PLANNING THE PERFECT YEAR

As another January unfolds, vision boards and journals have become part of how young people across Delhi mark the New Year. TMS looks at how beneath the collage-making and careful planning is the desire to not feel left behind, to feel like one is doing enough, starting early enough, and becoming something fast enough.

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ADITHI REENA AJITH F OR 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 boardor 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-yearold 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 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'."