5 Convincing Reasons Men Should Create Inspiration Boards

In this day and age, we are being bombarded with information from all directions. Everywhere you go, there is a screen sending you a message in one form or another.

Your brain is always exposed to a virtual board and it’s a matter of personal responsibility to be conscious about them and to create one of your own.

If you’re not planning to influence your brain, someone else will. There are whole teams and industries built around influencing consciousness. They are telling you what should be your inspiration, which values to maintain and which dreams to pursue. The insidious part is – they are always aiming at the subconscious part of the brain.

Your dreams, values, goals and everything you’re thinking about represent the last bastion of freedom. Your responsibility is to take care of them.

One thing that’s important is to not look at the board as some wall filled up with posters. As a grown man, you now know how valuable and impactful everything around you can be, so it’s not just something to fill up space. If you want to make sure you’re doing it right and giving yourself the best chance to benefit from inspiration boards, here are some of the most important tips:

The Powerful Subconscious Effects of the Inspiration Board

Your brain is influenced every day, whether you’re conscious of this process or not. The only question is how much conscious effort you’re putting in to filter out those external messages and how much you’re trying to influence it yourself.

Everything you experience with your senses presents a subtle influence on your brain. Influence might range from extremes such as negative news on your TV all the way to a subtle kind word from your family member.

Every message is important and every message is painting your brain with every sort of color. Most messages are subtle, hard to notice and processed subconsciously. That’s why the advertisement industry is always aiming at your subconscious part of the brain and more importantly – at your emotions.

Every exposure will influence your brain so make sure to influence the self by yourself. Taking back control consists of filtering the type of content you consume and deliberately deciding on the type of person you want to become. Repetition and continuous work are keys for any type of success so make sure to influence your brain every day.

Inspiration Can Be Anything (as long as it works for you)

Remember that it’s your own board and anything can represent an inspiration in the context of your life and worldview. It doesn’t have to have 100 different quotes or 10 different pictures. It’s your own board; feel free to express freedom and creative self on it.

If you add a picture of your family at your wall or your desk, that can be an inspiration for you. If you write just one word on the wall, in your own style and size, that’s aboard. If you play the same inspirational speech every morning, that’s a board as well.

Remember to express yourself in every possible way. Everything you value, care for or strive for should be expressed. It’s something that should have the capacity to make you think and make you remember what you are doing it all for.

Anything you add on the board is content and everything can be a message. If you’re not a word person, you don’t have to add a quote, even if it’s something everyone does. Of course, pictures and visual material work best, because humans are highly visual beings.

“Many people find it difficult to choose exactly what will make them inspired and motivated, so the easiest way to start is to try anything, and then tweak as you go. The important thing is to remember to be fearless, honest and authentic. It’s like that famous quote: create it like no one is watching”, says Ben Cooper, a content writer at Subjecto and Studyker.

Represent Responsibility, Dream, Guidance, and Light

If you surround yourself with positivity, you will attract positivity into your life in the form of opportunities, people, relationships and good times. So, in order to surround yourself with positivity in a space, you’re frequently in (like your office), an inspiration board can do the trick.

Regardless of the specific type and format of the inspiration board, you’re creating, there are some general rules of thumb to consider. The message(s) should represent your responsibility and something you deeply care about. It will serve as guidance and a path every day when you look at it. Even in your darkest hour, when you fall hard and find it difficult to find the motivation to continue working towards your goals, you will know that it’s something worth fighting for.

Lastly, it will always represent the light in the tunnel and at the end of the tunnel. That’s why we have already mentioned family as a good representation of the board. Another good example would be a quote from the person you admire or just a picture of that person.

There are tons of memories and emotions associated with that person already inside your mind, so just a quote or the picture will activate all of them by association.

For this very reason, your board has to be full of content with deep meaning, which will always awaken your deep dreams and positive emotions.

Make it Stylish and Attractive

Just like with any other visual item, we can get bored with inspiration boards if they are always in the same space, showing the same things on the same layout. To avoid this inspiration fatigue, your board needs to be super-attractive and something you won’t get bored with so soon.

In terms of textual content, a shocking, powerful quote might work better in this sense than a long, wise excerpt from a book. Our brain has the habit of absorbing only crucial things, so the shorter the better.

Don’t Be Afraid of Updates

Choose your own style for the board and keep it that way. Your plans might change and so should your board and its content. Throughout your journey, it’s perfectly normal to shake up the things every now and then. We all learn new things every day and grow along with them.

“A wise person once said: the only thing that’s constant is change. And everyone that has been through a lot in life can confirm that change can come unexpectedly and knock you out of your shoes. This is normal and natural, and there’s no reason your inspiration board should reflect the person you were 2 years ago”, says Lucas Milton, a lifestyle writer at WriteScout.

Some things you deemed worthy will not mean as much to you in 3 or 5 years and of course, you will update the content.

The only thing constant and ever-present in this world is change. After some time you might look back on your old content, pictures, quotes and laugh at those.

Maybe after some years, you might create especially dedicated museum-board where you will keep your old boards and compare them.

Conclusion

There is not a single magic formula for developing an inspiration board that will be the most effective for your life: after all, you know your mind and behavior the best and you know what will impact you the most.

Remember these crucial things: the board should ooze positivity and happiness, it should be powerful and suggestive and it should really reflect your authentic self. And to answer a basic question – do inspiration boards really work? – well, it’s definitely a matter of how much you believe a board can change your behavior and how seriously you approach this activity.