If you want to lose weight through exercise, achieve a certain physique, or get a lean and muscular body, you need to create a plan on how you can achieve these fitness goals.
And one of the ways you can manifest any goal is by creating a vision board. Vision boards require you to put your desires in a visual format, which can help you organize your intentions and take action to achieve your fitness objectives.
In this article, we’ll talk about why making a fitness vision board helps you in your fitness journey, and how you can make one.
DO FITNESS VISION BOARDS WORK?
Most people create vision boards for travel goals, to manifest their soulmate, or to manifest financial freedom. Health and fitness are often overlooked in the world of vision boards, but this shouldn’t be the case.
A vision board can definitely help you with your fitness goals and there’s plenty of research to back it up. A vision board is a visual format of your goals, and with the right mental practice, images can help you improve motivation, increase confidence, and even motor performance.
Research reveals that visualizing yourself achieving the body you want, getting the weight you desire, and having a fit body is almost as effective as actual physical practice.
Additionally, professional athletes all over the world attest to the effectiveness of visualization to help boost their performances on the field or court. One of which is 3-time Olympic swimmer Sara Isakovic of Slovenia, who won a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle category during the 2008 Olympics in China.
Isakovic used imagery and visual cues to help prepare for her Olympic race. The visual cue she used was a “dream board,” as she called it, where she mounted a picture of herself wearing a medal. She then went on to win her coveted silver medal.
Another Olympic athlete who swears by using vision boards is Nastia Liukin, who is a 5-time Olympic medalist and 2-time World Champion on the Balance Beam. during the 2008 Olympics in China, she won an All-Around gold medal, thanks in part to her mental practice of making vision boards. In an interview with People Magazine, Liukin even encourages young athletes to make them.
And lastly, in an effort to help them achieve their collective goals, women’s basketball coach, Adia Barnes, hosted a vision board party at a gathering in her home for her team, Arizona’s Wildcats. She believed that vision boards will not only help the team perform well together but also encourage the players to achieve their individual goals.
TIPS FOR CREATING A FITNESS VISION BOARD THAT WORKS
“Whatever the mind can achieve, and believe, it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill
Deciding to take action to improve your fitness is an exciting yet challenging journey. On one hand, you’re excited, motivated, and passionate. But on the other, you have doubts and fears that you might fail.
Making a fitness vision board will help you get clear about your goals, help you stay focused, and keep you going.
We’ve gathered the best tips for creating a fitness vision board that works, and these are what we recommend.
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GET CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT
You won’t be able to achieve your fitness goals if you don’t know what that looks like. And how can you determine if you’ve made progress if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want to achieve?
Before you begin making your fitness vision board, you need to understand what you want. Take some time to meditate on the motivations behind your fitness plan and be specific about it.
One of the most effective goal-setting techniques is the SMART Goals, which we wrote about in detail in our blog, which you can find here. The S in SMART stands for Specific, and it entails writing down the very things you want to achieve to the tiniest details.
For example, you can say you want to shed off 5 pounds from your weight in 1 month, or you want to jog on a treadmill for 20 minutes a day for 2 months. Make your intentions clear, list them down, and get excited about achieving them.
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DECIDE ON THE MEDIUM
What medium do you want to use for your vision board for fitness? Do you want to use an actual board and magazine cut-outs? Or do you want to make a digital vision board, or maybe use a vision board kit that has everything you need to make one?
Choose the most convenient and comfortable for you to use and start collecting images, stickers, affirmations, and whatever you want to put on your vision board.
We’ve made a great blog on how to create a digital vision board on Pinterest and you can find it here. We’ve also made a vision board material guide for a physical board, and you can also find it here.
If you want a physical vision board but don’t want to purchase individual materials, we recommend our Vision Board Magazine Kit which has everything you need to make a fitness vision board.
The Vision Cloud is dedicated to empowering individuals to manifest their dreams by using a manifestation tool in the form of vision boards. Our Vision Board Magazine Kit features a foldable and sturdy board you can mount on a wall or stand on a desk, a goal-planning guide and a magazine filled with over 500 images and statements. We also have a mounting putty you can use to paste the images on your board.
What makes our magazine ideal for a fitness vision board is that we have a few pages containing images and statements dedicated to health and fitness. From page 30 to page 39, you will find pictures of people working out, healthy food, fitness affirmations, and other images you can readily use for your fitness vision board. Simply cut them out and paste them on your vision board.
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VISUALIZE THROUGH MENTAL PRACTICE
Once you’ve made your vision board and mounted it in a visible location, it’s time you dedicate a space and time to spend with it. You need to use the images on your vision board to visualize manifesting your fitness goals.
Visualizing is considered to be one of the most effective techniques in sports psychology to boost performance. In one study, researchers discovered that visualization in athletes was almost as effective as actual physical practice.
In the study, researchers found that when weightlifters practiced lifting weights mentally, they produced the very same brain wavelength patterns as when they were physically lifting weights. In many cases, it is seen that mental practices are just as effective as physical practice.
Among the most popular athletes to use visualization are Tiger Woods, who is said to have been doing mental practices since his pre-teen years, and Muhammad Ali, who used several mental practices to boost his performance in the ring. Among these practices included using affirmations, mental rehearsals, and self-confirmation. His most famous affirmation was, “I am the greatest.”
Visualization or mental practices have been known to enhance motivation, boost confidence, improve self-efficacy, and even improve motor performance.
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LET IT GO
Gabby Bernstein, bestselling author and foremost expert on the Law of Attraction, is a firm believer in letting go. Even Oprah recommends that once you’ve set your intentions, you need to let them go.
Do not think of your goals all the time, like you’re holding on to them for dear life. Do not be anxious when you haven’t achieved your objectives yet. And do not feel bad when you feel like you’re not making progress.
Letting it go means trusting the Universe. Sadhguru, a yogi, mystic, and bestselling author, states that people who manifest desires have faith. Any form of self-doubt and fear are dissolved with faith. Having faith means believing you will manifest your dreams. Having faith means you believe that you will lose the pounds, lose the belly fat, and get the body you desire.
Make your fitness vision board, set your intentions, visualize, then let it go. Have faith and believe.
MORE TIPS
BE SMART ABOUT THE IMAGES YOU CHOOSE
It’s common to mount pictures of people, whose bodies and fitness you want, on your vision board. But you need to make sure the photos inspire and motivate, and not make you feel bad about your body.
Choose pictures of people whose physiques have not been altered by drugs or surgery or pictures that have gone through editing software, or filters. You need to use pictures that are realistic so you don’t set up exaggerated expectations of yourself.
CREATE ONE OR MORE VISION BOARDS
You can create a distinct vision board for your healthy meal plans, another one for your exercise goals, and another one for your healthy lifestyle goals. Creating separate boards for each target can help you get clearer on your objectives.
BE REALISTIC ABOUT YOUR RESOURCES
One of the biggest obstacles to starting a fitness journey and keeping it is time. Most people simply do not have the time to go to the gym, run every day, or practice yoga every morning. Work, parenting duties, or a business can hamper your fitness goals.
When making your objectives, consider your circumstances and resources. Do you have time in the morning before you bring the kids to school? Or how about before you head home? Make your fitness goals achievable and realistic so you won’t get disappointed when you fail to achieve them on time or get your target weight.
We’ve also discussed this technique in our goal-setting vision board, which you can find here.
Taking care of your body is essential to living a happy and healthier life but it’s never easy to do. When you set out to make changes in your lifestyle, changing your habits can require a great deal of motivation, inspiration, and of course, the right mindset to even get started.
Try our tips to make a fitness vision board that works, and get serious with your fitness goals. Remember that a vision board for fitness is just one of the steps to achieving your dreams. The rest is up to you.
Get clear on what you want, make your vision board, visualize, and let it go.
