Written by: Caitlin Alfonso, LMSW
Vision boards are becoming a popular activity, and rightly so! When done intentionally and looked at every day, they can be a positive tool for people to stay focused on goals and on aspects of life they want to prioritize, such as their health, mental well-being, and more. Personally, I am a lover of vision boards! For years, my friends and I have been doing vision board parties around the new year! However, in recent years, we have leveled up to creating what we call “slay boards”.
What is a “slay board” you ask? Well, this is a separate board (or jar) that you can keep your yearly accomplishments in and then reflect on them later. Sometimes, our lives get so busy or our focus in our life shifts, and therefore it can feel as if we aren’t accomplishing anything. However, the addition of the slay board fixed this by allowing us to reflect on the things that we DID do throughout the year!
If you’re still confused that is okay. I am going to walk you through a vision/slay board party now! You have been invited to a vision board party and you are so excited. You have a lot of things you want to accomplish in the new year. There are some obvious ones, like keeping a 3.5 GPA for college applications and graduating high school. However, you have been talking with your support system about really practicing your self-care and now you want to sign up for a weekend art class and focus on exercising.
You join the party, and you start designing your vision board to reflect these goals. You write down the goals, “graduate” and “3.5 GPA” and thumb tack them to your board and surround them with cut outs of graduation hats. Then you find pictures in a magazine of the gym and art supplies, which you organize around your goal words “complete art class” and “gym routine”.
When you get home you put your new board where you see it every day. Before you know it, it’s May, and you graduated! You walk by your vision board and since you completed that goal you untack it and retack it on a smaller board you put by the vision board. That goal is SLAYED!! As a gift to yourself, you finally signed up for the art class over the summer, but you wait to move it to the slay board until it’s officially “complete”.
At the end of the year, you and your friends return together for another vision board party. However, you spend time in the beginning reflecting on your slay boards. You have “graduate”, “3.5 GPA” and “complete an art class” on your slay board, along with a few other unexpected accomplishments like “joined intramural sport team” and “started college”! You notice your “gym routine” is still on your original vision board, however you decide to make changes to that goal next year. You realized from joining the intramural sport team that you like group activities as a form of fitness better than all the lone gym sessions you were trying to do.
Seeing this all laid out visually before your eyes can help you stay positive on the progress you make towards goals, celebrate the wins, and pivot when your goals need to be refreshed!
Now I invite you to attend your very own vision board party so you can slay throughout 2025!
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Caitlin Alfonso is a lover of coffee, reading, traveling and her dog, Remy. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker and owner of Acornic Consulting, LLC.