Manifesting your dreams

Manifestation is often dismissed as something weird, like the secular version of praying. But when used properly, it is an incredibly powerful tool. It is not about magically wishing things into reality, but about giving your life a direction to work towards. I have always used it to some extent, even as a child, without knowing the concept behind it. But now that I’ve been reading and learning more about it, I do it consciously and with intention. This is what I learnt in the process:

Have big dreams but realistic goals
Patience and focus is key. A lot of people have big dreams but they get discouraged easily because they seem so unrealistic that they give up fast. You can have big dreams, but make sure that you have a set of realistic goals you can achieve in between your present situation and that dream. To take a really straightforward example, if your dream is to make 1 million per year but you are currently making 35k, maybe start by aiming for 100.

Have a clear plan
You don’t have to know the whole plan. If you did you’d already be there. But just go step by step and work towards your next goal. What are the next steps you need to take? What will bring you closer to that goal? With each decision you make, ask yourself if that’s bringing you closer to your dream.

Be the kind of person who can achieve that dream
A lot of people have a dream but don’t want to be the kind of person who can achieve that dream. If your dream is to be a professional athlete, you need to work out. There’s no workaround. If you want to party every week and eat junk food daily, this is fine, but find another dream. Your actions need to match the life you want. Most of the time. Obviously nobody is perfect and sometimes we go through things and we have to be a bit off character but that’s okay. Just come back to yourself and get to work.

Be specific
When I manifest my future life, I imagine as many details as possible. It doesn’t mean that everything will be exactly the same, again this is not magic. But imagining specific details helps because it allows you to know what you need to work on. If you want to build your dream house, imagine every single details so you will know what might be challenging. For example if you’re visualising a big swimming pool, it will remind you to check what are the pool regulations in the area, because in some areas it’s forbidden to build a pool or you might just build a pool of a specific size. Same for the colour, material and design of the house. Imagining it in details will help you think about everything you need to check beforehand. What house colours are allowed in the district where you want to build that house? Are some material really hard to get in that area? Which architects in the area have experience with that kind of design? Imagining things in details help you know what next steps you need to take.

Manifestation is nothing without hard work
Again, manifestation is not magic. You need to have a clear vision of what you want and visualise it with intention, but you also need to put in the work. Manifestation will just give you purpose and motivation, but you need to make it happen. A lot of people see the results but not the hard work behind. You might see me have fun at the gym making stupid videos with my friends, or you might see the car I drive but you don’t see all the mornings when I wake up at 3am, the hours spent working on taxes and paperwork and business plans, the time I work instead of being with my children, the parties I don’t go to. Everything I ever manifested came true, so far, but it came with a lot of hard work and discipline and hyper focus on the end goal.

What if you lose sight of your dreams?
Sometimes life happens. You lose people you love. You get pregnant when you were not expecting to. You get sick. Sometimes we might lose sight of our dreams for a minute, and it’s ok. My second pregnancy and post partum were really complicated, and I had to take a break of everything to focus exclusively on my baby’s health and mine, and for a while nothing else mattered. Big life events might make you lose track, we are humans and sometimes we just have other priorities. Those times are also a good opportunity to see what dreams really matter. You will always get back to the dreams that matter, and if you had to take a break, you will come back with a clearer vision and better priorities.