How to Make a Vision Board That Sparks Joy

Inside: how to create a KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board as the first step in your tidying up journey.

I learned about the Marie Kondo method in 2015. I read the book and I drank the Koolaid. With the song “Turning Japanese” buzzing through my head, I made it well past the sock drawer. But, my efforts fizzled somewhere in the land of komono.

Yup. I became a tidying up dropout. And I know why.

I skipped visualizing my ideal lifestyle. The #1 mistake that KonMari newbies make. Instead, I wrote a vision statement:

A home that supports me as I live, love, work, and play. Luxurious emptiness around the beautiful and useful.

Yeah, it was about as inspiring as yesterday’s quinoa salad. I remember the thought process. If I could just get rid of stuff, my ideal lifestyle would somehow emerge. But it doesn’t work that way.

What stopped me from doing this crucial step? Truth? It was scary to let myself dream. Fear of disappointment had me holding my hands over my ears saying “la-la-la” during that part of the book.

But skipping that step held me back. Tidying requires sustained motivation and commitment for weeks or months. Without a vivid vision of my ideal lifestyle, I lost my tidying oomph. Items from abandoned categories still stare at me reproachfully.

So I’m starting over from the beginning. And this time I’m going to let a tidying expert boss me around.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through what I did to create a vision for my ideal lifestyle. Plus, I will go over everything you need to know about this first step in the Marie Kondo method:

• why it matters
• when you get stuck visualizing your ideal lifestyle
• four ways to imagine your ideal lifestyle
• how to create your own KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board
• my KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board reveal

Time to embrace the woo!

But first, if you’re starting or re-starting KonMari, set yourself up for success. Check out my post Why And How To Get Started With KonMari By Marie Kondo.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Why it absolutely matters to think about your ideal lifestyle

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The promise is right in the title.

My tidying process is not about decluttering your house or making it look neat on the spur of the moment for visitors. It’s about tidying up in a way that will spark joy in your life and change it forever. {Spark Joy}

I’ve adopted Marie Kondo as my personal development mentor. Some aspects of KonMari might seem odd, but she designed the method to be life-changing.

The first step of KonMari—and the most important one—is to visualize our ideal lifestyle.

Marie Kondo gets that we’re impatient:

You would rather start tidying right away, would you? That is precisely why so many people suffer rebound after tidying up. When you image your ideal lifestyle, you are actually clarifying why you want to tidy and identifying the kind of life you want to live once you have finished. The tidying process thus represents a huge turning point in a person’s life. So seriously consider the ideal lifestyle to which you aspire. {Spark Joy}

When you get stuck imagining your ideal lifestyle

Marie Kondo makes it sound so easy. But people do struggle with this:

• What did you picture for your ideal life?
• Visualizing your ideal life?
• How do you go about “Imagining your ideal lifestyle”
• Trouble visualizing my ideal life – help?

Practical examples of how to visualize an ideal lifestyle can help. This post covers lots of specific ideas.

But some of us also need to give ourselves permission to dream:

Please don’t curb your dreams. Your ideal image is not an objective set in stone nor is it an obligation, so don’t hold back. Feel free to indulge your wildest fantasy. {Spark Joy}

(Note to self: add Häagen-Dazs to vision board…)

But it can be hard to let ourselves dream. The minute I fantasize about my dream house, my brain jumps in with 73 reasons why it can’t be mine.

We bury our desires beneath our doubts—Brooke Castillo

How do we overcome our fear of dreaming? Ask yourself these questions (inspired by this fun video):

1. What am I afraid of?
2. What would I dream of if I wasn’t afraid?

Muster the courage to go deep with this.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. {Lao Tzu}

Four excellent ways to focus on your ideal lifestyle

Marie Kondo is pretty vague about how to visualize your ideal lifestyle. As with everything KonMari, that’s intentional. The idea is to tailor this step to your own personality.

But how do we actually do it?

These questions can help with picking an approach:

• Do words or images inspire you? Or both?
• How do you most easily express yourself?
• Do you feel jealous of people who are good writers? or speak well? or are visually creative?

1. Sketch out your ideal lifestyle

Do you love to paint or sketch?

Marie Kondo suggests this as one of the ways to represent your ideal lifestyle. Your vision doesn’t need to be ready to hang in the Louvre—it just has to have meaning for you. Break out the pencils or brushes and let loose.

2. Write about your ideal lifestyle

Writing your vision down will have the most meaning if you’re the wordy type. Sometimes the act of writing makes it feel more real. Taking pen to paper can be especially powerful.

If you’re the verbal type, try talking about your ideal lifestyle. Talk to a friend or think out loud on your own. The voice memo app on your phone can capture your words. Then you can replay it and write down parts that make your vision feel real and vivid to you.

If you love to lose yourself in fiction, think of your favourite characters from books or movies. Do their lives embody aspects of your ideal lifestyle? (thanks to redditor Ermagerd_Unicornz for that tip).

Lifehack has some great prompts for writing about your ideal lifestyle:

• What will you have accomplished already?
• How will you feel about yourself?
• What kind of people are in your life?
• How do you feel about them?
• What does your ideal day look like?
• Where are you?
• Where do you live?
• Think specifics, what city, state, or country, type of community, house or an apartment, style and atmosphere.
• What would you be doing?Are you with another person, a group of people, or are you by yourself?
• How are you dressed?
• What’s your state of mind? Happy or sad? Contented or frustrated?
• What does your physical body look like? How do you feel about that?
• Does your best life make you smile and make your heart sing? If it doesn’t, dig deeper, dream bigger.

And this killer prompt from Marie Forleo:

Wouldn’t it be cool if ___________?

Remember, there’s no right way to do this. Make sure that your written vision is rich in detail and inspiring to you.

My printable worksheets include these writing prompts with space for you to write down your ideas.

3. Find a single photo that represents your ideal lifestyle

Minimalists may enjoy this tip from Spark Joy. Find a single image that makes you feel: “Yes, this is the kind of space I want to live in”.

Start by browsing through interior decorating magazines. Once you find a photo that captures your vision, keep it in a spot where you’ll see it all the time.

For example, Meghann found a single photo that represents her ideal lifestyle. A house entrance image captures the welcoming feeling that Meghann wants. The colours, texture, and feeling of the photo resonate with her.

4. Create a vision board that represents your ideal lifestyle

This is another method that Marie Kondo suggests and there are a few ways to do it:

• create a collage from magazine photos: A great example is Hannah’s vision board. She combined photos and words cut out from magazines. I love how specific she is in imagining her ideal lifestyle. Her vision is so relatable: wanting to be healthy, connect with loved ones, overcome fears, and rock a bikini body!
• fill a Pinterest board with photos that inspire you: KonMari consultant Maria Leahey suggests pinning images of your dream spaces if you love Pinterest
• create a digital vision board: Jera worked with a KonMari consultant to create her digital vision board. It combines inspiration photos of spaces, with written descriptions of her goals, what she wants from her spaces, and what she wants more and less of in her life.
• create a physical vision board with photographs: This is what I did. Read on for my vision board reveal and a detailed how-to.

This is how to make your own KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board

As a visually focused person, photos do it for me. I decided to create a vision board with photographs to represent my ideal lifestyle. Of course, it had to be beautiful!

If you entertain your desires, if you talk about your desires, if you look at them and put them on vision boards and create visual reminders of what your desires are, your brain and your heart go to work on making them come true. {Brooke Castillo}

This is one of the most “woo-woo” steps in KonMari, so I made sure the mood was right. I found a time when my home was quiet, popped some roses into a vase, and lit a beeswax candle.

Supplies

• worksheet in my KonMari Ideal Lifestyle printable (or your journal)
• pen
• photo quality printer
• glossy 4″ x 6″ photo paper
• paper trimmer
• corner punch
• thin hardboard panel like this, cut down to 24″ x 24″
• washi tape

1. Create a list of life areas that your ideal lifestyle will include

To start with, I used my bullet journal (my favourite is this one). I started by listing the life areas that I wanted my vision board to include:

• health
• career
• family
• love
• friends
• creativity
• spirituality
• finances
• home
• travel

I created a worksheet printable for you to make this easier. Feel free to add or delete categories according to what you want your ideal lifestyle to include.

2. Use the categories to brainstorm desires for your ideal lifestyle

Still using my bullet journal, I used my category list to brainstorm what I want for my ideal lifestyle. Some examples:

• friends: I want to have more dinner parties
• creativity: I want to learn to play the guitar
• home: I want to live in a small heritage house

I kept going until I had a long list of “wants”, leaving a few lines between each one for the next step.

3. Apply the “5 Whys”

The next step is the “5 Whys”:

Your next step is to identify why you want to live like that. Look back over your notes about the kind of lifestyle you want, and think again. Why do you want to do aromatherapy before bed? Why do you want to listen to classical music while doing yoga? […] Ask yourself “Why?” again, for each answer. Repeat this process three to five times for every item.

As you continue to explore the reasons behind your ideal lifestyle, you will come to a simple realization. The whole point in both discarding and keeping things is to be happy. It may seem obvious, but it is important to experience this realization for yourself and let it sink into your heart. {The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up}

Fascinatingly, this process of questioning was developed by Toyota in post-war Japan.

Under each of my “wants”, I wrote out my “whys” (there weren’t always five). Here’s an example:

I want to learn to play the guitar

Why?

Because I love music

Why?

Because it connects me to rhythm

Why do I want to be connected to rhythm?

Because it makes me feel alive.

My neglected impulse to learn to play the guitar feels irrelevant to my life. But this exercise shows me that it’s about an underlying desire to feel alive. And that shows me the depth of this want.

Wanting to be happy. Feeling alive. Our wants come back to simple underlying desires.

Try this, you might be surprised!

4. Pick a photo that represents each aspect of your ideal lifestyle

I loved doing this step because photographs inspire me!

Pick an image that gives the vibe of each lifestyle “want”. I found photos in my own hard drive, on Pinterest, and on Instagram. Take your time with this.

Don’t worry about whether someone else would understand the meaning of your photo. Pick photos that make you smile.

When I see that coffee pot boiling over a campfire, I feel alive! When I see those clinking glasses of rosé wine, my yearning to spend more time with gal pals wells up.

As you find inspiring photos, save them in a digital folder. Once you have a bunch, go through them and weed out ones that don’t make your heart sing.

5. Print out your ideal lifestyle photos

I used my printer (similar model) to print out each photo on glossy 4″ x 6″ photo paper. Uploading your photos for printing at a lab is another option.

Using a paper trimmer (similar one), I removed the white strips along the edges. Finally, I used a punch to round the corners of each photo. I love how that adds a retro feel.

6. Arrange photos on a board

Pick a background surface for your vision board. I used a piece of thin hardboard panel like this, cut down to 24″ x 24″. I could have painted the board, but I left it bare. I like that my photos stand out against the neutral buff colour of the background.

Then, arrange the photos on the board. Take your time placing them, overlapping or not, until the final result pleases you.

Finally, attach the photos with washi tape (similar). This tape works well because it’s easy to reposition.

Voila! You now have a vision board that represents your ideal lifestyle!

7. Put your board somewhere where you can see it often.

You’ll need inspiration for your KonMari journey ahead. Your KonMari vision board doesn’t look like a kindergarten project, so display it with pride. Put it somewhere where you can see it every day.

I made it! My KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board

Here is my very own KonMari ideal lifestyle vision board.

I won’t lie. I procrastinated on doing this. I found myself guzzling coffee and mindlessly scrolling instead of tackling this project.

But it was so worth it to overcome my fears, set the mood, and take my time.

Every photo on my vision board gives me inspiration for aspects of my ideal lifestyle:

• a cozy heritage house on a quiet street
• so many dinner parties
• giving my passport a workout
• big and small nature adventures
• growing this blog
• chilling with gal pals
• launching my teens into adulthood
• sharing a remarkable life with my guy
• unleashing my creative side
• a spick and span home
• learning to play the guitar and dance
• radiant health
• and yes…rocking a bikini body!

Bringing these photos together feels powerful!

Now that I’ve lived with my vision board for a while, I can truly say that it sparks joy.

Don’t become a statistic

People are diving into KonMari-ing their homes. But so many become tidying up dropouts.

The #1 KonMari mistake is not taking the time to imagine your ideal lifestyle.

Whether you’re a KonMari beginner or a reboot-er, let’s do this right, together.

Use this post to pick how you’re going to visualize your ideal lifestyle. Then take action by documenting your ideal lifestyle in writing or with a photo, a collage, a vision board, a sketch, a painting, or an interpretive dance piece. OK, maybe not the latter.

The feeling of joy that you get from your vision of your ideal lifestyle is what KonMari is all about.

Free KonMari Ideal Lifestyle Vision Board printable

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Extra credit

More inspiration for visualizing your ideal lifestyle:

• take a minute to watch Marie Kondo talk about imagining your ideal lifestyle—her voice is so soothing and the incense smells so nice
• KonMari consultants Karin and Kristyn chat about how to visualize your ideal lifestyle

Over to you…

How are you going to imagine your ideal lifestyle? Or maybe you think it’s a silly waste of time? Have you created a vision board? Tell me in the comments. And if you created your own vision board, drop me a link…I’d love to see it!