A Daily Glimpse into the Future

Every year, I make a vision board and save it as my desktop wallpaper. It’s rarely finished in January, but I can usually pull something together by April. And because I unfortunately see my work desktop about five out of seven days a week, it ends up being the most consistent reminder I have. Not aggressive. Not overwhelming. Just a quiet, daily nudge toward the life I say I want.

I made my first one in 2021. I organized it into three categories: Career, Travel, and Social. One of my biggest goals that year was earning my Professional Engineering license. I added a mock-up of the license with my name on it, and something about seeing it made it feel achievable. Not hypothetical. Real.

I also gave myself permission to edit my goals. Life shifts. Priorities change. And I’ve learned that rigidity doesn’t make me more successful. It just makes me more likely to quit.

In 2022, some goals carried over. I still wanted to launch this blog (and make a solid $20 from it). I still had goals around career, lifestyle, and relationships. I also had a goal to stop watching TV alone… which I can tell you right now did not happen.

But I did pass my PE exam, which meant my goals evolved. Instead of “pass exam,” it became “get licensure in 2 states.” That year also featured my favorite poem, since feeling is first by E. E. Cummings. In hindsight, this feels very on the nose considering I ended up in a two-year relationship. Maybe I need to bring the poem back.

In 2023, I shifted from structured goal-setting to something more visual and abstract. Instead of clearly labeled categories, I leaned into photos that represented a feeling, a lifestyle, a direction. It let me dream bigger. It also gave me a little privacy, since more people at work were starting to see my screen.

But there’s a trade-off. The more abstract my boards became, the harder it was to measure progress. Specific goals keep you accountable. Abstract ones keep you inspired. I’m still figuring out the balance.

2023’s travel goals included Peru (represented by a desert photo) and Aruba—both places that felt expansive and a little outside of my normal routine.

By 2025, I was fully committed to the abstract approach, even though some goals were still pretty obvious: Lake Como, Vietnam, finding a marriageable partner (we do not need to revisit what happened to the guy from 2022), and riding on a private jet. The quotes scattered throughout the board helped me hold onto the energy behind the goals, not just the outcomes.

And now, 2026.

This year is the most abstract yet. I leaned all the way into the chaos. Junk journaling style, layered images, photo strips of places I want to go. My fitness goals aren’t numbers on a scale, they’re a woman in a backless dress. A feeling. A look. A level of confidence.

More than anything, this year is about trying things. Cake decorating. Oil pastels. Beaded flowers. Less pressure to be good at something. More focus on experiencing it.

All of my boards are made in Canva. The background remover alone is worth paying for if you like the collage style. It makes everything feel a little more custom, a little more you.

If you want to make one, it doesn’t have to be complicated:

Pick 5–10 things you want this year. Not 50. You’re not building a wishlist; you’re setting a direction. It can help to group them (health, travel, wealth, lifestyle, career).
Mix literal images (a place you want to visit, a milestone you want to hit) with feeling-based ones (how you want your life to look and feel). I rely heavily on Pinterest. I will never be above typing “_________ aesthetic.” And honestly, Bing image search is underrated for travel inspiration.
Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day. Desktop, phone background, printed on your bathroom mirror. Visibility is the whole point.

I don’t hit every goal on these boards. (I have yet to match the weight on my driver’s license.) Some goals change. Some disappear completely. But being intentional about the life I want has allowed me to inch closer to it.

And at this point, that’s reason enough for me to keep making them.