1. A vision board makes your goals visible. That spiral notebook you write in is no match for pictures. For one thing, your vision board doesn’t sit in a dresser drawer. On the other hand, you don’t have to flip through an image board to find a journal entry. Most importantly, for emotional impact, a single decent photo beats written descriptions.

2. A vision board keeps your goals in front of your eyes. In our world of information overload, remembering what you have decided to do on this earth is no easy matter. You wake up in the morning, make the coffee, and turn on a morning TV show, “just for the weather.” What you get is a category 5 hurricane of headlines and advertising. Flood your mind with bytes of sound and even more “amazing video, just in!”

With everything going on in the world, it’s amazing that you remember to let the dog out, let alone what your goals in life are.

But with a vision board, you see your goals first thing in the morning, and as often as you like throughout the day. Even better: if you create a web-based vision board, it’s available wherever you go. You can visualize and focus on your goals at home, at work, even in an airport. Which is saying a lot.

3. A vision board allows you to choose your goals. If you don’t set your goals, someone else will set them for you: your culture, your family, your employer. Gold TV commercials. Why do you eat at McDonald’s? Um, TV commercials and giant M’s have a lot to do with it. But when you use a vision board to advertise your own goals, you’ll pay less attention to French fries and more to your fitness program.

4. A vision board reminds you what you’re working towards. Are you trying to submit a report to the boss on time? Punch your time card? Make one more sale? Or do you have a goal, some reason for all the work you do?

If you don’t have a goal, you’re just running from one task to the next. Ask any chicken with its head cut off: it gets old and fast.

But with a vision board, you remember what you’re working for. Difficult days, or let’s face it, the tedious and boring parts of even the most exciting projects, become not tasks but stepping stones on the way to your goal.

5. A vision board acts like a carrot and stick for you. Despite some of the airy words floating around on some vision board sites, your fortune will not happen on waves of thought. Success at anything requires action. A vision board is the carrot that entices you to work harder and smarter.

And yes, a vision board can also be the stick. How? Even if you’re the only soul who knows your vision board, it’s still a commitment. He’s there all the time, a training partner who always shows up. He is counting on you. Strange but true: You don’t want to let your vision board down.

6. Your vision board keeps you in a positive frame of mind. If you’re someone who really wants to see the glass as half full, but often doesn’t, turn to your vision board.

Having long-term goals in sight helps you feel much better moment by moment and day by day. Feeling better means you can relate better, work harder, love more sincerely, and feel good about taking time off too. Sure, all of that makes you more effective and successful. But it also feels better to have concrete long-term goals.

7. A vision board allows you to create a purpose in life. If you don’t choose your purpose in life, one will be chosen for you. You really don’t want to wake up in a nursing home and find out that you’ve lived out your employer’s purpose for your life. Or your culture. Or even your mother’s. (Perhaps especially your mother’s!)

Your vision board doesn’t just help you set a purpose. It allows you to modify its purpose when necessary. For example, after a major life change, or as you grow personally. Best of all, when you choose a web-based vision board site, you get all the inspiration of multi-sensory visualization, and you never have to worry about cardboard and glue again.