Louise Hay, Martha Beck and Cheryl Richardson like vision boards.

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Nancy says her vision board keeps her goals constantly in her mind. "It's kind of a visual and verbal articulation of my goals," she says. "I can remind myself, 'You need to take actions if you want these goals to show up.' It's not a magic trick, really. It's about you being the person who's motivated to make that stuff show up."

Louise says a vision board can be a very effective tool. "It helps you to focus your thinking on what you want," she says. "When you do that, it's like the universe gives you ideas [on how to get it]."

Martha says she sees two reasons the vision board works. One is something called "selective attention." "If you repeat the word, 'blue, blue, blue,' and you start looking around the room, all the blue things will start popping out," she says. "Part of it is quantum physics. … We know now, scientifically, that consciousness brings matter into being where there was energy. So it's not even necessarily that it draws it toward you. The conclusion is you're literally creating some of this stuff."

Cheryl says the vision board's power also comes from the simple fact that it allows people time to focus and do something about their lives. "People say to me, 'Oh, I don't know about this law of attraction. I don't know if it really works.' I say to them, 'So, what have you done lately to test it?' 'Oh, well, I think about what I want,'" she says. "That's not good enough. You need to take specific action—make a list, do a vision board, start speaking what it is you want."