For most of us, January once meant hurried New Year resolutions scribbled in school diaries—wake up early, score better marks, stop procrastinating. Today, those same impulses have taken on a more curated form. Scroll through Instagram in early January, you’re met with a barrage of colourful collages, handwritten affirmations, Pinterest stock photos of Pilates routines, and solo travel plans. Among Gen Z and millennials in Delhi NCR, resolutions have taken the form of carefully assembled vision boards and journal pages that map out careers, relationships, routines and even aesthetics for the year ahead.
At its core, a vision board—or a dream board—is a visual collage of images and affirmations representing one’s goals and aspirations. While the idea was popularised by self-help figures such as Napoleon Hill and Oprah Winfrey, historically, similar practices can be traced to ancient Egyptian traditions, where people expressed desires through hieroglyphics on papyrus scrolls as a form of manifestation.
For many young people today, the entry point into vision boarding is social media. Twenty-one-year-old product designer Yashvee Gandhi made her first vision board two years ago after the trend on Instagram and Pinterest—and through her mother, who did the same. “Whenever she has a goal in mind, she writes it down on a board,” says Gandhi. “That made me want to try it too.” For her intention alone wasn’t enough, but aesthetics mattered just as much. “I wanted something that really reflected my wishes—something personal but also visually appealing.”
Similarly, Soumya Rauthan, a 26-year-old media professional, began making vision boards in 2025 after learning about a workshop through a women’s collective WhatsApp group called The She Space. “They were hosting a meet-up to make vision boards, but I couldn’t attend that day,” she says. “So I decided to make one on my own. And thought, ‘Let’s see what happens’.”
The manifestation business
Dr Rahul Chandhok, head consultant and head of psychiatry at Artemis Lite, Delhi, explains that temporal landmarks like New Year’s, Mondays, or even birthdays create what psychologists call the “fresh start effect”. This explains why people gravitate towards vision boards and similar practices that promise change. “These time markers help people mentally distance themselves from past failures. They act as a psychological reset, making change feel both more urgent and more achievable,” he explains.
This psychological pull has also shaped how vision boarding has moved beyond private rituals into shared, organised spaces—workshops and creative meet-ups across the city ahead of New Year’s. Kumudini Bhutani, a Delhi-based art educator who runs Kimey’s Korner on Instagram, has been conducting journaling and vision board workshops for the past five years. She recently hosted one with the City Girls Who Walk Delhi collective.
“Around the new years, everyone starts talking about it on Instagram or YouTube, everyone is talking about it. Even people would start DMing me, asking when the next workshop is? It’s quite a peak in the last two weeks,” she says.
Similarly, Aparna Gakhar, who runs the Instagram page artandaesthetix and conducts art workshops across the city, agrees that the appeal of journaling and vision boards lies in their promise of clarity and control. “Both journaling and vision boards brings clarity and productivity to your life—be it your personal life or professional life. I think that’s what people are looking for—a fresh start at the beginning of the year.”
She notes that for many young people, such activities have become a conscious response to digital fatigue. In her workshops, Gakhar has observed participants turning to offline creative practices in an effort to regain focus. “I’ve seen a lot of people trying to fix different aspects of their lives—whether that’s reducing their screen time, finding space for hobbies, or engaging in more offline activities,” she adds.
Does visualisation actually help?
Dr Chandhok explains that when people imagine their goals, parts of the brain linked to planning, emotion and imagination become active. “This might make you feel less scared of the goal and more connected to it. Visualisation also prepares the brain to see opportunities that are related to the goal which makes people more aware of actions that help it.”
Rauthan recalls finally visiting Vrindavan—a long-held wish that sat on her board for nearly a year—“come true”. “I pasted a picture of Vrindavan on my vision board…it never happened till December…And the day I said this, after two days, my friend called and said, do you want to go to Vrindavan? I was so happy and shocked at the same time,” she says.
Beyond vision boards
Manifestation today doesn’t stop at vision boards. The New Year also fuels a surge in planner purchases, bullet journals, habit trackers and stationery hauls. Mitali Sharma, a Delhi-based content creator and founder of Ekaami, notes that while December-January sees a spike in planner sales, planning culture now extends beyond the calendar year. “Planners become part of that emotional moment of starting over… But the demand doesn’t completely disappear after January… People buy planners around exam seasons, job changes, birthdays, or even as self-care gifts,” notes Sharma.
Architect Shambhavi, 25, also an avid journal collector, describes the ritualistic joy of starting afresh. “I love collecting things… a nice journal with a leather cover—people are going crazy about that. I already have two journals aligned… I like keeping track of everything.” Divya Chowdhary, 24, career counsellor , who has been bullet journaling for over a decade, explains that the practice follows a structure—future logs, monthly logs, daily spreads—but admits that consistency is hard. “There are also people who will buy new journals every year despite the fact that there are pages left… New year new notebook, new smell, new layout.”
The FOMO factor
The hyper-visibility of productivity and self-improvement content online has also created a subtle sense of urgency. Watching peers set goals, attend workshops, and share aesthetically pleasing goals can make opting out feel like falling behind.
“Young people today receive mixed messages from everywhere. They are told to earn well, heal emotionally, stay confident, and enjoy life at the same time. This overload creates pressure on the nervous system. Many feel late even before life fully begins,” notes Dr. Ravineet Singh Marwah, psychologist. “Social media shows only highlights, not real effort or emotional struggle. When young people see perfect routines and habits daily, they feel they are missing something. This creates fear of falling behind in growth. Self improvement becomes a race instead of a relationship with self.”
Gandhi admits that while vision boards motivate her, they also trigger fear of missing out. “A lot of times… people put a lot of things on a vision board… And then I feel like, okay, do I need to touch all the corners… or focus on one?”
Bhutani also says that sometimes her participants at her workshops often feel the pressure to ‘fix’ their lives before the year starts. “I often hear that ‘I can’t miss out on not having a fresh start, because everyone else is doing it. If I don’t do it right now, then I’m going to lose out or I might just lag behind somewhere,” she adds.
Ultimately, for many young people in Delhi NCR, vision boards and journaling sit somewhere between hope and habit—less about predicting the future and more about feeling anchored while moving toward it. But starting the year “right” is not about following a universal template. “It’s less about doing it the ‘right’ way and more about feeling aligned with the phase of life you’re in,” notes psychologist Upasana Maggo. “Sometimes starting right means discipline, sometimes it means rest. It depends on how the last year was and what part of your life you’re working on.”
This article is written by Adithi Reena Ajith