Why Athletes Should Create Vision Boards
Setting goals and creating vision boards are an integral part of the planning process to elicit the motivation athletes need to perform at their best. There are many tools out there to help athletes create a vision board if they aren’t sure how to get started. Here are some things to consider when creating a vision board:
While goal setting is a collaborative effort involving coaches, a vision board is the canvas where athletes paint their grand vision for the future.
A vision board is a personal exploration of the "big picture," empowering athletes to envision their trajectory.
Athletes should feel free to keep their vision boards private and include goals they wish to achieve anywhere from within the year, up to visions for their entire career.
The aspects on the board could be anything from performance outcomes, habit-building plans & lifestyle changes, places the sport can take them, team-wide achievements they hope to reach, academic goals, etc.
Encourage athletes to work with the media that they prefer. Traditional paper with clippings or drawings, or something created digitally.
Regardless of the format, a vision board should be accessed frequently.
Vision boards should inspire athletes for a reason that comes from deep within. By creating a new board annually and revisiting it frequently, an athlete can look back over an extended period of time (ex. a year instead of a season) and feel proud that they accomplished, or were close to accomplishing their visions. It is also expected that parts of the yearly vision board will be carried over into the following year. As a coach, discussion around a previous year's goals can be valuable in establishing standards for the upcoming year, while also instilling confidence in athletes for what they have already accomplished up to that point. Creating yearly goals and vision boards can be a simple, yet impactful way to connect coaches with their athletes and athletes with their internal motivating factors.
