S3 E15 - Taking the Woo-Woo out of Vision Boards

In this episode, we strip away the fluffy, mystical stereotypes around vision boards and dig into the grounded, science-backed truth of why they work. If you’re ready to move from thinking about your favorite life to creating it, this conversation is your blueprint.

I walk you through a strategic approach to vision boarding that starts with clarity — not magazine clippings. You’ll learn how to identify what you truly want in every area of your life, translate those desires into aligned habits, and choose the core thought that shapes the identity of your future self. We also explore the reticular activating system (RAS) and how intentionally visualizing your goals trains your brain to notice opportunities and follow-through.

By the end, you’ll understand how to build a vision board that becomes a living tool for transformation — not a cute craft project that collects dust.

Plus: I share details about a step-by-step workshop (inside my app!) and a live coaching session so you can build your next vision board with intention, alignment, and support.

Click here to view the blog post version of this episode with visual examples. 

Purchase the Vision Board mini-course here.

Purchase your copy of Unleash Your Favorite Self book and the corresponding journal.

Interested in one-on-one coaching? Click here to schedule a Roadmap session with Sophia.

Download the Favorite Self app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Connect with Sophia on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube

Have a topic you would love to hear Sophia address on the podcast? Send your ideas to hello@sophiahyde.com

Transcript

Sophia Hyde (00:00.91)
Hello, welcome back. I am so excited today for us to talk about vision boards and taking all the woo woo out of it. And the reason I wanted to do this episode is because I think it's the perfect follow up to last week's episode on living by intention versus by default.

So if after you listen to that episode, you're like, yeah, I do. I do want to live more intentionally. OK, now what? This is the now what? OK, now I had recommended on there to download the favorite life wheel and go through each of your areas, and that's great. But if you're ready to take these to take your life from just ideas and concepts into actual change, I cannot recommend a vision board highly enough. But I do think that.

They have gained a reputation of being, I say woo woo, but just kind of like frilly fluff, like personal growth and development, rah rah. But y'all, they're legit change makers and we're gonna talk about why. And I'm going to give you guys a, kind of like bring it back down to reality, a down to earth way.

of thinking about the power of a vision board, not as just some fun scrapbooking activity that, you know, the artsy people can do. Cause I'm not that person. I'm not the crafty artsy person. And I have had a vision, a vision board until we moved. Cause when we moved houses in June, I had to, I packed my old one and I haven't made a new one yet. So I, I did this week. Um, and so I'll be getting it printed.

But other than the last like four months, I have had an active vision board continuously since 2011 and it I credit it being a significant part of why I have achieved Almost every goal I have sought for myself Okay, so let's talk about The main thing people are doing wrong and I think that that's that they walk into a vision board exercise

Sophia Hyde (02:21.429)
like it's a craft project. They show up, maybe you go to an event in your community or like a girls night in or something like that. And what people do to prepare is to have craft supplies. I know social media has definitely killed the magazine industry, but a lot of times you'll see people like, we're gonna make vision boards. Everybody bring your magazines.

What a reactive way, not proactive, reactive way to make a vision board. And people sit around at these events and they like flip through magazines to just look and see what capitalism is selling to you and decide whether you want it or not. So then they end up with these vision boards of like cars or houses or beach trips or bikini bodies. It's like, what is happening here? Like this is not how you design a life.

So I, several years ago, before I was even a coach, one of the reasons that I even became a coach and chose the certification pathway that I did was I wanted to host a night, a vision board night for my community back when I lived in Florida. And I had to like invent the curriculum and I decided to take everybody through the life wheel. I just found a life wheel on the internet.

and we looked at all the areas of our lives and set goals. people really got a lot of value out of that. But that was before I was even had gone through certification or anything. I just knew that looking the things, there was two things that had changed my life. One, looking at it holistically through a wheel and two, attaching things to habits. And so I was like, I'm gonna teach this to everybody else. And I had in my vision board started incorporating all the areas of my life.

and I had also started attaching habit goals. And so I did this with a handful of women a few years in a row and people were coming back and telling me stories of I went to Italy this year because of your workshop. Like I didn't even realize that mattered to me and my sister and I put a trip on the calendar. And it's like, what? And people had achieved goals and bought a house and all this stuff. It's like, yeah, you you really made me sit and pause and ask myself what I wanted. And so.

Sophia Hyde (04:42.709)
The first step is that you have to create a vision board from a proactive perspective. Okay, so before anything goes on the board, you have to do some internal work, right? And so at those workshops, I would have these worksheets and we'd go through the wheel and ask, know, our favorite life was in each area. I wasn't using favorite life language then, but what we wanted out of our lives in that area and what happens would get us there. And then we use those things to determine what would go on the

And I think people are more focused on glitter glue than asking what they really want out of their lives. Okay, so that's step number one. Now, to take some of the like frou-frou out of this, the reason a vision board works is actually it's pretty black and white science. It's not even, we don't even need to use complicated science to figure this one out, okay? You take your goals.

And then you put them somewhere visually so that you can see them regularly. And what do we know like about ourselves and human behavior? What we focus on grows. What you're paying attention to, you're going to see more, right? So just the fact that you're regularly looking at these images is going to remind your brain to pay attention and look for opportunities that might open these goals. Or just to remind you, like I know for a while one of my goals was to

you know, invest in my friendships. I, this was a couple of years ago, but I decided I was gonna use Marco Polo with some of my friends. And so on my vision board was just a goal to send a Marco Polo to a friend once a week. And just seeing that in my room, I'd be like, oh, right, right. I haven't reached out to anybody. I need to do that. Cause I wanted to grow my friendships. And just a simple reminder, cause it was like plastered on my wall. And this is actually called, there's a center of your brain.

called the RAS, the reticular activating system. This is the part of our brains that chooses what information we're gonna pay attention to and what we are going to ignore because there's at any given time, right now, whatever you're doing, whether you're listening to this while you're walking, driving, washing dishes, whatever you're up to, your brain has decided, because you turned this on, you decided you were gonna pay attention to these words.

Sophia Hyde (07:06.945)
but you're probably tuning out certain colors that are around you or textures or information or like little tiny, there's so many like little pieces of information between all five of our senses that we could absorb at any given time. And we decide our particular activating system decides what we will pay attention to. And this shows up a really great example of thinking about this.

Well, there's a few that are coming to my mind, but one is, have you ever, this has happened to me multiple times, you've not heard of a car and then you hear of it because you're thinking about buying one and you see it everywhere. I remember I had never ever heard of a Toyota Avalon. I had never heard of it. I never paid attention to it. Toyota Avalon might as well have never been invented. I had no idea it existed. And then when we were car shopping back in 20s,

16, maybe 17, somewhere in the 16, 17 range. We decided, I had these rules. I didn't care what car I had anymore. It just needed to have four doors. Oh, this is the one that replaced the two door Honda Civic. Okay, I was like, needs to have four doors. And the thing I care about more than anything else is the size of the trunk because I needed to hold a stroller.

and my ability to go to a grocery store and get a whole week's worth of groceries while the stroller is still in there. And I'm not stressed about it. It needs to fit very easily. The stroller needs to live in the trunk and I need a whole week's worth of groceries in there. That was my rule of thumb. And fast forward, we ended up buying a Toyota Avalon. Got an incredible deal on one that an old lady had had for like 15 years in her garage and it had like hardly any miles on it. But it was like 15 years old with hardly any miles.

great bargain we got. I loved my Toyota Avalon, but right after I bought it, I started noticing them everywhere. They were all over the road. Now I can't help but see them. I see Toyota Avalons all the time and I still do. They are definitely old lady cars, but that's the reticular activating system. It had weeded out that information because it felt unnecessary for so long. And then I brought it into my consciousness, into my awareness.

Sophia Hyde (09:31.382)
and now the brain chooses to pay attention to that. this could be, there's examples over and over and over over again. We can go on forever with examples of how our brains do this. The important thing to note is that this is why vision boards work. Because you're telling your brain, these are my goals, these are the things that I want, pay attention. So if you're regularly looking at this, your brain is gonna be more open to things that might help you.

to opportunity, to inspiration. You're telling it what to look for. And your brain will start to notice things that maybe if you had not decided consciously and intentionally that this was a thing you wanted, you might not have paid attention to it. Even let's use my Marco Polo example. I was just trying, I sat down and was like, I need to be better at friendships, but this is a busy season. My friends love.

all their scattered geographically, internationally and across the country. But I wanna be able to do better and I'm gonna do Marco Polo. And I had had that app since like the pandemic, right? It had been on my phone for years and I hadn't touched it since the pandemic. But then I set this goal, I think circa 2023. And suddenly I started noticing the app all the time. It was already on my phone.

but it was just staring at me because I had set a goal that I was gonna use it several times a week to stay connected with some of my friends. And now all of a sudden it was like a stop sign, right? It's like shining at me because I decided to be intentional with it. And so this is the main reason that vision boards work and it is what makes, it's the most powerful thing that's gonna pull you from that default living into that intentional living because you have decided

to tell your brain what you want to be intentional about. Now, another way that people make major mistakes in their vision boards is that they just look at the end result. And I'm not saying not to put your end result on there. I'm gonna attach, in the show notes, I'm gonna make a.

Sophia Hyde (11:51.822)
blog post for this week's podcast episode and publish it for you guys so you can look and I'll attach a link on there to my 2023. Well, 2023, I have to figure out how I'll share that too. That one I printed out individual images and then used pins and put them on a cork board, which is also what I did in 2011. I can also share that image with you guys. But in 2011,

Up until 2023, I just used a cork board and pinned pictures. But starting in 24, my friend gave me the great idea to just design the whole thing in Canva and send one large image and have it printed on a film board, which is not as expensive as you would think. I think it was like 30 bucks or something to have it printed on one image so can design the whole thing in Canva. And that has become my new preferred way to do it, because I can work all of it out on my screen.

and then only print one time. So anyways, digress, I got distracted. Okay, I have results. So I just did mine this week in preparation for this podcast. And there are several material things on there. Brandon and I both want new cars because now that we live in rural America, we need all we'll drive. We want to remodel our basement. There's several trips we wanna go on. These are normal things, right? A house remodel.

dream cars, vacations, but a lot of people stop there. And that is one of the biggest mistakes people make because it's not just about looking at the pretty pictures. The next step for an effective vision board is to ask yourself, who do I have to become to create that result? And what habits do I need in my life?

to get me there. So you want to attach those goals to habits. Now, a ton of my goals for this year, the things that I want, a lot of them, almost all of them are directly attached to finances. They're all a lot, a lot, a lot of money things, right? To pay for the vacations. I had shared an Instagram Reel, I don't remember if I mentioned the podcast, but you know.

Sophia Hyde (14:15.245)
We had saved up for this move, but then we bought a house that was more than we had budgeted for. And then there were things we had do moving itself. We spent $30,000 just on the expense of listing one home, buying the next one, the cost of moving and getting settled in here. That was 30 grand alone. And then the money we put in, you know, into buying the house. So anyways, all that to say, we ended up putting some

of the expenses to buy the house on a 0 % credit card to hold over for a little bit. And so I have these like, I want these cards paid off. I have these things I wanna buy, these trips I wanna take, this remodel to our house I wanna do, all this stuff takes money. So then you have to do the math, okay? Well, if I want to cashflow all these things and pay off this debt that we accumulated, how much money does that require? And then you go,

that much money is significantly more than I make right now. So I'm going to need to up my income. Well, how am I going to grow my business? So now here come the habits because who do I have to be? I broke six figures last year. This year. I'll it depends on how my November, go, but it's definitely I've already hit a couple of weeks ago. I hit the number that I made all of last year.

So I'm already destined to beat last year, but it's only enough. mean, you guys know the cost of living these days. So basically we make enough to break even. I want to do all right now, my business, I make enough to support my family and at the bare minimum. So all these extras that we want, I basically have to double my income to do all these extra things that I want. And I'm laughing like it's a joke. No, legit, I actually do have to double my income. So if I'm going to double my income, then the question becomes,

Okay, well, the business I'm running right now, it's not gonna work like that, right? So I'm gonna need to scale my business and how am I gonna do that? And what kind of a person is running a business that's, you know, a $300,000 business? What does that look like? Well, I'm gonna have to have different habits. I'm going to have to market myself in a different way. I'm gonna have to have, sell different products that I'm selling right now.

Sophia Hyde (16:40.683)
because my weeks stay pretty full. I could handle up two, three more, maybe, maybe four. If I took on four more clients than I have right now, that would be my max capacity. But not if I were to change up my business model, right? And so then it's like, okay, well, if this is how I'm gonna achieve that.

what do I need to do to be there, right? So then in my vision board, I have the habits and some of these habits are who I'm listening to. I need to stay plugged into coaching. So I just went back to an old coach I had used before, I'm plugging into her mentorship. I know that I need to stay on top. My body, right? Cause our bodies create the energy and a lot of this is about...

A lot of my ability to grow is about having the energy in the bandwidth and the capacity, but if I'm tired or sluggish, like I'm not gonna double my income. So a lot of my goals are connected to my strength training and my yoga, because I know like when I do these things, I feel better. Now what you won't see on my vision board are the habits that are now so ingrained, they're intuitive. I don't need to put on my vision board to get a full night's sleep because

I have created that habit. It was a habit a few years ago that took some growth and I worked on, but I don't need to change anything. I know how to consistently. I've been tracking my sleep for years now. So, and you're not even going to see any of the friendship stuff this year on my vision board because I feel like these habits are now so ingrained in me. If I just keep doing what I'm doing, like I'm solid, the stuff on my vision board are the things

that I need reminders to. are a habit should, when it's truly, truly a habit, it becomes like a ritual. It's as easy as brushing your teeth. You don't even have to think about it. For my vision board, it's the stuff I do have to think about. I have to, know, if I am not intentional, my goal is to strength train four times a week. My physical therapist has been telling me that all year since, well, since my surgery recovery. And I'm like,

Sophia Hyde (18:49.205)
you can count on me for one or two. I'm still not at the four because that is a growth area for me. I'm still working on getting those habits in place. And so if the things on my vision board and the habits I'm putting up there are the things I'm actively trying to change or improve, or even if maybe I'm already doing them, maybe I'm not doing them as consistently as I want to be. So that's why they're up there. I don't over you over the years. I've taken off the habits that have just become my new norm.

You'll also see like I took off having a Sunday rest day because honestly, we're, it's so on lock. Like our Sundays are so solid. There's, there's nothing I want to change about them. Like we have our rhythm and it works for us, but it took me two or three years of having that up there to be like, no, we're not going anywhere on Sundays. We are guarding this day. It is a home day. Like that took a while for us to create that result, that habit.

Okay, so you wanna be thinking, and again, you can click on the blog post, you can see my examples, but I want you to translate them into your life. What habits will support me? And so let's go back to my business one, you'll also see on there, it's the habit of staying involved in my coach, being consistent with my podcast. I currently, if you follow my business for a while, you know I've mostly have only pushed my one-on-one coaching.

I haven't really created a lot of digital products to be out there. I've done a handful over the last years, but I'm working through my own resistance to like have to do a lot of launches in one year. That's a learning curve for me. I know how to do it. It's the, I still have like resistance. Like I have a story in my head that it's hard, so I avoid it and I have to get over that, right? So one of my habits I put on there was at least one new product launched each month.

so that I'm putting new things out there because I'm not doing that right now, mostly because it takes energy and work. And I think for us last year, the main priority was the move, right? So I put all my energy in moving my family. I wasn't gonna also do 12 launches in a year, but I feel ready for that now. Okay, so the point is you want to take those results you're looking for, the results.

Sophia Hyde (21:07.709)
might be vacations and houses and whatever. But then who do I have to become? And what kind of habits does that woman have? Those are the things you also want up there. And then lastly, you really have to change your identity because the way you move through the world is as the woman that you have been up until now. So you have to now fundamentally change as a woman.

to become the version of you that has these new things and moves to the world this new way. And one of the most powerful ways to do that is to pay attention to what you're thinking. And I would challenge you to, so you'll see on my vision board, I actually did like a rainbow, have like the results I want, the habits that will get me there and then in the middle bottom, it's what thought do I need to think? So what do I need to believe is true? The woman,

who has these results, she believes something about the world differently than the version that I do right now. Who shows up? And so this is what I'm workshopping right now. Between the period that I have recorded this episode and it has actually aired, I will have solved it. So you can find it on my blog. But I'm currently trying to decide, I have all my visions were done except for this thought.

And for me, these results, know it has to do something with what has harmed me in my business in the past is I have attached like the more people I'm coaching, if I have a group program or I'm doing a launch or I'm doing all these webinars in my brain, even though I know it's not true, I feel like I take on a responsibility of all those people, right? So when I'm coaching somebody one-on-one, I feel a responsibility for their results. I take that very seriously.

but I also feel that in a group container. And the thing about group containers is a lot of people buy them and then do nothing with them. I've bought group coaching products and done nothing with them. And that doesn't feel good to me at all. And so I have this resistance to...

Sophia Hyde (23:20.745)
a group container and feeling like I'm responsible for the results of all those people. And therefore it has held me back from offering more option, more group options. And so I know I have to overcome that and I was workshopping it earlier today and it's going to be something along the lines of like, it's my responsibility to like be the fire and ignite the flame. Like I can, I can give you.

the match, right? I'll take my fire and I'll give it to you. What you do with your flame is on you, but I'm just here to spread the flame and it doesn't cost me any energy. It won't lead to burnout if I'm just sharing my flame. That's my job. Share the light, share the flame. And then what you do with that flame is all up to you. And so if I start to see the opportunities I'm putting out there as just me sharing my flame and me igniting something in other people, I

I know that I'm doing my part and I don't have to take on the weight of what they do with that flame. and so I need to make that shorter. So I'm figuring out how to put that into like a catchy little phrase that's going to work for me. But I know that the version of Sophia who's going to have all the results I want on this vision board is going to move through the world in a way that she can impact hundreds or thousands of people without it feeling like additional weight or stress on her shoulders. And

That's not true for me today at the point that I'm recording this. So I have to become that woman in order to have those results. So I'm gonna have an affirmation that is the core thought of what I'm going to constantly remind myself next year as well to move to the world in this new way with this new belief system. Okay, so all of this to say, let's drill this down. by the way,

I'm gonna also plug an opportunity for me to help you do this tangibly. If you want some coaching on this, I have an option for you. So in summary, your vision board, first of all, it should be proactive, not reactive. You wanna intentionally decide what goes on there. You can use your favorite life wheel, download it from my app. The show notes from last week's episode will show you how you can get your hands on one. You can do your favorite life wheel. Look at all the areas of your life. Which areas of your life

Sophia Hyde (25:48.024)
Do you need to make changes in and what does your favorite life look like in a more holistic way? And then decide, so you decide what that favorite life looks like, then drill it down to the habits you need to create to support that. And then drill it down even further and ask yourself, what is the new thought I need to take? What is the new thing I need to believe about the world that will help me create this result? That version, this future version of you,

What does she believe? What does she think? How does she move through the world differently than you? And I know how future Sophia moves to the world. And I just have to bridge that gap. I have to get to where she is. All right, here's what I'm gonna do. And I'm really excited about this. I'm going to take some, I'm gonna make some step-by-step directions of how to build a successful vision board. I'm gonna put all of it in my app. And you can snag that from.

the link in the show notes from the website. My app's also available on desktop, like if you just want to use it from a browser. And you can get your hands on that super simple workshop. And then if you're available on Friday, I will do a live coaching where we will build your vision board together and you can bounce ideas off of me, or you can just have it as an appointment in your calendar and we'll just sit and chit chat while you actually do it. Cause sometimes people just need an appointment on calendar. But if you want me to look at it and give you feedback, I will do that.

on Friday, November 7th at noon. The link to that will also be in the show notes. Now, if you cannot be there live, don't worry about, that's noon Eastern Central time, by the way. If you cannot be there live, don't worry. That's why I'm putting it inside the app. So all the step-by-step directions will be there to guide you through how to make your own vision board. And then the recording from the live coaching will also go inside.

And if you're like, okay, all that's great, but if you, want a one-on-one phone call, I want you to look at mine. If you're a current client of mine, obviously bring it to your session. I'll chat with you. If you're not a current client, your best bet to have me look at it one-on-one would be to go ahead and schedule a roadmap session because in the roadmaps, that's exactly what we do. We look at where you're wanting to go and how you're gonna get there. And you can bring that to...

Sophia Hyde (28:06.305)
You can bring your vision board to that call and we can absolutely talk through it and I will give you some feedback on it as well. And the link to Book of Roadmaps also in the show notes. So if you want my help or my support, it's all gonna be there. And look at me practicing what I'm preaching, creating a product that people can purchase that doesn't currently exist. Look at me stepping into the new version of myself. Can we please applaud and give me a pat on the back? Thank you very much. Okay. That's it for today.

I love you guys so much. If you do go forward and make a vision board, please, please, please put it on social media, tag me, send me an email. I wanna cheer for you. I wanna see what you guys are going after. I am so excited to watch you step into your intentional lives. Sending you my love, bye bye.