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How to Make a Vision Board that ACTUALLY Works in 2026 | Dr. Izzy Sealey | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How to Make a Vision Board that ACTUALLY Works in 2026
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This content presents an evidence-based, neuroscience-backed method for creating and using vision boards to manifest your dream life by aligning your attention and actions with your goals.
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what if I told you that collecting
together a few cute pics and looking at
them every day has the power to
completely transform your life well
today we're going through an
evidence-based tried and tested Vision
boarding method to make your dream life
a reality and vision boarding really
genuinely works and it has nothing to do
with quantum physics or any of that kind
of thing and everything to do with
proven principles from cognitive
Neuroscience in this video I'll walk you
through the ultimate evidence-based
guide of everything you need to know
what a vision board is who exactly
should have a vision board do you even
need one how they work at the level of
the brain and then walk you through an
exact five-step process for creating
your very own vision board highlighting
any common questions traps pitfalls that
people often fall into and finally I'll
share a routine for how to actually use
your vision board in an evidence-based
fashion to turn your dreams into reality
if you're new here my name is Izzy I'm a
Cambridge graduate and a doctor and I've
actually manifested so much of my life
things like getting into Cambridge to
studying medicine my career my YouTube
channel a happy relationship the place
that we live skills and experiences that
I've had put simply manifesting is the
practice of intentionally deciding on
your vision and then aligning your
attention and actions in order to bring
it into reality and so Vision boarding
is simply a powerful tool in our Arsenal
to effectively manifest also if you're
into this kind of stuff I've created a
completely free 3-day guide for you on
building soft productivity systems into
your life to take you from Vision to
action on your dreams so so it would be
a really good companion for this video
if you're interested in checking it out
I'll leave a link to the free guide down
below so why vision board who needs a
vision board do you actually even need
this in your life if you have no problem
achieving all of your goals and turning
your dream life into reality and
powerfully manifesting and creating the
kind of life that you want to live
that's an incredible place to be and I
honestly salute you because in this
instance chances are a vision board
won't actually add that much for you so
feel free to save some time and Skip
what watching the rest of this video but
if you're a bit like me and are still on
a personal growth Journey have things
you want to do and Achieve and
experience and become and you're looking
for strategies to effectively Implement
these into your life a vision board is
an extremely powerful tool to help you
actually make these dreams happen so for
any Skeptics and I completely get it
because I was one too here's the lowdown
on how vision boards work and the
Neuroscience of manifestation I've also
got a quick book recommendation on this
topic The Source by Dr Tara swart is
amazing for covering the Neuroscience of
manifestation in more detail so check
that out if you're interested I'll also
leave a link down below research has
shown that our brain receives around 11
million bits of information from our
sensors per second but it can only
consciously process about 50 this means
that your unconscious mind is helping
you out here by filtering out or
compressing all these millions of bits
of information every single second to
provide your conscious mind with just
the information that it actually needs
to focus on this is because obviously if
we were to try to process that volume of
information coming in from all of our
senses all of our thoughts we would
literally go insane and not be able to
focus on anything or get anything done
or function because we would just be
overwhelmed so this is actually really
working on our side because we need a
way to cut through the noise and figure
out what to pay attention to but this
also means that a part of the brain
called the reticular activating system
also known as RIS or Raz for short which
is located in the brain stem is
unconsciously subconsciously filtering
out information for us the way that it
decides what information to elevate to
the level of conscious processing versus
letting some information just slide by
unconsciously is down to this process
called selective attention and value
tagging selective attention is our
brain's ability to focus on specific
stimuli while filtering out irrelevant
information or rather information that
is deemed irrelevant by the RAS and
value tagging is a process where our
brain assigns importance to certain
stimuli certain pieces of information
based on emotional significance or
relevance to our goals or things that
are important to us you might have even
noticed some of this phenomenon working
in practice yourself in something known
as the badam mhof phenomenon this is
also known as the frequency bias but
it's caused by the RAS selective
attention and value tagging so for
example for me I am now pregnant and so
suddenly everything to do with pregnancy
and babies and child care and parenting
it feels really resonant and emotionally
important and I've noticed that all of a
sudden I seeing pregnant ladies and kids
and babies absolutely everywhere when
before I didn't really notice them as
much at all and it's not actually
because there are more pregnant women
and babies and children around me but
rather that my brain now has value
tagged this category of pregnancy and
babies and motherhood as more important
and so therefore when there is a
pregnant lady on the street or a cute
baby my reticular activating system is
more likely to be like oh that's
something that's important to us let's
make Izzy conscious of this and so then
it's elevated to the level of conscious
experience you might have experienced
this yourself if let's say you got a new
car or a new specific kind of MacBook or
something to that effect and suddenly
you start noticing more of this kind of
car let's say like a red Volvo all over
the place but actually it's not because
the frequency has genuinely increased
but rather that you're paying more
attention to it and you're being made
conscious more frequently of them
because because it's been value tagged
and it's passing into your selective
attention more frequently if you enjoy
this kind of approach to personal
development you might also enjoy my
weekly email that I send out it's called
letters to my younger self it's my
favorite thing that I do it's all the
personal development tips and notes and
journaling prompts that I wish that I
could send to my younger self I also
share daily updates on my Instagram @
izy cely so feel free to check those out
and so now let's bring it back to Vision
boarding and actually achieving our
goals every single day life changing of
opportunities are passing Us by and most
of these are unfortunately filtered out
by our Ras because most information is
filtered out by our R but through the
process of goal setting and vision
boarding we can actually value tag the
things that we actually care about and
the things that we want to make happen
in our lives as important so that then
our reticular activating system is more
likely to elevate opportunities and
information that are relevant to this to
a conscious level where we can actually
take action on it and actually grasp
these opportunities rather than just
letting them pass Us by or not even
noticing that they're they're happening
our brains didn't evolve in an
environment where their main goal was to
make us succeed and be happy our brains
just evolve to survive and a lot of the
ways that our brains filter information
aren't necessarily aligned with the
person that we want to become they were
created from the person that we were and
the experiences that we have had but if
we want to change our future trajectory
we need to be able to shape our brain to
be ready for those opportunities and to
actually consciously be made aware of
these opportunities so that we can grasp
them and actually take action on making
our dreams a reality you might be
wondering well doesn't something like
just setting a goal and writing it down
work for this kind of thing and yes
absolutely that does help but there is a
certain power in making a vision board
which I'm about to explain we as humans
are extremely visual creatures we have
literally a whole lobe of the brain the
whole occipital lobe just right here at
the back of the brain dedicated to
visual processing and if if you just
think about your experience of the world
most of us and so you and me probably
included are primarily visual processes
of the world this means that seeing
visual images of our goals such as on
your vision board is a much more
powerful way of emotionally activating
your goals and really getting them to
stick in your head and value tagging
intensely what you're trying to align
your actions towards achieving multiple
Studies have shown that visually
focusing in on our goals and having
visual representations of our goals
helps to generate powerful emotions that
drive us to pursue those goals and
actually achieve them and so there was a
significant increase in goal Pursuit and
motivation for people who visually
represent their goals whether that's on
a vision board or through tools like
visualization so that's my Manifesto for
who needs a vision board and how they
actually work and why you need one and
so if you're convinced and you want to
create a powerful vision board that
actually works then let's Dive In to the
five-step process for creating your
vision board this is the process that I
personally use and I found it most
effective after trying multiple
different methods of creating a vision
board also one thing that's really
important when it comes to creating an
effective vision board is getting in the
right emotional state to actually be
able to dream big and to be able to
confidently put images onto your vision
board I've recorded a fullon vision
boarding Workshop as part of the life OS
course which is a course that my husband
Ali and I have put together to help you
essentially figure out where you're
going in life design your dream life and
then build in a productivity system so
essentially covering the full stack of
going from Vision to action if you're
interested you might want to check it
out and again you'll get this Vision
boarding Workshop as part of that course
where I'll guide you through the whole
process including visualizations
meditations and also giving you a bunch
of templates and resources for creating
your vision board step one is to dream
visualize your dream life in 3 years
time how it feels how it looks and the
person that you've ultimately become
through everything that has happened
this Taps into a cognitive process
called episodic future thinking which
essentially is when we visualize and
mentally simulate future events in Vivid
detail this has been proven to
counteract temporal discounting which is
the very human psychological tendency to
prioritize immediate gratification over
long-term benefits and delayed
gratification which is actually one of
the biggest barriers to making our
dreams happen an example of this is
let's say one of your goals is to get in
the best shape of your life immediate
gratification would encourage you to sit
on the sofa watch TV and binge eat yummy
snacks but if you're focusing more on
long-term delayed gratification then you
might put those aside and instead go for
a walk and listen to an Audi book or go
to the gym or do some yoga so by tapping
into this process of EFT episodic future
thinking we counteract this bias and we
can focus more on delayed gratification
and long-term benefits for example in
this study they found that students who
were prompted to visualize their
experience if they actually achieved
their study goals were significantly
more likely to spontaneously study for
longer which is going to make that
potential future reality of achieving
their study goals much more likely so
one tool that I like to use in this
visualizing stage is thinking about my
life in categories I personally really
like the Wheel of Life framework for
thinking about life a bit more
holistically and actually as part of my
weekly review process every single week
I check in and I track my Wheel of Life
score so that I can see patterns and
Trends over time I've personally found
that tracking the past checking in on
the present and then analyzing those
patterns to design the future has been
one of the most powerful Frameworks for
my personal growth journey I created a
Google sheet tracker that I use every
single week for my Wheel of Life I had
so many requests to share the Google
sheet tracker that I use so if you're
interested you can get a copy completely
free via the link below or via
i.com slwe this is the exact template
that I personally use this is an auto
updating graph here which updates
whenever you add in numbers I have also
created a little notes section here to
add any key points of notes of anything
that might have affected the score so
that you can look back and then analyze
any patterns so again feel free to check
that out if you'd like otherwise using
these kinds of categories of physical
health mental health friends and family
Romance career finances personal growth
and purpose and contribution I find very
helpful or if you really want to
simplify it down think about it in terms
of health in terms of relationships and
then career and personal growth so now
maybe take a moment to close your eyes
maybe even pause the video and set a
timer for a couple of minutes and
visualize what stepping into your
elevated life in 3 years time feels like
after this visualization exercise write
freely in your journal for a couple of
minutes about this experience and what
the key components of your dream life
are I personally like to write in a
physical Journal because I find that I'm
a bit more expressive and connected to
my emotions when I do that but write
wherever works for you and write down
any crazy world dreams that you have
don't hold back and recognize that at
this stage any thoughts of that's not
realistic or like oh like that's never
going to happen aren't actually needed
right now as this is simply about
dreaming divergently and creating a
bucket list almost of Dreams step two is
collect which essentially is searching
for images that represent elements of
your dream life I like using Pinterest
for this personally because it gives
great suggestions for similar images and
start suggesting Things based on what
you've searched so this is an example
when I open up my Pinterest because of
the kinds of things I've searched for in
the past it suggests things
automatically that I might be interested
in and some of these things are things
that I actually search for while
creating my own vision board so for
example maybe I like this kind of desk
setup I I feel like ooh that's feels
resonant feels like it's part of the
dream life and when I click on it then I
scroll down a little bit and then I see
a bunch of other similar images that are
a bit like this original one and so then
it makes it very easy to find the exact
kind of images that you want and so then
maybe I'll click on this one and then I
keep getting suggested new things
algorithmically by Pinterest one thing
to consider is including imagery that
reflects the outcome and the destination
of the dream but also the process and
the inputs required to get there so
almost the journey as it were I like
doing this because it prompts me to
think about the steps that are needed to
be taken to get to whatever dream
destination I have consider including
both literal images which have a
concrete reflection of the dream
destination and also more abstract ones
that reflect perhaps a certain feeling
or an energy that you want to experience
and especially look for images that
evoke some kind of emotional response in
you as these will be the most powerful
for forming your magnetic vision for
example for me this image here of this
old couple dancing in what looks like
their beautiful home surrounded by
warmth and plant was so emotionally
resonant for me and when I saw that I
just felt like it like literally brought
tears to my eyes when I saw this image
and so even though this photo isn't
necessarily what my life is exactly
going to look like in a couple of years
time because obviously this is an old
couple many years down the line when I
look at this and I see like their
smiling faces I see the feeling that's
in this image with like full of warmth
and love and a deep connection over the
course of a lifetime that is extremely
emotionally evocative for me and so
that's why I put this on my vision board
step number three is dump copy and paste
all these images that you find into a
blank document so for me personally I
like to use either Google Slides or
canva for this but feel free to use
basically any document where you can
paste photos rearrange them easily and
change the aspect ratio of the document
so like that's the dimensions of the
document basically and you can change
the aspect ratio in both Google slides
and canva as well a quick shortcut that
I like is just typing in slides. new and
then a new Google Slides document will
open up and so that's a really quick way
for you to just get directly to it once
this is opened up you just go to
Pinterest you pick a couple of pictures
that you like so let me grab a couple so
for example if you're on Pinterest and
you really resonate with let's say this
image over here you go in you copy the
image you go into your Google slide you
paste it there we go that's dumped in
step four is refine so once you've
collected and dumped a bunch of
inspiring evocative images into your
document go through them all again and
now eliminate and select so remove any
images that are either too repetitive or
no longer resonant I basically refine
them down to the core collection of
images in this refining stage I also
like to edit and personalize any images
for example I've put this 1 million
subscriber YouTube plaque into this dump
and so then on my actual vision board to
make it more magnetic and personal I
edited the image to include my name my
profile picture all of that stuff so
over here you can see the YouTube plaque
has my name on it this is like literally
the exact image that I would see on my
YouTube channel page with one million
subscribers and I've also done the same
for my hsk 6 certificate which is how
you shap in cure level six which is
essentially a mandarin proficiency exam
and I really want to get to level six so
I literally took a copy of a photo of of
the hsk6 certificate and edited it to
include my name and my photo over there
step five is coales so now you have your
set of magnetic images for your vision
board it's time to coales them into
their final form the first thing here is
to decide on what format you want your
vision board to be in I'll get into this
a little bit more in the final part of
this video but essentially here you want
to choose your aspect ratio for your
canvas and that basically means the
dimensions of the canvas I'll give you a
quick demo in Google slides and canva of
how you can do this in Google Slides you
want to click file and then go to page
setup and here it has a few three like
standard aspect ratios um or you can
choose custom here and you can also
choose whether that's in pixels or
inches depending on what kind of final
form you want for your vision board in
canva what you want to do is go to the
canva main page and then click custom
size you can again choose pixels or
inches centimeters create a new design
and that has popped up something here
and then you can copy and paste your
images into this space here then when
you're arranging your images I'd
actually recommend placing related
images nearest to each other for example
images that are all about health all
togethere or relationships kind of in a
cluster ultimately there are no rules
when it comes to Vision boarding find
what feels good for
you now for some common traps and
pitfalls that people often fall into and
mistakes that they make when making
vision boards one really common thing
that I see a lot is people focusing only
on material outcomes so fancy branded
luxury items or extrinsic material Goods
that we think will bring us happiness
but it's important to remember that
honic adaptation is a thing and so this
can easily become part of a honic
treadmill and feed into this cycle of
consumerism so it's just worth being
aware of like are there actually things
on the vision board that are part of
your dream life not just because they're
material Goods but because they are
genuinely things that will bring you a
richness to your life another common
trap is limiting yourself from actually
putting your dreams on your vision board
I recently wrote a whole newsletter
issue about this very topic of limiting
beliefs and self-sabotage and how vision
boards can actually help to discover and
unearth them so feel free to check this
out or join the free email Community
where I sent this to I'll include a link
down below the next common trap is
getting too attached or too worried
about specific timelines and deadlines
for achieving these dreams on your
vision board because a vision board is
very different to creating a concrete
plan of action I'd actually recommend
having both and making an action plan
after you've got your vision board but
while a plan usually has a timeline with
clear milestones and objectives and a
kind of very clear path a vision board
is a softer bigger picture approach to
designing your dream life and by
actively stepping away from including
these kinds of timelines opens us up to
an abundance mindset and allows us to
hold our plans more lightly which means
that we can follow the flow of life and
take opportunities as they arise rather
than holding on to them with too much
attachment but while still keeping our
dreams front and center the next common
trap is only including the outcome or
the results and none of the processes
because vision boards work best when
they are conducive to action and this is
why I always try to include some images
of the journey and the work in progress
towards the dream destination to almost
create a visual stepping stone and
connect that Vision to action you can
see this on my own vision board here
where let's say this image here I've
included a lady doing prenatal Pilates
and there isn't any clear destination
goal it's not like like the pose that
she's doing is particularly challenging
or as some kind of destination but it's
more that I want to include this process
in my life because I know by including
more of this kind of process and acting
on it I will by default get towards the
dream destination that I have now for
the final step of this Ultimate Guide to
Vision boarding is the evidence-based
application in your day-to-day life the
first thing that's important is to look
at your vision board daily so spend at
least a minute per day looking at your
vision board this is because in order
order to actually activate your value
tagging selective attention reticular
activating system and get that
subconscious mind on board with making
your dreams a reality you need to
constantly feed it reminders of what's
important to you so for me personally I
create wallpapers for all of my main
devices with my vision board on it so
this includes for example my phone
literally my phone background is my
vision board which I arranged into the
right aspect ratio to fit nicely on my
phone on my iPad as well which I use
everyday is also my vision board on my
laptop background everything all of my
electronic devices because I use these
every single day have my vision board on
them front and center as both the lock
screen and also the wallpaper in this
way being repeatedly exposed to seeing
my vision board and reminders of my
dream life works on two levels on the
conscious level it's a reminder of my
goals and dreams to actually make plans
and take action towards them and in
terms of the subconscious level it's
aligning my Raz and my sub conscious
with noticing these kinds of
opportunities that are important to me
and making them happen an alternative to
putting them on digital devices is to
physically print it out on let's say a
canvas or a poster and put it somewhere
that you're going to see very regularly
ideally daily such as maybe inside your
wardrobe so that when you open your
wardrobe and you're getting dressed and
ready each day then you have a look at
it or place it maybe above your home
desk so you can look at it when hustling
to make your dream life happen finally
combining Vision boarding with written
goal set setting and action planning I
personally do quarterly goal setting
with monthly and weekly reviews under
this to align my actions with my vision
and actually one of the biggest reasons
why people fail at achieving their
dreams is this execution Gap essentially
this gap between vision and action so we
want to close this Gap and now we have
our vision that we feel motivated by
every single day we're aligning
everything in our mind and heart towards
that we want to take action I'm actually
planning a full video on this quarterly
monthly and weekly review system which I
actually Implement inside my journal so
stay tuned for that if you're interested
in every single video I always like to
encourage you guys to actually take
action on the videos that you're
watching because it's all good and well
watching YouTube videos for
entertainment but I really want you guys
to put this into practice in your own
life so right now decide on two action
points you're going to take away from
this video that you're going to
implement today and so think of those
two action points and maybe share them
down below in the comments if you like
or send me an email or message with them
or just write them down for yourself in
your journal and make sure that you
actually take action on this video If
you enjoyed this video I think you might
like this video over here where I talk
about my exact process for journaling
and how to bring more mindfulness
intentionality and self- understanding
into our lives with journaling so feel
free to check that out over here
otherwise thank you so much for watching
take care of yourself and remember that
the journey is the destination I'll see
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