has a particular project coming up, a project vision board can help them plan and dream for the event. The beginning of a New Year or the start of the holiday season is a good time to start a vision board. Maybe they have a holiday, a trip, or a special event such as a birthday party coming up. The board will only contain pictures and words for that particular event.
Mindfulness vision board
A mindfulness vision board focuses on specific emotions and feelings. If your teen suffers from anxiety or anger for example the board can help focus the mind and create a visual to help understand and deal with their feelings. For example, if your teen gets angry, they could put words or strategies on the board that will remind them what to do the next time they feel angry.
Vision board parties
Finally, a vision board party is the perfect way for your teen to share ideas, goals, and dreams with their friends. You can do this during a birthday party or a sleepover activity. Make sure everyone has their canvas board, and then they can take it away at the end of the evening/ sleepover.
Does a simple vision board work?
It’s an important question to ask. Here are some of the positives and negatives.
Positives:
- Vision boards are a great visualisation tool to encourage your teen.
- When they have their own vision board, they can start to create a vision and a personal plan for their life.
- It’s a wonderful way for them to look at the big dreams that they have through the use of pictures and words
- It takes the thoughts and pictures out of their mind onto a visual board that they can focus on every day
Negatives:
- Critics say that pictures are not enough. i.e a vision board that doesn’t encourage the actions that need to be taken, means that nothing will be achieved in the long term.
This is why I would encourage having the pictures and actions needed on the same board. The actions will then become small stepping stones towards their goals and dreams.
Which vision board do you think would work best for your son or daughter and why? Let me know in the comments below.
Want more creative ideas to help your son or daughter read The Benefits of journalling
