What to Do (& Not Do) to Make a Successful 2026 Vision Board

Most vision boards don’t work, not because manifestation is hard, but because the way vision boards are usually created leaves too much up to chance. If you’re planning a vision board for 2026 and want it to actually influence your life instead of becoming background decor, this episode will change how you approach the entire process.

This conversation reframes what it really takes to create a vision that stays alive, evolves with you, and guides your daily choices instead of sitting on a wall. If you want your 2026 vision to feel intentional, aligned, and actionable (not chaotic or wishful), this is the episode to listen to before you create anything.

Want help with your vision board then joine the Manifest SHE Vision Lab HERE

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Manifesting Mindset
• 0:34 Why Vision Boards Fail
• 1:40 Ditch The Board For A Vision Diary
• 3:15 Privacy, Energy, And Flexibility
• 4:25 Activation Over Aesthetic
• 6:16 Vision Beyond Goals
• 8:08 Find Clarity Before Images
• 9:28 The Don’ts: No Forced Categories
• 11:04 Set It And Forget It? Never
• 12:39 Expansion vs Fantasy
• 15:23 Quick Recap And Key Reminders
• 16:45 Invitation To The Vision Lab

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi my loves and welcome back. I am so glad you're here. If you're new, I am Shannon, and this space is all about manifesting from the inside out. That means no forcing, pretending, and definitely not skipping the deep stuff. We have real conversations so that you can live the life that your soul already knows is yours without a whole bunch of extra effort. We use our mindsets to shift our lives. And today we're going to talk about the most popular subject that is going around right now. But it's something that my clients inside the Vision Lab use all the time. And that's vision boards. So we're going to be focused on that today because every year around this time, this suddenly becomes everybody's personality trait. You know, people are cutting out magazines, they're opening Pinterests, they're putting pictures on a board and on their screensavers. And then they call it manifestation because this is what's going to happen this year. And then they wonder why, starting about, I don't know, February, March, April, and the rest of the year, nothing actually changes. And we're going to talk about it. And I don't say any of this to be harsh. I say it because vision boards can be powerful, but only when they're done with intention and honesty and follow through. That is what everybody works on in the Vision Lab. We use vision diaries. We'll talk more about that in a second, but we use vision diaries to manifest continually all year long. Number one tool that we use. And so if you're thinking about creating a vision board for 2026, this episode is going to be for you, my love. We're going to talk all about what actually helps and what could sabotage your process quietly without you even realizing it. So the first thing I want to get into is talking about the board and maybe rethinking the board altogether. I want you to consider that what if your vision board, that poster, isn't the best container for your vision anymore? A physical board can look very pretty, but it has its limits. You may hang it up and walk past it, but eventually it blends into the background. Or more than likely, you put it somewhere that you say you're gonna see it, but nobody else can see it because you don't want the damn thing hanging in your living room or your kitchen where you'd see it the most. So you put it off maybe in your closet or somewhere in your bathroom. But let's talk about that closet because a lot of people put them in their closet and then they just start collecting dust. But we kind of hide them away, or maybe we put them in our, you know, in-home office or something, but we're taking them down when people come over because maybe we don't want them to see. But typically we don't put them in a place where we're activating them on a regular basis, right? So a board just may not be where it's at anymore. I ditched the board a long time ago because I went into vision diary, not a vision notebook, but a diary. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'm just gonna hold up a picture of what it looks like. Everybody in my vision lab, this is what they use. It's kind of like scrapbook. You know, it's not a small little notebook. This is mine, it's personal. I'm not gonna open it up, but this is the size of it. This is what we work with and in, and it changes the game, really, for a lot of reasons. Number one, it's private. No one else is going to see it as private to you. We don't let everybody's eyes onto our vision. That's just how it is. We just don't do that. We protect the energy around our visions, right? If a stranger came in your house or even a friend or an acquaintance and they saw your vision board, they may or may not be like, uh, why do you want that? Or having you explain yourself. Or maybe they have opinions. Like we're not looking at anybody else's opinions for our vision. So the diary is uber private. It is very flexible. So you can do so much with it. You might be like, wow, it's so much smaller, but it's really a lot more flexible and it is larger in the sense that you can add to it, you evolve with it, and you can focus on one vision at a time. So if you're sitting down to meditate, because we activate and work with our vision boards, our vision diaries. I'm gonna say vision diary probably and vision board interchangeably throughout this episode. You have to activate it. You can't just do something, and we'll talk more about that, but it has to be activated. So it's easier to work with the diary. That's why I think it changes the game. And manifestation really isn't about just staring at something one time, right? It's working with your vision. So your diary is that place where you can revisit your vision, you deepen your relationship with your vision, what you're calling in, and it becomes this living document instead of wall decor. So if you felt disconnected from your vision board or you kind of felt like it was a cute craft project, but then nothing else, this shift alone can really make 2026 feel different for you by going into doing a vision diary and leaving the vision board behind. The second thing is that your vision has to be bigger than a goal. So this is something to do this year that may be different. And I've already kind of seen it a little bit, but a lot of people are posting goals, like literal smart corporate girly goals that are on their vision boards. Honey, you can accomplish that, you can do it. You don't need the damn vision board, you don't need a picture, you know what to do. A vision is not a goal, a vision is something that you step into. A vision is what you are trying to manifest. You know how to hit those goals. Honey, you don't need to put the goal on the vision board. I'm telling you, you are so damn capable, it's gonna happen. Don't don't worry about it. Now, everything we put on our vision boards inside Manifest She, they happen too, just in different ways. So I just want you to know it's not about your goals. Let this be who you are becoming unfold. Your goals, once again, you can achieve them. So 2026 should stretch beyond achievement. Your vision board is how you want to live. That's where the power is in your vision. What do I want to step into that I have to change my inner world so that I can start to see it on my outer world? Girl, the goals are already within your reach. They're already available to you. Your vision is something beyond what's in your current sphere of availability. And clarity. The third thing I want you to do when you're making your vision board is just make sure you have clarity. Don't build something without clarity for what you're gonna put on there. Because I know a lot of times there are vision board parties, or we get together with our girlfriends, we have these pictures, and you're just finding what's cute in a split second, and there's not a lot of thought. There's some thought, but there's not a lot of thought. Like we're not finding cutesy pictures. We're bringing our clarity and we're putting it into a vision, a visualization of the vision that's going on inside of our beautiful brains. Take the time to ask yourself what you really want right now. What feels alive to you this season? What do you feel pulled toward and not pressured to? And that kind of connects me back to when we talk about this season and why I love the vision diary, is because you use it all the time. It's not a January thing or like New Year thing, and you do it once. You just continually do it. So, like in this season, because I know for me, I have different things and different actual nature seasons. March is going to be a big season for me. That's my new year. That's when I celebrate the new year when everything wakes back up. But what fields alive for you in the season? It's not about having every answer, but it is about choosing what you're super clear about. A lot of my clients use the clarity coach inside of the vision lab to find their clarity before they even go work with their diaries. So then let's talk about the don'ts as well. Because I wanted to jump on here and be like, do this, but let's talk about some don'ts. Let's talk about some stuff that we don't need to do anymore, because that matters too. And one of the fastest ways that you can dilute your vision is by forcing yourself to fill up categories. And this does happen a lot at vision board making parties and things of that nature, where it's like, okay, find a picture for money, find a picture for your career, find a picture for your love and your friendships and relationships, find a picture for your health, find a picture for your home or where you're gonna live, or find a picture for your vacation. And then you feel pressure to fill out these areas. And if you're not quite sure, you just don't know. Now you're like, oh, my board's not complete. Oh, I have to find something. And you're inviting chaos into your manifestation because you're putting something there that maybe you think you should want, but you don't really want. And it's just sending mixed signals between your mind. It's creating resistance of momentum. You can focus on one thing or one area. You can leave an area of your life blank. Once again, why I love the vision diaries, because we use them and we just put what is the vision that has come to us right now. It doesn't have to fit into a category. But even if you're working with a traditional vision board, you don't have to fill it all out. I still rent because I don't know what kind of house I want to buy. I don't know. I don't, I have over the years had experiences of different things I want. But I'm I'm I'm a new empty nester. And we rented where we wanted our kids to go to school, but we knew we didn't want to stay like in that area forever, just like where we wanted our kids to go to school at. So we knew the area we lived in wasn't our forever place. And we were like, okay, once we're empty nesters, we're gonna go buy buy somewhere in our forever place. First of all, things changed what we thought was our forever place. Now, just with development and stuff, is not quite the forever place that we want. So we kind of like, oops, nope, that changed. But then also, what do I want out of house, out of a house as an empty nester? And I don't know yet. Like there's certain things that I know, but there's some things that I don't know. And I'm not going to force my dream home onto my vision diary before I know what I want because I know that brings confusion. Like there's a couple things that I do know that I want in my dream home that I want to buy. But there's a lot of question marks still out there. So the whole point of the story is if you have question marks, just leave it alone. You don't have to do it. You don't have to fill up every category of your life, every area of your life just because it's the new year, just because it's 2026, and you feel like you have to get it all done now. Big misconception. We work with our vision diaries year round. But even if you have a traditional board, you can work with it year round. You don't gotta force stuff on it right now. Another don't is to set it and forget it. Vision boards aren't magic pills. I think this is a lot of the reasons why we tend to go towards goals on vision boards versus our actual vision. We play it safe and say, if I set this goal, I know I'm gonna accomplish it in the year. And so when I go look at this vision board that I'm not gonna look at after the day I make it, but when I go back and look at it, you know, on December 31st of 2026, I can mark off all the stuff that I knew, the goals I was gonna reach, that kind of thing. Sometimes we just put stuff on there and we really don't know how we're gonna get it. And it is a vision, and we think, okay, I'm gonna make this vision board and it's gonna work its magic within this year. And you make it once, maybe you hang it up or put it somewhere, and then you just wait for life to rearrange itself. And it doesn't work that way because it is not a magic pill. Your vision needs a relationship, it needs attention and reflection and interaction. And whether that looks like you're meditating with it every day, I meditate with my visions every day. I pick a vision and I meditate with it. You revisit it in any manifestation practice that you use, whatever that is. It could be checking in weekly to make sure you're still aligned with your vision, like you're walking your vision while you're waiting for it to come to pass. Your vision's not asking you to worship it like it's just the thing that's gonna change your life because you made it look super pretty with glitter and stickers and metallic markers. Side note, I like metallic markers. Another side note, I use them in my vision board. But I don't think that that is the end-all be-all. I know it's not. Your vision is asking you to work with it, to be engaged with it, not just a craft project. The final thing is I don't want to get lost in wishful thinking. Can I say that one more time? Please don't get lost in wishful thinking. This one is kind of nuanced, so I want you to stay with me for just a second. Your vision board should go beyond what feels easy. Yes, it should go beyond those goals that you know you can cross off your list by following the steps that you know to follow. It should stretch you. So it should go beyond what feels easy, it should stretch you, it should invite more than you've ever experienced before. But there's a difference between expansion and fantasy. Okay. If you put things on your vision that you don't believe are possible at all, like you have no belief in this at all. It just looks really nice. Boy, that would be nice. Your subconscious is not feeling inspired, it's feeling disconnected. And around here, you know, we work with our subconscious minds to bring our visions to life. It's about building belief to open your world step by step. And you don't do that by throwing a fantasy on there that you don't even think is possible at all. Like, are you really gonna put on there that you're gonna win the Powerball if you totally don't think you're gonna win the Powerball? Why are you putting on there a 17-room mansion and you never can even picture yourself living in a 17-room mansion? Like, that's what I mean when I say fantasy. So we're not putting goals. Girl, you can get the goal. And sometimes it's reaching goals hard and it takes hard work. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But we're talking about expansion beyond what's within our power to currently do, right? So that's what you put your vision, but you don't put a fantasy, like you don't expand so far beyond yourself that you don't even think it's possible for yourself. Okay. The vision should be like, I don't know exactly how, but I know there's a way. Like that's where the momentum lives. Like it's gonna open up to me. I'm gonna bring it in, I'm gonna manifest it, I'm gonna see more. We talk about how our brain sees and how we react to our 3D world and how we experience our 3D world on the podcast a lot. So there's tons of episodes you can listen to about that. Just go back and binge them all. Speaking of binge, totally off topic. I'm totally squirreling today, but I decided New Year's Eve that I was gonna start watching Stranger Things at like 10 o'clock at night. I'm now at season five. Totally binged, like seasons one through four in a few days. Okay. Um, but anyway, if any of y'all are Stranger Things fans, we might have something to talk about soon once I'm done. Season five. So let's just recap real quick before we close today that maybe a board isn't what you need. Maybe switching over to a diary will serve you better this year. I'm a big fan of the Vision Diary. So I encourage you to try it. Number two is that your vision has to be bigger than a goal. Remember, you're stepping into a vision. Number three, thing to do is make sure you are clear on what you want before you start putting anything down for your vision. Make sure you're super clear and it's what you want, not what other people want for you, but what you want. The don'ts are feeling like you have to fill up every category or force yourself to pick something just so you can fill out all the areas of your life. Remember, just focus on what you're feeling right now, what you want at this moment that you're clear about. Another one, make sure you're not setting it and forgetting it, but you're working with it with your manifestation practices to activate it because it's not, you know, magic when you just paste it down. You have to work with it. And then don't get lost in the wishful thinking either when you're putting stuff on there. There's like this fine-line balance between goal setting, having your vision, and wishful thinking. Make sure you're staying within that vision. It doesn't have to be perfect, it needs to be intentional. And if you need help with anything to make your vision board so it can be intentional from creating it to activating it, I do invite you to join the vision lab. I will put it down in the show description. You can get it there. But it has many different sessions that you can use. It has the affirmation alchemist to activate that vision of yours. It has the clarity coach, it has the worthiness mirror, it has the money reprogrammer, it has all of these sessions within it that you can work with to guide you to putting stuff onto your vision board and beyond, right? Because we don't just put pictures, there's stuff that goes along with it. So you can get the vision lab. Now, I just want you to know that your vision should feel grounded, not chaotic. And you don't have to decide everything right now for this year. Just decide what vision you want to step into, put that down, and when new visions or new desires arise, go back to it. It's not a one and done thing. Okay, love you, and I'll talk to you next week.