Like a lot of people, I’m generally feeling my most inspired and energetic these first few weeks of the new year. This year has been no different as I find myself spending extra long hours working in my home office on new website upgrades and planning new content launches. I feel so strongly for some reason that 2025 has the potential to be a great year for my business, and I’m hopeful that I can keep this momentum going.

One way I do that year after year is with a DIY vision board. My sister and I actually do this together over the holidays. We grab piles of old magazines each year during that lazy week between Christmas and New Year’s, and we get to work ripping out quotes and photos that speak to us and our respective visions for the upcoming new year. In the past, we’ve always pasted those cut paper snippets to scrap cardboard or thick paper stock, but this year I wanted to try something different.

I ultimately decided to start a vision board book. As I mentioned, I’ve always defaulted to building on cardboard, and I do love how freeform that method is (see my past vision board projects here and here if you want more info). The only problem with that was that I was sort of forced to display my vision boards out in the open since the cardboard was too large to fit in a drawer. I tried framing my vision board last year to see if I would like having it out on display all the time, but I ended up hiding it away. You can see in the photos below how I still keep my very first vision board hung on the back of my office door where, generally, only I ever see it.

To cut to the chase, I’ve learned over the years that, while I love the process of vision boarding and I adore the finished result (that compilation of specific quotes, photos, and colors always makes my heart pound with excitement), I just don’t like looking at it all the time. A vision board, for me, is kind of like an energy drink. I can reach for my vision board when I need a quick dose of motivation to hit the ground running on what I want to get out of the year, but at other quieter times, I don’t need to see it. Those are the times when I need to rest my brain and practice a more passive way of thinking free from visual distraction.

So, how do I keep my vision board around without it actually being around all the time? Keep it in a book, of course! A few days before Christmas, I quickly ran into our local craft store and picked a simple scrapbook to use for my ongoing vision board book. I wanted something minimal that wouldn’t draw the eye too much, so I chose a dark green scrapbook that didn’t have any writing or pattern on it. I liked the idea of setting it somewhere in my office or on a side table like a coffee table book that I could pick up any time throughout my week when I need a boost of inspiration and direction.

Psssst…That’s my sister’s pretty single-page vision board to the right in the photo above.

Back at home, my sister and I followed our same methodology of cutting things from magazines and then gluing them to paper. Instead of cardboard, I pasted my vision board items to the pages that came with the scrapbook. I also created a title page of sorts for the front of the book. I wanted it to look different from the vision board pages, so I went with a more symmetrical fish scale design with cut-out patterns and colors that spoke to me. A small handwritten “Vision” title glued in the upper corner finished off the title page and gets the point across without being glaring.

The general explanation for my 2025 vision board spread that you see pictured above and below is this:

• I want to do more art and drawing for myself this year.
• I want to prioritize self care and my own version of living a quiet life without outside pressure/influence.
• Getting my body moving with regular exercise is still a priority for me in 2025 (I, happily, did really well sticking to that goal in 2024!).
• I’d love to mix up our cooking routine with new recipe experimentation, and I want to continue to inch our way toward “pro” status in the kitchen.
• I want more COLOR in our home, and to embrace old things with real patina that tell a story.
• Organization is something I’d like to get better at.
• A healthy and happy morning routine is something on my priorities list, although I think I’m already doing pretty well on that score. Let’s just say I want to keep it up.
• Finally, I’m planning on taking my business much more seriously this year with strategic creative launches and more professional photography/writing.

I’m feeling so good about this refreshed direction, and am excited that I have this new vision board book to refer back to in moments of indecision. I plan to keep this methodology up each new year and will have this book filled slowly with custom vision board spreads over the course of the next decade. It will be fun to see what I gravitate toward next year and to be able to flip through the spreads quicker now that they’re all kept in one place. Cheers to 2025 and all the possibility that it holds for each of us!